Corpus linguistics in language and sexuality studies

Taking stock and looking ahead

Bibliographic Data

ID3099208
AuthorsHeiko Motschenbacher (0000-0003-3906-7109, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, corresponding author)
Year2018
Volume7
Issue2
Pages145-174
Publication date2018-08-27
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Language and Sexuality (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2211-3770 • E-ISSN: 2211-3789
PublisherJohn Benjamins Publishing Company (PUBLISHER • NL)
DOI10.1075/jls.17019.mot
OpenAlexW2889548104
LanguageEN
Citations received26
References cited63

As an introduction to the special issue, this paper presents an overview of previous corpus linguistic work in the field of language and sexuality and discusses the compatibility of corpus linguistic methodology with queer linguistics as a central theoretical approach in language and sexuality studies. The discussion is structured around five prototypical aspects of corpus linguistics that may be deemed problematic from a poststructuralist, queer linguistic perspective: quantification and associated notions of objectivity, reliance on linguistic forms and formal presence, concentration on highly frequent features, reliance on categories, and highlighting of differences. It is argued that none of these aspects rules out an application of corpus linguistic techniques within queer theoretically informed linguistic work per se and that it is rather the way these techniques are employed that can be seen as more or less compatible with queer linguistics. To complement the theoretical discussion, a collocation analysis of sexual descriptive adjectives in the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) is conducted in an attempt to address some of the issues raised. The concluding section makes suggestions for future research

Applied linguistics · Corpus linguistics · Epistemology · Human sexuality · Language and gender · Linguistic analysis · Linguistic description · Linguistics · Objectivity (philosophy · Queer · Sociology · Discourse Analysis in Language Studies · Gender Studies · Gender Studies in Language · Philosophy · Psychology · Swearing, Euphemism, Multilingualism

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