The Arden Encyclopedia of Shakespeare's Language: Plays and Characters

by Dawn Archer, Alison Findlay, Jonathan Culpeper (Editor), Sean Murphy

Overview

The Arden Encyclopedia of Shakespeare's Language is the first comprehensive account of Shakespeare's language to use computational methods derived from corpus linguistics – methods of choice for today's historical linguist. This third volume focuses on keywords in Shakespeare's plays. Play keywords are derived by conducting a statistical comparison between the words in one play with those in all the other plays. For characters, the statistical comparison is made between the vocabulary of one character and that of all the other characters in the same play. These keywords are then used to create 'linguistic profiles' of each play and main character. The profiles show how patterns of words around keywords contribute to themes in plays and characterization of the protagonists. For example, we reveal how the simple word 'Goodnight' contributes to dramatic tension in Julius Caesar, or how in Romeo and Juliet, Juliet's most distinctive yet apparently innocuous words, 'if', 'yet' and 'but', create an important aspect of her character.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781350261938
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	01/09/2025
Series:	Arden Encyclopedia of Shakespeare's Language
Pages:	728
Product dimensions:	7.75(w) x 9.95(h) x 1.90(d)

About the Author

Dawn Archer is Professor of Pragmatics and Corpus Linguistics at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK.

Alison Findlay is Professor of Renaissance Drama and Director of the Shakespeare Programme at Lancaster University, UK.

Jonathan Culpeper is Professor of English Language and Linguistics at Lancaster University, UK.

Sean Murphy is Associate Lecturer of Linguistics and English Language at Lancaster University, UK.

Table of Contents

General Introduction to the Arden Encyclopedia of Shakespeare's Language
Introduction to Volume 3

All's Well That Ends Well
Antony and Cleopatra
As You Like It
Comedy of Errors
Coriolanus
Cymbeline
Hamlet
Henry IV, Part 1
Henry IV, Part 2
Henry V
Henry VI, Part 1
Henry VI, Part 2
Henry VI, Part 3
Henry VIII
Julius Caesar
King John
King Lear
Love's Labour's Lost
Macbeth
Measure for Measure
Merchant of Venice
Merry Wives of Windsor
Midsummer Night's Dream
Much Ado About Nothing
Othello
Pericles
Richard II
Richard III
Romeo and Juliet
Taming of the Shrew
The Tempest
Timon of Athens
Titus Andronicus
Troilus and Cressida
Twelfth Night
Two Gentlemen of Verona
Two Noble Kinsmen
Winter's Tale