<i>Corpus</i> Linguistics Representations on Age Groups in Light of Google Books

Abstract

The goal of the research lays on identifying social representations around words associated with human beings in Google Books BYU Corpus, in a period of 208 years, from 1800 to 2008. In this paper, the main data findings of a corpus-based investigation are focused on the adjectives preceding such words as man, woman, adolescent, boy, girl, child, and teenager in database. By verifying patterns of association between each of these words and immediate collocates, it is possible to infer how these concepts are represented over time. First, queries were conducted in the Corpus. Second, adjectives were selected. Third, these were classified into semantic categories. Fourth, collocates were classified through sentiment analysis. Finally, major representations were inferred based on semantic categories and sentiment analysis scores. The word “children” showed different representations: medical, consisting of collocates such as asthmatic, disabled, religious and evaluative. We have concluded that over time, representations of age, health and race increased, while representations of innocence decreased. It can be applied that the collocates that appeared in the latter half-century compared to first half-century give an indication of the current representations. Finally, for children, these include hyperactive and disadvantaged, indicating a shift toward a “problematic” representation of children.