Corpus-driven Cognitive Linguistics. The Conceptualisation of Body Shape

Författare

Emma Goddard

Summary, in English

The issues of body shape and living up to an ideal is a topic not only
commonly discussed in the media but also a subject occupying many
peoples’ minds on an everyday basis. Eating disorders are common and
obesity is an increasing topic for discussion. The media shows images of
tall and increasingly slim models while statistics indicate that the average
person is gaining weight over time. Dictionaries state that being skinny is a
negative term describing a person that is too thin and who needs to eat
more (Cambridge Dictionary 2011). At the same time, people around the
world dream about becoming slimmer. With a Cognitive Linguistic
approach and a modern corpus driven method this essay will operationalise
the concept of body shape. It will aim to go beyond both the media and
statistics in order to illustrate the actual opinions and thoughts of individual
people. In the process of doing this, different dialects and their cultures will
be discussed and dictionary meanings will be questioned and set in relation
to speakers’ actual conceptualisation of body related linguistic terms.

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