Investigating social actions (transitivity) with corpora

Hunt, Sally (2024). Investigating social actions (transitivity) with corpora. In: Heritage, Frazer and Taylor, Charlotte eds. Analysing Representation A Corpus and Discourse Textbook. Oxon, UK and New York, USA: Routledge, pp. 115–133.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003350972-8

Abstract

The focus of this chapter is on the analysis of agency, and, more specifically, how the tools of corpus linguistics may be used to investigate this aspect of representation in children’s literature. Case studies based on previous research into the Harry Potter series, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry and the Chronicles of Narnia are presented in section 8.1.2, to show how agency may be reflected in the author’s choice of verbs, and the use of body parts. Section 2 demonstrates some of the tools of corpus linguistics, exploring how they may be used to reveal agency in patterns of participants and processes, using the Systemic Functional Linguistic approach to transitivity (hereafter SFL) as the theoretical lens, and utilising a corpus of children’s literature comprising books from the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys series.

Plain Language Summary

This chapter illustrates how the tools of corpus linguistics may be used to investigate the representation of agency in children’s literature. Research into the Harry Potter series, the book Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry and the Chronicles of Narnia shows how the author’s choice of verbs and representation of body parts may reflect differences in agency. The Systemic Functional Linguistic theoretical approach is combined with the tools of corpus linguistics to investigate transitivity - the author's choices of subject nouns ('participants') and verbs ('processes') - using books from the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys series.

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