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    Rights statement: The final, definitive version of this article has been published in the Journal, Language and Literature, 29 (3), 2020, © SAGE Publications Ltd, 2020 by SAGE Publications Ltd at the Language and Literature page: https://journals.sagepub.com/home/lal on SAGE Journals Online: http://journals.sagepub.com/

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A survey of grammatical variability in Early Modern English drama

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A survey of grammatical variability in Early Modern English drama. / Hardie, Andrew; Dorst, Isolde van.
In: Language and Literature, Vol. 29, No. 3, 05.10.2020, p. 275-301.

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineJournal articlepeer-review

Harvard

Hardie, A & Dorst, IV 2020, 'A survey of grammatical variability in Early Modern English drama', Language and Literature, vol. 29, no. 3, pp. 275-301. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963947020949440

APA

Vancouver

Hardie A, Dorst IV. A survey of grammatical variability in Early Modern English drama. Language and Literature. 2020 Oct 5;29(3):275-301. Epub 2020 Aug 29. doi: 10.1177/0963947020949440

Author

Hardie, Andrew ; Dorst, Isolde van. / A survey of grammatical variability in Early Modern English drama. In: Language and Literature. 2020 ; Vol. 29, No. 3. pp. 275-301.

Bibtex

@article{3d3a8cee63df4bbb8d94abe0677fcc26,
title = "A survey of grammatical variability in Early Modern English drama",
abstract = "Grammar is one of the levels within the language system at which authorial choices of one mode of expression over others must be examined to characterise in full the style of the author. Such choices must however be assessed in the context of an understanding of the extent of variability that exists generally in the language. This study investigates a set of grammatical features to understand their variability in Early Modern English drama, and the extent to which Shakespeare{\textquoteright}s grammatical style is distinct from or similar to that of his contemporaries in so far as these features are concerned. A review of prior works on Shakespeare{\textquoteright}s grammar establishes that the quantitatively informed corpus linguistic approach utilised in this study is innovative to this topic.Using two of the grammatically annotated corpora created by the Encyclopedia of Shakespeare{\textquoteright}s Language project, one made up of Shakespeare{\textquoteright}s plays, one of plays by other playwrights of the period, we present a method which steers a course between the narrow focus of close reading and the na{\"i}vely quantitative metrics of authorship analysis. For a set of 15 grammatical features of stylistic interest, we retrieve all instances of each feature in each play via complex corpus search patterns and calculate its relative frequency. These results are then considered, in aggregate and at the text level, to assess the differences across plays, across dramatic genre, and between Shakespeare and the other dramatists, via both statistical summary and visual representation of variability.We find that Shakespeare{\textquoteright}s grammatical style tends (especially in comedies and tragedies) to disprefer informationally-dense noun phrases relative to the other playwrights; and, moreover, to prefer tense, aspect and pronoun features which suggest a greater degree of narrative focus in his style. Furthermore, we find Shakespeare to be highly distinct in his preferences regarding verb complement subordinate clause types. These findings point the way both to a novel methodology and to further as yet unconsidered questions on the subject of Shakespeare{\textquoteright}s grammatical style.",
keywords = "Grammar, Shakespeare, variability, Early Modern English, corpus, style",
author = "Andrew Hardie and Dorst, {Isolde van}",
note = "The final, definitive version of this article has been published in the Journal, Language and Literature, 29 (3), 2020, {\textcopyright} SAGE Publications Ltd, 2020 by SAGE Publications Ltd at the Language and Literature page: https://journals.sagepub.com/home/lal on SAGE Journals Online: http://journals.sagepub.com/ ",
year = "2020",
month = oct,
day = "5",
doi = "10.1177/0963947020949440",
language = "English",
volume = "29",
pages = "275--301",
journal = "Language and Literature",
issn = "0963-9470",
publisher = "SAGE Publications Ltd",
number = "3",

}

RIS

TY - JOUR

T1 - A survey of grammatical variability in Early Modern English drama

AU - Hardie, Andrew

AU - Dorst, Isolde van

N1 - The final, definitive version of this article has been published in the Journal, Language and Literature, 29 (3), 2020, © SAGE Publications Ltd, 2020 by SAGE Publications Ltd at the Language and Literature page: https://journals.sagepub.com/home/lal on SAGE Journals Online: http://journals.sagepub.com/

PY - 2020/10/5

Y1 - 2020/10/5

N2 - Grammar is one of the levels within the language system at which authorial choices of one mode of expression over others must be examined to characterise in full the style of the author. Such choices must however be assessed in the context of an understanding of the extent of variability that exists generally in the language. This study investigates a set of grammatical features to understand their variability in Early Modern English drama, and the extent to which Shakespeare’s grammatical style is distinct from or similar to that of his contemporaries in so far as these features are concerned. A review of prior works on Shakespeare’s grammar establishes that the quantitatively informed corpus linguistic approach utilised in this study is innovative to this topic.Using two of the grammatically annotated corpora created by the Encyclopedia of Shakespeare’s Language project, one made up of Shakespeare’s plays, one of plays by other playwrights of the period, we present a method which steers a course between the narrow focus of close reading and the naïvely quantitative metrics of authorship analysis. For a set of 15 grammatical features of stylistic interest, we retrieve all instances of each feature in each play via complex corpus search patterns and calculate its relative frequency. These results are then considered, in aggregate and at the text level, to assess the differences across plays, across dramatic genre, and between Shakespeare and the other dramatists, via both statistical summary and visual representation of variability.We find that Shakespeare’s grammatical style tends (especially in comedies and tragedies) to disprefer informationally-dense noun phrases relative to the other playwrights; and, moreover, to prefer tense, aspect and pronoun features which suggest a greater degree of narrative focus in his style. Furthermore, we find Shakespeare to be highly distinct in his preferences regarding verb complement subordinate clause types. These findings point the way both to a novel methodology and to further as yet unconsidered questions on the subject of Shakespeare’s grammatical style.

AB - Grammar is one of the levels within the language system at which authorial choices of one mode of expression over others must be examined to characterise in full the style of the author. Such choices must however be assessed in the context of an understanding of the extent of variability that exists generally in the language. This study investigates a set of grammatical features to understand their variability in Early Modern English drama, and the extent to which Shakespeare’s grammatical style is distinct from or similar to that of his contemporaries in so far as these features are concerned. A review of prior works on Shakespeare’s grammar establishes that the quantitatively informed corpus linguistic approach utilised in this study is innovative to this topic.Using two of the grammatically annotated corpora created by the Encyclopedia of Shakespeare’s Language project, one made up of Shakespeare’s plays, one of plays by other playwrights of the period, we present a method which steers a course between the narrow focus of close reading and the naïvely quantitative metrics of authorship analysis. For a set of 15 grammatical features of stylistic interest, we retrieve all instances of each feature in each play via complex corpus search patterns and calculate its relative frequency. These results are then considered, in aggregate and at the text level, to assess the differences across plays, across dramatic genre, and between Shakespeare and the other dramatists, via both statistical summary and visual representation of variability.We find that Shakespeare’s grammatical style tends (especially in comedies and tragedies) to disprefer informationally-dense noun phrases relative to the other playwrights; and, moreover, to prefer tense, aspect and pronoun features which suggest a greater degree of narrative focus in his style. Furthermore, we find Shakespeare to be highly distinct in his preferences regarding verb complement subordinate clause types. These findings point the way both to a novel methodology and to further as yet unconsidered questions on the subject of Shakespeare’s grammatical style.

KW - Grammar

KW - Shakespeare

KW - variability

KW - Early Modern English

KW - corpus

KW - style

U2 - 10.1177/0963947020949440

DO - 10.1177/0963947020949440

M3 - Journal article

VL - 29

SP - 275

EP - 301

JO - Language and Literature

JF - Language and Literature

SN - 0963-9470

IS - 3

ER -