English and German pop song lyrics : Towards a contrastive textology




Faculty/Professorship: English and Historical Linguistics  
Author(s): Werner, Valentin  
Publisher Information: Bamberg : Otto-Friedrich-Universität
Year of publication: 2023
Pages: 1-20
Source/Other editions: Journal for language technology and computational linguistics : JLCL. 36 (2023), 1, S. 1-20. DOI: 10.3201/eid2904.221552
is version of: 10.3201/eid2904.221552
Year of first publication: 2023
Language(s): English
Licence: Creative Commons - CC BY-SA - Attribution - ShareAlike 4.0 International 
URN: urn:nbn:de:bvb:473-irb-594071
Abstract: 
The present contribution offers a contrastive corpus-based analysis of English and German pop lyrics. It conceptualizes lyrics as a specific text type/register and tries to identify cross-linguistic commonalities and differences. As empirical base, it uses corpora that represent the lyrics of commercially highly successful pop songs in Anglophone and German contexts. Given the similar sociocultural functions and production circumstances of English and Ger-man lyrics, the study starts from the assumption that a large-scale linguistic overlap can be traced. While indeed cross-linguistic convergence is found especially for lexical patterns in terms of topic choice, the analysis also reveals a common property of conveying a conversa-tional feel through lexicogrammatical means. However, given the differing typological make-up of the languages contrasted, fine-grained differences emerge as regards the ways conver-sationality/informality is established in pop lyrics as a performed text type.
GND Keywords: Englisch; Deutsch; Korpus <Linguistik>; Popmusik; Vergleichende Sprachwissenschaft
Keywords: pop culture, pop cultural linguistics, performed language, media language, music, media linguistics, textlinguistics, register study, typology, LYPOP, Songkorpus
DDC Classification: 420 English  
RVK Classification: HF 450   
Peer Reviewed: Ja
International Distribution: Ja
Open Access Journal: Ja
Type: Article
URI: https://fis.uni-bamberg.de/handle/uniba/59407
Release Date: 24. May 2023

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