2025/10/17 by Iva Nováková, Olivier Kraif, Marion Gymnich · 1 voice
Arts and Humanities · Psychology · #Discourse Analysis in Language Studies #Language, Metaphor, and Cognition #Translation Studies and Practices
paper · doi:10.1075/ijcl.23150.nov
openalex publication_date 2025/10/17 · openalex created_date 2025/10/18 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/03
Abstract Subgenres of the novel have traditionally been defined first and foremost in terms of their content. Yet, in addition to revisiting themes, settings, plot patterns and character constellations, popular fiction — i.e. genres such as fantasy, science fiction and romance novels — in particular also tends to feature recurring linguistic patterns. These can be revealed by a corpus-driven approach that identifies statistically significant recurring lexico-syntactic constructions, which give rise to phraseological motifs. This article exemplifies what corpus-driven approaches can contribute to genre theory by drawing upon corpora of English and French romance fiction. A corpus-driven approach makes it possible to identify characteristics of a genre-specific ‘language of intimacy’ as well as stylistic differences between English and French romance novels.