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Probabilities and surprises: a realist approach to identifying linguistic and social patterns, with reference to an oral history corpus

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Probabilities and surprises: a realist approach to identifying linguistic and social patterns, with reference to an oral history corpus. / Sealey, Alison.
In: Applied Linguistics, Vol. 31, No. 2, 2010, p. 215-235.

Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article

Harvard

Sealey, A 2010, 'Probabilities and surprises: a realist approach to identifying linguistic and social patterns, with reference to an oral history corpus', Applied Linguistics, vol. 31, no. 2, pp. 215-235. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amp023

APA

Sealey, A. (2010). Probabilities and surprises: a realist approach to identifying linguistic and social patterns, with reference to an oral history corpus. Applied Linguistics, 31(2), 215-235. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amp023

Vancouver

Sealey A. Probabilities and surprises: a realist approach to identifying linguistic and social patterns, with reference to an oral history corpus. Applied Linguistics. 2010;31(2):215-235. doi: 10.1093/applin/amp023

Author

Sealey, Alison. / Probabilities and surprises : a realist approach to identifying linguistic and social patterns, with reference to an oral history corpus. In: Applied Linguistics. 2010 ; Vol. 31, No. 2. pp. 215-235.

Bibtex

@article{a70267552d444ba396daf0c6311340d8,
title = "Probabilities and surprises: a realist approach to identifying linguistic and social patterns, with reference to an oral history corpus",
abstract = "The relationship between language and identity has been explored in a number of ways in applied linguistics, and this article focuses on a particular aspect of it: self-representation in the oral history interview. People from a wide range of backgrounds, currently resident in one large city in England, were asked to reflect on their lives as part of a project to celebrate the millennium, resulting in a corpus of 144 transcribed interviews. The article considers the utility of realist social theory and complexity theory in the analysis of patterns-and deviations from those patterns-in both the linguistic features of these interviews and the social categories to which people are routinely ascribed. Corpus linguistic software was used to identify discourse features of the corpus as a whole, and to compare and contrast features produced by different speakers with reference to the conventional social categories used in quantitative research. These categories, with their homogenizing limitations, are challenged with reference to complex causation. The article uses the category of gender to exemplify the multi-method approach advocated.",
keywords = "identity, gender, discourse, self-presentation",
author = "Alison Sealey",
year = "2010",
doi = "10.1093/applin/amp023",
language = "English",
volume = "31",
pages = "215--235",
journal = "Applied Linguistics",
issn = "0142-6001",
publisher = "Oxford University Press",
number = "2",

}

RIS

TY - JOUR

T1 - Probabilities and surprises

T2 - a realist approach to identifying linguistic and social patterns, with reference to an oral history corpus

AU - Sealey, Alison

PY - 2010

Y1 - 2010

N2 - The relationship between language and identity has been explored in a number of ways in applied linguistics, and this article focuses on a particular aspect of it: self-representation in the oral history interview. People from a wide range of backgrounds, currently resident in one large city in England, were asked to reflect on their lives as part of a project to celebrate the millennium, resulting in a corpus of 144 transcribed interviews. The article considers the utility of realist social theory and complexity theory in the analysis of patterns-and deviations from those patterns-in both the linguistic features of these interviews and the social categories to which people are routinely ascribed. Corpus linguistic software was used to identify discourse features of the corpus as a whole, and to compare and contrast features produced by different speakers with reference to the conventional social categories used in quantitative research. These categories, with their homogenizing limitations, are challenged with reference to complex causation. The article uses the category of gender to exemplify the multi-method approach advocated.

AB - The relationship between language and identity has been explored in a number of ways in applied linguistics, and this article focuses on a particular aspect of it: self-representation in the oral history interview. People from a wide range of backgrounds, currently resident in one large city in England, were asked to reflect on their lives as part of a project to celebrate the millennium, resulting in a corpus of 144 transcribed interviews. The article considers the utility of realist social theory and complexity theory in the analysis of patterns-and deviations from those patterns-in both the linguistic features of these interviews and the social categories to which people are routinely ascribed. Corpus linguistic software was used to identify discourse features of the corpus as a whole, and to compare and contrast features produced by different speakers with reference to the conventional social categories used in quantitative research. These categories, with their homogenizing limitations, are challenged with reference to complex causation. The article uses the category of gender to exemplify the multi-method approach advocated.

KW - identity

KW - gender

KW - discourse

KW - self-presentation

U2 - 10.1093/applin/amp023

DO - 10.1093/applin/amp023

M3 - Journal article

VL - 31

SP - 215

EP - 235

JO - Applied Linguistics

JF - Applied Linguistics

SN - 0142-6001

IS - 2

ER -