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Article published In:
Corpus approaches to telecinematic language
Edited by Monika Bednarek, Valentin Werner and Marcia Veirano Pinto
[International Journal of Corpus Linguistics 26:1] 2021
► pp. 71–94

Language use in pop culture over three decades

A diachronic keyword analysis of Star Trek dialogues

| San Diego State University
| San Diego State University

Analyzing variation in language features in literature and telecinematic discourse provides valuable insights into society’s shifting values and perspectives. In this study, we carry out a keyword analysis on the language of three series of Star Trek television dialogues, broadcast in the 1960s, 1980s, and 1990s, from two perspectives: (i) keywords across the three series highlighting words that are unique to one series in contrast to the other two, providing insights about changes of foci across time; (ii) keywords in relation to gender depicting potential differences in gender roles and how these may change through time across the series.

Keywords: pop culture dialogues, telecinematic discourse, Star Trek , keywords, diachronic analysis
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Keyword studies on TV series
  • 3.Methodology
    • 3.1Keywords: Concept, methods, and approaches
    • 3.2The Star Trek corpus
    • 3.3Analytical tools
      • 3.3.1Python code
      • 3.3.2AntConc
  • 4.Findings
    • 4.1Lexical patterns across time
      • 4.1.1TOS
      • 4.1.2TNG
      • 4.1.3DS9
    • 4.2Lexical patterns in female talk
  • 5.Conclusion
  • References
Published online: 2 November 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ijcl.00037.cso
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