SEBASTIAN DUNAT Akademia Techniczno-Humanistyczna w Bielsku-Białej Differences of bearable and tolerable lexemes usage in women and men written language. Corpus Study of American newspapers and magazines, based on the Corpus of Contemporary American English Key words: corpus linguistics, gender, quantitative statistical surveys, American newspapers and magazines Słowa klucze: językoznawstwo korpusowe, gender, ilościowe badania statystyczne, prasa amerykańska Introduction There are many outstanding quantitative and qualitative studies on gender. Research devoted to this topic is, to a large extent, related to the influence of feminism and feminist theories in almost all humanities and social sciences. Language research strives to follow the general development of feminism, starting from the basic paradigms, where speakers are ca- tegorized in accordance with their gender, through the period when the cultural context was important, along with the socio-psychological dimensions of gender; and dynamic socio- structural approach at the end. For many of the researchers, only some referential changes of such structures, mainly the change of naming, take place. 1 In many works of this type, corpus linguistics is a valuable way of creating and analyzing large amounts of data and providing answers to given questions. It can provide information 1 Holmes J., Women, Languge and Identity. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 1997, nr.1/2, s. 195-196. Dostępne online < http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-9481.00012/pdf>
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SEBASTIAN DUNAT
Akademia Techniczno-Humanistyczna w Bielsku-Białej
Differences of bearable and tolerable lexemes usage in women and
men written language. Corpus Study of American newspapers
and magazines, based on the Corpus of Contemporary American
English
Key words: corpus linguistics, gender, quantitative statistical surveys, American newspapers
and magazines
Słowa klucze: językoznawstwo korpusowe, gender, ilościowe badania statystyczne, prasa
amerykańska
Introduction
There are many outstanding quantitative and qualitative studies on gender. Research
devoted to this topic is, to a large extent, related to the influence of feminism and feminist
theories in almost all humanities and social sciences. Language research strives to follow the
general development of feminism, starting from the basic paradigms, where speakers are ca-
tegorized in accordance with their gender, through the period when the cultural context was
important, along with the socio-psychological dimensions of gender; and dynamic socio-
structural approach at the end. For many of the researchers, only some referential changes of
such structures, mainly the change of naming, take place.1
In many works of this type, corpus linguistics is a valuable way of creating and analyzing
large amounts of data and providing answers to given questions. It can provide information
1 Holmes J., Women, Languge and Identity. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 1997, nr.1/2, s. 195-196. Dostępne
about the use of specific words, as well as its’ changes occurring under the influence of time.2
The fact of its value as a remarkable source of data used for quantitative research in gender
relates studies is certainly marked by Sunderland.3
In the context of the research material of this article, a corpus serves as a tool that provi-
des a wide range of possibilities. The foundation for this work is closely related to problems
with women and men communication, and the stereotypical balance of their talk; used by both
groups in relation to their needs, discussed by Holmes.4
To follow the Holmes' argumentation, which somewhat breaks the stereotype of typically
masculine or typically female language use, the researcher adopted the criteria, constituted
below, for the assessment and selection of the corpus data.
The reason to conduct this research was the need to recognize the differences and conno-
tations associated with bearable and tolerable lexes usage by a group of journalists, women
and men; in terms of used intensification of adjectives, register, type of discourse and senten-
ce classification (1st, 3rd person). We have chosen 60 random examples of each token derived
from newspapers (30 examples) and magazines (30 examples); of English-language from
2003-2015, for both groups. The assumption is that some of the surveyed categories will
reach a P-value of 0.05 or lower, to confirm the significance of variables occurrence.
Method
The sociolinguistic research tries to find reasons and ways of speaking and writing of the
individuals. Broader sight of this branch of study concerns influences of geographical origin,
attitudinal and temporal variables, and different social factors.5 It focuses on, not only one,
but many variation changes in written and spoken language. Sociolinguistic investigation, as
defined by Friginal and Hardy,6 has two main variables: (1) linguistic variables – observed
presence of shifts and changes and their distribution in spoken or written language and (2)
societal variables – potential account of combination of influences on linguistic changes and
shifts. Table 1 presents the linguistic and societal variables investigated in Sociolinguistics.
2 Sunderland J., Language and Gender: An advanced resource book, London, Routledge, 2006, s. 55. 3 Ibid. s. 56-57. 4 Holmes J., Gendered Talk at Work: Constructing Social Identity Through Workplace Interaction, New York,
Blackwell Publishing, 1995, s. 208. 5 Friginal E., Hardy J., Corpus-Based Socioliguistics: A Guide for Students, New York, Routledge, 2014, s. 12. 6 Ibid.
49 Differences of bearable and tolerable lexemes…
Tabela 1. Linguistic and Societal Variables in Sociolinguistics by Friginal and Hardy7
Linguistic Items Societal Items
Sounds (e.g. phonemes, accents, intonation)
Words (e.g. cuss words, respect markers,
pronoun use)
Grammatical structures (e.g. quotative like,
that deletion, information density markers)
Paralinguistic makers (e.g. laughter, ges-
tures, silence, emoticons)
Discourse/Pragmatic Structures (e.g. polite-
ness and stance, turn-taking and interrup-
tion, requests)
Other linguistic items?
Identity
Power/Relationships/Role
Social Class/Status
Gender
Occupation
Solidarity
Age
Social Networks
Geographical Origin
Personality Factors (e.g. introverts vs. extroverts)
Other societal items?
Quantitative approach of investigating sociolinguistics refers to systematic data collec-
tion and analysis involving the application of mathematical and statistical techniques in fur-
ther describing the nature of linguistic variation within a particular research setting.8 Quanti-
tative studies are mostly influenced by statistical sampling procedures; target population is
represented by the particular sample of data. Specified quantitative research questions clearly
maintain statistical tests; e.g. Pearson’s Chi-square test for significance. Tests of relationship
are also common, it establishes various points of comparison.9 Quantitative research conside-
rations include:
a) Defining the nature of datasets and exploring methods of collecting evidence of lan-
guage variation;
b) Focusing on statistical methodology (how the data been collected and analyzed quanti-
tatively);
c) Tabulating frequencies and conducting statistical analysis.10
Social variation and relationships of linguistic variables can be comprehensively described by
the quantitative approach outcome in research. Inferential techniques of quantitative research
7 Ibid. 8 Ibid. s.13. 9 Ibid. 10 Ibid.
50 Sebastian Dunat
establish whether the patterns described by qualitative approach, which may concern the
emerging themes of language, use are statistically accounted for truth.11
Discourse
There are two definitions of Discourse proposed by Mary Bucholtz. Formal definition
derives from discipline division into units (phonology, morphology, syntax) which follows as
such: According to the formal definition, just as morphology is the level of language in which
sounds are combined into words, and syntax is the level in which word are combined into
sentences, so discourse is the linguistic level in which sentences are combined into larger
units.12 And the second functional definition: Discourse, in this view, is language in context:
that is, language as it is put to use in social situations, not the more idealized and abstracted
linguistics forms that are the central concern of much linguistic theory.13
In conclusion discourse analysis concerns situational language use perspectives which
involve methodological approach in universal, theoretical orientation.14
Register
Grammatical structures, as well as, the choice between different words usage depends on
the communicative situation of the speaker. Language used in particular situation is resear-
ched as register. The most common registers are: speech and writing. Their physical variation
in production is obvious. Spoken discourse is swift and interactive, while written language
planned and revised. Different cultures identify many particular register types. Recognizing
register as Biber proposes, concerns finding the names of text categories in a given culture;
(ex. newspaper articles, biographies, novels).15 He concludes that registers can be defined at
any level of generality without a specific name. Biber defines: Registers are identified by
‘nonlinguistic’ or ‘situational’ characteristics, such as the setting, the audience, interactive-
ness, and extent of planning. Moreover, a register can be defined by a particular combination
of values for any group of these situational characteristics.16
11 Ibid. 12 Bucholtz M., Theories of Discourse as Theories of Gender: Discourse Analysis in Language and Gender Stud-
ies. The handbook of Language and Gender, New York, Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 2003, s. 44. 13 Ibid. 14 Ibid. 15 Biber D., Susan C., Randi R., Corpus Linguistics: Investigating language structure and use. Cambridge, Cam-
bridge University Press, 1998. 16 Ibid.
51 Differences of bearable and tolerable lexemes…
Present Study
The aim of this study was to check the differences in the use of bearable and tolerable
lexes by a group of journalists, women and men, in terms of used intensification of adjectives,
register, type of discourse and classification of sentences for first or third persons. The mate-
rial used for the research comes from the COCA (Corpus of Contemporary American English)
available online. Sixty random examples, for each of the adjectives, 30 examples categorized
by the corpus as examples selected from newspapers and 30 classified as a magazine (mon-
thly, weekly). The study described the data of the corpus, and classified it in terms of the se-
lected categories:
• Gender
• Intensity
• Person (1st, 3rd)
• Type of discourse
• Register
Quantitative statistical surveys were carried out to confirm the following theses:
• The difference in the quantitative use of the studied lexemes between women and men
will be evident, with a significant advantage of one of the tokens usage by one group.
• Variation in the use of a given token with a classified type of intensification will be
different for either group, a distinct advantage may occur for one of them.
• There will be significant quantitative difference in the distribution of sentences con-
taining the studied lexemes in formal or informal register settlement, with a quantita-
tive predominance of one in either of the studied groups.
• One of the discourse types used with the tested lexemes will have a more frequent use
in one of the groups.
• Distribution of 1st or 3rd person sentences will be greater for one of the studies types.
Moreover, it will be supported by more frequent (quantitative) use in one of the re-
search groups.
52 Sebastian Dunat
Research
Corpus Description
Present research divided the corpus into two sections: examples acquired before 2010 and
after 2010. The Tables 2 to 12 show the distinctions of the two sections in accordance with all
variables used for the purpose of the research article.
Tabela 2. Discourse type and register distinctions before 2010
bearable tolerable Total
impersonal 25 14 39
formal 7 5 12
informal 18 9 27
personal 6 2 8
informal 6 2 8
Total 31 16 47
As visible, the use of bearable lexeme is twice as frequent as the use of tolerable. The se-
cond table shows that the informal style use is more frequent with bearable. The total number
of examples used before 2010 is 47, which is 31 for bearable and 16 for tolerable.
Tabela 3. Discourse type and register distinctions after 2010
bearable tolerable Total
impersonal 24 36 60
formal 11 9 20
informal 13 27 40
personal 5 8 13
informal 5 8 13
Total 29 44 73
The 3rd table examines the use of both lexemes after 2010. The total amount of the exam-
ples in this particular time is 73; for tolerable 44, and bearable 29. The impersonal structures
are more frequent for the tolerable lexeme and count 36 examples; while for bearable there is
24. Is it worth to note that in opposite to the table 2, there is a difference in informal style sen-
tences distribution. In table 3, both personal and impersonal informal constructions tend to be
more frequent for tolerable lexeme.
53 Differences of bearable and tolerable lexemes…
Tabela 4. Sentence style and discourse before 2010
bearable tolerable Total
1st person 23 15 38
impersonal 21 13 34
formal 6 5 11
informal 15 8 23
personal 2 2 4
informal 2 2 4
3rd person 8 1 9
impersonal 4 1 5
formal 1 - 1
informal 3 1 4
personal 4 - 4
informal 4 - 4
Total 31 16 47
Table four shows that the distribution of 1st person sentences is significantly more frequ-
ent than 3rd person sentences for both of the lexemes. Another important factor is the differen-
ce in distribution of tolerable 1st and 3rd person sentences, and their total of 15 to 1. What is
more, there are no examples of impersonal formal style and personal constructions for tolera-
ble lexeme in 3rd person. First person impersonal constructions are more frequent for bearable
lexeme.
54 Sebastian Dunat
Tabela 5. Sentence style and discourse after 2010
bearable tolerable Total
1st person 19 34 53
impersonal 17 29 46
formal 8 7 15
informal 9 22 31
personal 2 5 7
informal 2 5 7
3rd person 10 10 20
impersonal 7 7 14
Formal 3 2 5
informal 4 5 9
Personal 3 3 6
informal 3 3 6
Total 29 44 73
Next, 5th table, compared to the previous one has some examples of personal style 3rd per-
son constructions, as well as, impersonal formal 3rd person sentences. Respectively 3 and 2
examples which occurred after 2010. The 3rd person sentences distribution for tolerable and
bearable is the same with 10 examples each. Further comparison shows the change in 1st per-
son impersonal constructions distribution, in the favor of tolerable; before 2010 the frequen-
cies were in bearable favor. Furthermore, the impersonal informal 1st person sentences for
tolerable lexeme hit 22 examples, which makes it the most frequent example in table 5.
55 Differences of bearable and tolerable lexemes…
Tabela 6. Intensification of lexemes in the discourse before 2010
Lexeme bearable tolerable
Intensification 0 + 0 - +
1st person 14 9 11 1 3
Impersonal 13 8 9 1 3
Formal 5 1 3 2
Informal 8 7 6 1 1
Personal 1 1 2 - -
Informal 1 1 2 - -
3rd person 2 6 - - 1
Impersonal 1 3 - - 1
Formal - 1 - - -
Informal 1 2 - - 1
Personal 1 3 - - -
Informal 1 3 - - -
Total 16 15 11 1 4
Firstly, in table 6, it is visible that for both lexemes, in 1st person sentences, the zero in-
tensification is most frequent; respectively 14 for bearable, and 11 for tolerable. Secondly,
there are no examples of tolerable use in 3rd person because their use concerns hedging ex-
pressions; discussed further in the next section of the article. Thirdly, intensification does not
seem to be significant for bearable usage while its distribution covers 16 examples of zero
intensification and 15 examples of the use with intensifiers (+).
56 Sebastian Dunat
Tabela 7. Intensification of lexemes in the discourse after 2010