Gender and Lexical Representation in Enid Blyton’s The Famous Five: A Corpus-based Study

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Kriangkrai Vathanalaoha
Dhanakorn Jeeradhanawin

Abstract

Corpus stylistics is deemed promising in literary school as it
fosters cautious optimism in using empirical evidence to support
individualistic interpretations. Also, it is established that we are living
in a digital era where texts are produced more in form of electronic
text. This study aims to use corpus-based analyses to offer empirical
data that reveals about language behavior of what literary critics have
been studied in The Famous Five, one of the most popular series of
children’s literature in the world, with respect to literary themes and
gender representation. The study uses two corpus analysis tools, Wmatrix
and AntConc, to generate information such as key semantic fields
(thematic categorizations), collocations and concordances. Using the
corpus-based information, this paper concludes that The Famous Five
comprises the essence of adventures and mysteries and that the story
contains conventional stereotypes of male and female protagonists.
Amongst the entire group, George, or Georgina, is the most intriguing
character because she has been represented as an impatient and outspoken
character, characterized by the lexical choices that the author has made.


Keywords: corpus stylistics; gender representation; lexical representation

Article Details

How to Cite
Vathanalaoha, K., & Jeeradhanawin, D. (2016). Gender and Lexical Representation in Enid Blyton’s The Famous Five: A Corpus-based Study. Journal of Studies in the English Language, 10. Retrieved from https://so04.tci-thaijo.org/index.php/jsel/article/view/48209
Issue
Vol. 10 (2015)
Section
Articles
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Author Biographies

Kriangkrai Vathanalaoha

Kriangkrai Vathanalaoha is a lecturer at Language Centre,
International College for Sustainability Studies, Srinakharinwirot
University, Bangkok. He is now a PhD student in English Language
Teaching, Language Institute, Thammasat University. He has published
academic papers on language and literature. His research interests
include cognitive poetics, corpus linguistics, discourse analysis and
pedagogical stylistics. He can be reached at [email protected].

Dhanakorn Jeeradhanawin

Dhanakorn Jeeradhanawin is a lecturer at the Department of
English, Faculty of Liberal Arts, Thammasat University, Bangkok. His
research interests include critical discourse analysis, computer-assisted
language learning, and corpus linguistics. He can be reached at
[email protected].