VYTAUTO DIDŽIOJO UNIVERSITETAS Xiao Liang
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VYTAUTO DIDŽIOJO UNIVERSITETAS HUMANITARINIŲ MOKSLŲ FAKULTETAS UŽSIENIO KALBŲ, LITERATŪROS IR VERTIMO STUDIJŲ KATEDRA Xiao Liang ŠNEKAMOSIOS KALBOS YPATUMAI MUILO OPEROSE: TEKSTYNAIS PAREMTAS TYRIMAS Bakalauro baigiamasis darbas Anglų filologijos studijų programa, valstybinis kodas 612Q30004 Anglų filologijos studijų kryptis Vadovė prof. dr. Jūratė Ruzaitė _________ ___________ (parašas) (data) Apginta doc. dr. Rūta Eidukevičienė __________ ___________ (parašas) (data) Kaunas, 2020 INFORMAL LANGUAGE USE IN SOAP OPERAS: A CORPUS-BASED STUDY By Xiao Liang Department of Foreign Language, Literary and Translation Studies Vytautas Magnus University Bachelor of Arts Thesis Supervisor: Prof. dr. Jūratė Ruzaitė 3 June 2020 TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures......................................................................................................................I List of Abbreviations............................................................................................................I SANTRAUKA....................................................................................................................II SUMMARY........................................................................................................................III 1. INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................1 1.1 Aim and scope..........................................................................................................1 1.2 Data and method......................................................................................................2 1.3 Structure of the thesis...............................................................................................3 2. THEORETICAL APPROACHES TO LINGUISTIC FEATURES IN SOAP OPERAS................................................................................................................................4 2.1 The history of soap operas........................................................................................4 2.2 Informal language in soap operas.............................................................................6 2.3 An introduction to corpus linguistic studies..............................................................8 2.4 Language and gender in soap operas........................................................................9 3. ANALYSIS OF INFORMAL LANGUAGE IN SOAP OPERAS................................................................................................................................11 3.1 Corpus-based analysis on the use of informal language..........................................12 3.2The frequency of expletives in ten different soap operas..........................................17 3.3 Collocational patterns of informal language items...................................................21 CONCLUSION.....................................................................................................................26 REFERENCES.....................................................................................................................27 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 The frequency of five expletives in soap operas............................................12 Figure 2 The frequency of five expletives used in other genres...................................13 Figure 3 The frequency of four vocatives.....................................................................16 Figure 4 The frequency of damn in ten different soap operas......................................18 Figure 5 The frequency of bitch in ten different soap operas.......................................19 Figure 6 The frequency of bastard in ten different soap operas...................................20 Figure 7 The frequency of butt in ten different soap operas.........................................20 Figure 8 The frequency of ass in ten different soap operas...........................................21 Figure 9 The collocations of the word damn................................................................22 Figure 10 The collocations of the word bitch.................................................................23 Figure 11 The collocations of the word bastard.............................................................24 Figure 12 The collocations of the word butt...................................................................24 Figure 13 The collocations of the word ass....................................................................25 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 1. COCA: Corpus of Contemporary American English 2. DAYS: Days of Our Lives 3. ATWT: As the World Turns 4. B&B: The bold and the beautiful 5. AMC: All my children 6. GH: General Hospital 7. GL: Guiding Light 8. OLTL: One Life to Live 9. PASS: Passions 10. PC: Port Charles 11. Y&R: Young and Restless I SANTRAUKA Muilo opera kilo Vakaruose ir tuo metu tai buvo palyginti nauja serialų forma. Muilo opera – tai radijo ar televizijos serialas, nagrinėjantis buitines situacijas, kuriam dažnai būdingi melodramos bruožai ir sentimentalumas. JAV ji vadinama „muilo opera“, nes terminas „muilo opera“ kilo iš radijo dramų, kurias rėmė muilo gamintojai. Skirtingos socialinės grupės ir skirtingos žmonių klasės sudaro skirtingas kalbų bendruomenes. Tai įkūnija kalbų įvairovę. Kalba gali būti naudojama išreikšti kalbėtojo požiūriui, kartais taip pat naudojama konstatuoti faktus ir informuoi, kas gali daryti įtaką pasaulio suvokimui. Todėl svarbu tirti muilo operas iš kalbotyros perspektyvos. Pirmąją darbo dalį sudaro trys skyriai. Iš pradžių šiame darbe pristatoma bendra tyrimo kryptis ir metodai. Antroji dalis yra teorinė apžvalga, kurioje supažindinama su muilo operos istorija ir raida, neoficialia muilo operose vartojama kalba ir tekstynų pritaikymo galimybėmis kalbos tyrimuose. Kalbinė analizė atlikta naudojant Amerikos šiuolaikinės anglų kalbos tekstyną bei Amerikos muilo operų tekstyną, tad darbas yra palyginamasis: čia lyginami bendrojoje amerikiečių anglų kalboje ir muilo operose vartojama neformali leksika. Be to, šiame darbe taip pat lyginamos ir analizuojamos pasirinktų žodžių kolokacij. II SUMMARY The soap opera originated in the Western and it was a relatively novel serial at that time. A soap opera is a radio or television serial dealing especially with domestic situations and frequently characterized by melodrama and sentimentality. It is called a soap opera in the United States, because the term soap opera originated from radio dramas being sponsored by soap manufacturers. Different social groups and different classes of people form different language communities. This fully embodies the diversity of language. Language can be used to express the speaker's point of view, sometimes also used to state facts, and plays an informative role in reasoning. Therefore, it is necessary to study the linguistics of soap operas. The first part is divided into three chapters. At first, this paper introduces the overall direction and tools. The second part is the theoretical part, which first introduces the history and development of soap opera, then it introduces the informal language of soap opera, and the role of corpus based language research. It also discusses the data by using the Corpus of American Contemporary English and the Corpus of American Soap Operas, and then collates and analyzes the informal words frequently used in the soap opera by comparing the data. In addition, this paper also compares and arranges the collocations of individual words. III 1. INTRODUCTION In the mid-1950s, soap operas played a leading role in early morning and afternoon TV programs. In the past 10 years, soap operas also played a certain role in radio programs. From the 1930s to the 1950s, American classic soap operas were usually a continuing drama about middle-class families living in small towns. The themes of soap operas are mostly related to life and love. For some viewers, the soap operas are a form of background noise in a life otherwise detached from the concerns of the soap opera plot; for others–particularly those who are moved enough by the storyline to want to write about it on-line (or, in my case, in this thesis)–the soap operas are more present, more vividly a part of daily consciousness (Warhol 1998: 26). The current thesis aims to research linguistic features of soap operas, since the language in soap operas is closest to real life. Paulo Quaglio (2009) also developed a strong interest in the language of soap operas and comedies. He conducted a detailed study and analysis of the language in American sitcom Friends and compared the language of sitcoms with natural dialogue. He explained why he chose Friends as the research object, as he states, “a show about people who just sit around and talk-makes this sitcom an interesting object of study for linguistic analysis, both as a comparison to natural conversation and as an object of study in itself” (Quaglio 2009: 13). It can be seen that the language in soap operas also has important research value. 1.1 Aim and scope The purpose of this study is to analyze the linguistic features in soap opera. The purpose of this paper is to understand how informal language is used in soap operas by studying the informal language and analyzing the use of some items of informal language. This series of research is based on the Corpus of American Soap Operas (SOAP corpus). The first objective is to identify the differences between informal language in soap operas and informal language in general English.