ERIC Number: EJ1291258
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2021-Jan
Pages: 18
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1823-7797
EISSN: N/A
Conversational Mental Verbs in English Song Lyrics: A Corpus-Driven Analysis
Goyak, Flora; Muhammad, Mazura Mastura; Mohd Khaja, Farah Natchiar; Zaini, Muhamad Fadzllah; Mohammad, Ghada
Asian Journal of University Education, v17 n1 p222-239 Jan 2021
This corpus-driven study explores the linguistics phenomenon of mental verbs in English song lyrics from 1960s until 2000s. This study aims to identify the frequency distributions of lexical verbs, mental verbs, and to analyze the language uses of mental verbs in the Diachronic Corpus of English Song Lyrics (DCOESL). Quantitative and qualitative methods of analysis were applied. First, quantitative data covering frequency distributions of general verbs was produced via LancsBox. Top three mental verbs in song lyrics were selected for analysis and discussion. The frequency distributions of mental verbs and collocations were produced via LancsBox. Collocational patterns were illustrated through collocational graphs constructed via LancsBox. Frequency distributions of mental verbs were compared to reference corpus Contemporary Corpus of American English (COCA) for the purpose of generalizing the findings from this study as representative of English language. The statistical data were submitted for four statistical tests of significance namely Chi-square, Mutual Information, Loglikelihood, and t-score. Second, qualitative data was composed of corpus annotations. Corpus annotations were conducted via CLAWS for assigning part-of-speech C7 tagset to identify verbs. Semantic categories of mental verbs were identified via UCREL Semantic Analysis System (USAS). Findings uncovered significantly high frequencies of mental verbs "know," "want," and "love" in English song lyrics through 1960s until 1990s. These three mental verbs possess high inclination to occur alongside personal pronouns "I" and "you," depict social actions, high predilection for simple present tense, and simple sentence structure. These attributes illuminate that song lyrics emulate spoken English, predominantly the informal conversation register.
Descriptors: Singing, Verbs, Computational Linguistics, North American English, Form Classes (Languages), Semantics, Word Frequency, Diachronic Linguistics, Language Usage, Speech Communication, Phrase Structure, Validity, Reliability, Morphemes, Psycholinguistics
UiTM Press. Asian Centre for Research on University Learning and Teaching, Faculty of Education, Penerbit UiTM, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Bangunan Fakulti Pengurusan Hotel dan Pelancongan, 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia. Web site: https://education.uitm.edu.my/ajue/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A