Keyness in Texts

Marina Bondi, Mike Scott

John Benjamins Publishing Company, Nov 11, 2010 - 251 pages

This is corpus linguistics with a text linguistic focus. The volume concerns lexical inequality, the fact that some words and phrases share the quality of being key---and thereby reflect or promote important themes in some textual contexts, while others do not. The patterning of words which differ in their centrality to text meaning is of increasing interest to corpus linguistics. At the same time software resources are yielding increasingly more detailed ways of identifying and studying the linkages between key words and phrases in text databases. This volume brings together work from some of the leading researchers in this field. It presents thirteen studies organized in three sections, the first containing a series of studies exploring the nature of keyness itself, then a set of five studies looking at keyness in specific discourse contexts, and then three studies with an educational focus.

"Edited by two central figures in the development of keyword analysis, and with contributions from leading specialists in the field, this unique collection brings together a wide range of insights into how keyword analysis can contribute both to linguistic and cultural analysis and to language education. It deserves a place on the bookshelves of anyone with an interest in these areas"---Christopher Tribble, King's College, London

"This is a fascinating volume addressing both methodological and theoretical questions in the study of keywords. It pushes forward the exploration of the nature of keyness and the interpretation of keywords in their textual contexts. An inspiring contribution to a central area of corpus linguistics." ---Michaela Mahlberg, University of Nottingham

Contents

• An introduction: 1
• I Exploring keyness: 19
• Three concepts of keywords: 21
• Problems in investigating keyness or clearing the undergrowth and marking out trails: 43
• Closedclass keywords and corpusdriven discourse analysis: 59
• Keywords or key words?: 79
• Web Semantics vs the Semantic Web?: 93
• II Keyness in specialised discourse: 111
• Identifying aboutgrams in engineering texts: 113
• Keywords and phrases in political speeches: 127
• Key words and key phrases in a corpus of travel writing: 147
• Keywords as a clue to disciplinary epistemology: 169
• Metaphorical keyness in specialised corpora: 185
• III Critical and educational perspectives: 205
• A contrastive analysis of keywords in newspaper articles on the Kyoto Protocol: 207
• Keywords in Korean national consciousness: 219
• General spoken language and school language: 235
• Index: 249
• The series Studies in Corpus Linguistics: 253

About the author

Marina Bondi is Professor of English at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia and current President of the Italian Association of English studies. Her main research interests are in language variation and academic discourse.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Keyness in Texts; Volume 41 of Studies in Corpus Linguistics
• Authors: Marina Bondi, Mike Scott
• Editors: Marina Bondi, Mike Scott
• Contributor: Marina Bondi
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2010
• ISBN: 9027223173, 9789027223173
• Length: 251 pages
• Subjects: Corpora (Linguistics); Discourse analysis; Language Arts & Disciplines / General; Language Arts & Disciplines / Linguistics / General; Language Arts & Disciplines / Linguistics / Semantics; Phraseology; Semantics