In August 2017, The Guardian announced the display of the Yeats family collection, which took place in London from 22 to 26 September. This thesis will discuss William Butler Yeats’ (1865 – 1939)...Show moreIn August 2017, The Guardian announced the display of the Yeats family collection, which took place in London from 22 to 26 September. This thesis will discuss William Butler Yeats’ (1865 – 1939) relationship with his wife, George Yeats “Georgie” (born Bertha Hyde-Lees, 1892 – 1968), his sister, Susan Mary ('Lilly') Yeats (1866-1949), and his business partner, Lady Gregory (1852 – 1932) from the perspective of his language use. The focus will be on the degree of linguistic involvement between Yeats and the women in his life revealed from the letters written by Yeats, during 1917– 1932. This paper will discuss possible style variation in these letters of W.B. Yeats (1865 – 1939). Also, I shall asses the relationships between Yeats and the three different women in his life by analysing the opening and closing formulas. The hypothesis is that the linguistic variation shows the degree of involvement between the man behind the poet and his correspondent. I shall look at the involvement by taking into consideration the usage of markers such as evidential verbs, degree adverbs, and second-person pronouns, while working with Wordsworth Tools 7.0, drawing on previous research, and linking it back to my findings (see e.g. Milroy 1980, Sairio 2005, Tieken-Boon van Ostade 2014, and Bax 2000).Show less
William Shakespeare (1564–1616) – as far as we know – wrote thirty-seven plays over a time period of twenty-three years (Hoenselaars 2012:xv–xxii), one could wonder if traces of the changing verb...Show moreWilliam Shakespeare (1564–1616) – as far as we know – wrote thirty-seven plays over a time period of twenty-three years (Hoenselaars 2012:xv–xxii), one could wonder if traces of the changing verb-morphology of the Early Modern English Period (1500–1700) should be found in his writing (Crystal 2004:3). One example of this changing verb morphology is that, during this period, the third-person singular present tense inflection -th fell out of general use and the -s inflection became a part of Standard English (Nevalainen 2006:89). This thesis discusses if Shakespeare’s verb morphology represents this morphological shift. To answer this question, this thesis analysed the verb morphology of third-person singular present tense verbs in three of Shakespeare’s plays, more specifically comedies, one from the beginning of his career, one from the middle and one from end, i.e. The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1589–1593) , Twelfth Night (1601–1602) and The Two Noble Kinsmen (1613–1615). This analysis has presented results that prove that the use of the -th inflection by Shakespeare in his plays decreased throughout his career.Show less
Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
open access
Many sociolinguistic studies see a difference in the language of men and women. This study explores the differences in gendered language use in the letters written by Marian Evans and those written...Show moreMany sociolinguistic studies see a difference in the language of men and women. This study explores the differences in gendered language use in the letters written by Marian Evans and those written under her better-known male pseudonym, George Eliot. By combining gender theory, social history, and computational linguistics, this study argues that Marian Evans took up a pseudonym and a more masculine writing style to succeed in the male-dominated literary world. Machine learning indeed shows that the letters signed as George Eliot were classified as belonging to a male-writing style.Show less
