A Corpus-based Study of Proper Names in Present-day English

Grace Y. W. Tse

ISBN 10: 3631534531 / ISBN 13: 9783631534533

Published by Peter Lang Mai 2005, 2005

About this Item

This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Based on a large sample of press data extracted from the British National Corpus (BNC), the book undertakes a detailed investigation of present-day English proper names, an important but under-researched area in English linguistics. Employing the statistical technique of binary logistic regression, this book presents a new method of analysing non-discrete categories in linguistics with reference to the grammatical notion of gradience and the principle of parsimony. The focus is particularly on the grammatical factors influencing the choice between use and non-use of the definite article - a well-known issue of uncertainty in modern English. The study also concentrates on multi-word organisation names, which have been little studied, although they occur frequently in newspaper language and have special characteristics of their own. By making precise predictive statements about the conditions under which the definite article is preferred or dispreferred, the book is also able to shed light on the theory of linguistic performance. 264 pp. Englisch.

Seller Inventory # 9783631534533

Bibliographic Details

• Title: A Corpus-based Study of Proper Names in Present-day English
• Publisher: Peter Lang Mai 2005
• Publication Date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 3631534531
• ISBN 13: 9783631534533
• Binding: Taschenbuch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 210W x 148H x 15D millimeters 210 millimeters width by 148 millimeters height by 15 millimeters depth
• Weight: 346 grams

About this title

Synopsis

Based on a large sample of press data extracted from the British National Corpus (BNC), the book undertakes a detailed investigation of present-day English proper names, an important but under-researched area in English linguistics. Employing the statistical technique of binary logistic regression, this book presents a new method of analysing non-discrete categories in linguistics with reference to the grammatical notion of gradience and the principle of parsimony. The focus is particularly on the grammatical factors influencing the choice between use and non-use of the definite article – a well-known issue of uncertainty in modern English. The study also concentrates on multi-word organisation names, which have been little studied, although they occur frequently in newspaper language and have special characteristics of their own. By making precise predictive statements about the conditions under which the definite article is preferred or dispreferred, the book is also able to shed light on the theory of linguistic performance.

About the Author

The Author: Grace Y. W. Tse is currently an Assistant Professor in the School of Arts and Social Sciences at the Open University of Hong Kong. She teaches English linguistics and translation (English and Chinese). She received her M.A. in Linguistics for English Language Teaching and Ph.D. in Linguistics from Lancaster University.