Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Times may change, but we will always have money : Diachronic variation in recent British English. / Baker, Paul.
In: Journal of English Linguistics, Vol. 39, No. 1, 31.03.2011, p. 65-88.Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Times may change, but we will always have money
T2 - Diachronic variation in recent British English
AU - Baker, Paul
PY - 2011/3/31
Y1 - 2011/3/31
N2 - The frequencies of words in four equal-sized reference corpora of written British English from 1931, 1961, 1991, and 2006 were compared to investigate patterns of vocabulary change and stability over time.The study addresses central methodological questions surrounding diachronic change across multiple corpora, considering a number of methods to distinguish variance over time. Having identified an appropriate measure of variance, the study categorizes words as showing large increases, showing large decreases, or remaining stable. After grouping words into grammatical categories, several hypotheses about language change (and stability) are advanced. Concordance and collocational analyses explore these hypotheses and consider context of usage. The study reports on a number of trends relating to language (specifically British English) and cultural change, including a tendency for language to become less verbose and a move toward more informal and personal ways of writing.
AB - The frequencies of words in four equal-sized reference corpora of written British English from 1931, 1961, 1991, and 2006 were compared to investigate patterns of vocabulary change and stability over time.The study addresses central methodological questions surrounding diachronic change across multiple corpora, considering a number of methods to distinguish variance over time. Having identified an appropriate measure of variance, the study categorizes words as showing large increases, showing large decreases, or remaining stable. After grouping words into grammatical categories, several hypotheses about language change (and stability) are advanced. Concordance and collocational analyses explore these hypotheses and consider context of usage. The study reports on a number of trends relating to language (specifically British English) and cultural change, including a tendency for language to become less verbose and a move toward more informal and personal ways of writing.
KW - British English
KW - corpus
KW - diachronic
KW - lexis
KW - variation
U2 - 10.1177/0075424210368368
DO - 10.1177/0075424210368368
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:79751505044
VL - 39
SP - 65
EP - 88
JO - Journal of English Linguistics
JF - Journal of English Linguistics
SN - 0075-4242
IS - 1
ER -