MAS: The Mysterious Affair at Styles (Christie, 1920) MOE: Murder on the Orient Express (Christie, 1934) HPC: Hercule Poirot's Christmas (Christie, 1938) TAF: Taken at the Flood (Christie, 1948) ECR: Elephants Can Remember (Christie, 1972) MAV: The Murder at the Vicarage (Christie, 1930) BIL: The Body in the Library (Christie, 1942) TMF: The Moving Finger (Christie, 1943) FPA: 4.50 from Paddington (Christie, 1957) ABH: At Bertram's (Christie,1965) As Stockwell (2011, p. 10) notes, “any stylistic analysis of readable length cannot possibly be exhaustive”, which is why it is necessary to select which parts and aspects of the texts are to be analysed. Consequently, the analysis of characterisation will be narrowed down to examining the lexical level of language, with a focus on the semantic fields that appear in each corpus, and the schemata they trigger. The grammatical level of language will also be of used in order to explain certain structures that convey specific meaning. In addition, inspired by Mahlberg and McIntyre’s (2011, p. 4) statement that “keywords can be analysed into categories that are provided by a specific theory”, this study will take a starting point in the concepts that have been mentioned throughout the theory chapter as being associated to masculinity and femininity. Accordingly, the following list provides an overview of such concepts. Women related Men related Concepts Asexual Beauty Curiosity Dependence Devotion Femininity Goodness Human nature Ignorance Innocence Insecurity Intuition Maternity Morality Passiveness Patience Piety Purity Sacrifice Shyness Weakness Activeness Adventurousness Aggression Braveness Competition Confidence Double moral standards Emotional toughness Intelligence Knowledge Logic Masculinity Ownership Persistence Protection Science Self-reliance Sexual Strength Success Unemotional War
Spheres Church Hospital House Library School Village stores Bank Men’s stores Outside areas Transportation Work place Action And Speech Domestic skills Feel Hear-overhear related work House-to-house visits Idle See / look / watch Talk / chat Voluntary work Work Language use: rapport, questions, use of modality, affective use of tag questions, politeness Deduce Fight Interrupt Investigate / Analyse Observe Say Sports Think Work for money Language use: report, formal, interruptions, modal use of question tags. Characters Angel / virgin - Miss Lady Lesbian Nurse Office Prostitute Spinster Teacher / governess Wife / mother - Mrs Witch / wicked Writer Detectives: young, attractive, single, women using their immense knowledge of the domestic sphere and social world; vs elderly, often amateur using knowledge of the domestic sphere and knowledge of the human nature. 1st person point of view Breadwinner Doer Fighter Gentleman Hero Mr Police officer Soldier Worker Detectives: isolated, individualistic bachelor, Classical detective vs detective, “confident British middle-class hero in the old mould” vs “garrulous and full of badinage and banalities”
Marple has not been mentioned in connection to other countries. This supports the initial claim based on the keyword search that the PC has an element of internationality. PC MC Freq Country Freq Country 41,02 38,09 10,74 10,74 9,77 7,81 6,84 4,88 3,91 3,91 2,93 2,93 2,93 2,93 1,95 1,95 1,95 0,98 0,98 0,98 Africa India Spain Switzerland Egypt (united) states France (*0,98) Nigeria Ireland Syria (*3,91) Canada Germany Belgium (*1,95) Hong Kong Russia Singapore Bermuda Iraq 25,70 14,83 11,86 10,87 2,97 2,97 1,98 1,98 1,98 0,99 0,99 0,99 0,99 0,99 0,99 France Italy Switzerland Ireland India Jamaica Africa Greece (United) states Belgium Bermuda Germany Kenya Morocco Portugal
0,98 0,98 0,98 0,98 Cambridge Madrid Seville Trieste 0,99 0,99 0,99 0,99 0,99 0,99 0,99 0,99 Cambridge Cardiff Newport Norwich Nottingham Rome Verona Wolverhampton The following tables expressed in normalised frequency illustrate the results provided by an examination of the means of transport and travel related vocabulary used both in the corpora in general, and in connection to the detectives in particular. Although both corpora include a vast number of references to the searched items, there is a relevant difference in the number of associations between transportation and Poirot and Miss Marple. This difference agrees with the results discussed regarding cities and countries: as opposed to Miss Marple, Poirot appears to be a man of the world. PC MC Freq Transport Freq Transport 199,25 103,53 42,00 42,97 13,67 13,67 13,67 12,70 11,72 Train(*37,11) Car(*38,09) Wagon Carriage(*6,84) Drive(*0,98) Journey(*3,91) Plane(*0,98) Road(*2,93) Boat(*0,98) 212,51 149,25 62,27 43,49 29,65 19,77 13,84 11,86 10,87 Car(*15,81) Road Taxi(*4,94) Drive(*0,99) Railway Plane Travel Journey(*0,99)
11,72 Travel(*0,98) 5,93 5,93 Cruise Wagon Private Sphere The result tables for places in town and for parts of a building do not show a striking difference between the two corpora, except for the fact that there appears to be a connection between Poirot and men’s places (club, office, and garage). PC MC Freq Places Freq Places 248,08 165,06 38,09 38,09 34,18 34,18 32,23 25,39 22,46 16,60 14,65 12,70 11,72 11,72 10,74 9,77 Home(*2,93) School Station(*7,81) Hospital Restaurant(*13,67) Garden(*1,95) Farm Shop Club(*0,98) Yard Cottage(*5,86) Bar Market(*1,95) Church Prison 304,44 182,86 172,97 76,11 70,18 66,22 41,51 38,55 36,57 36,57 31,63 23,72 21,75 21,75 19,77 15,81 House(*0,99) Hotel(*9,88) Home(*2,97) Garden(*21,75) Vicarage(*0,99) Station(*1,98) Barn School Church(*0,99) Cottage(*0,99) Yard Bridge(*1,98) Park(*0,99) Shop(*2,97) Bank Club(*0,99)
19,53 12,70 10,74 7,81 4,88 4,88 4,88 3,91 2,93 2,93 2,93 1,95 1,95 0,98 0,98 0,98 0,98 0,981 Office(*0,98) Kitchen(*0,98) Pantry Nursery Attic Library(*0,98) Lounge(*2,93) Garage(*1,95) Ballroom(*1,95) Basement Sitting room Bathroom Showroom Assembly Chamber Porch(*0,98) Salon(*0,98) Cabin 8,90 3,95 1,98 1,98 1,98 0,99 0,99 0,99 Bus(*3,95) Bedroom(*0,99) Nursery Bathroom Ballroom Suite(*0,99) Loft Porch Showroom Assembly Conservatory Parlor **This result includes every two-word room (for instance sitting room) as well as just the concept ´room´. 3.2. Dichotomous Traits and Characterisation 3.2.1. Miss and Mr: titles used in the corpora A keyword search in both corpora having each other as reference corpus places both ´poirot´ and ´marple´ at the top of the lists. This is not surprising, taking into account that they are the main characters in the novels. However, what is worth considering is their keyness value since the keyness 9 1 6 3
Heidelberg Middlesbrough Blackpool Oulu Rybnik Reggio Emilia Darmstadt Arnhem Heraklion Newport Rijeka Bolton Baia Mare Ipswich Breda Telford Salerno York Peristeri Clermont-Ferrand West Bromwich Apeldoorn Badajoz Peterborough Cádiz Stockport Leon Amiens Ravenna Brighton Aix-en-Provence Limoges Würzburg Nîmes Tours Buz?u Tychy Saint-Denis Jyväskylä Górnicza Ferrara Enschede Larissa Regensburg Šiauliai Uppsala Gy?r Wa?brzych P?ock Elbl?g Slough Gorzów Wielkopolski Amersfoort Villeurbanne Metz Siracusa Gloucester Göttingen Recklinghausen Heilbronn Aalborg Ingolstadt Wolfsburg Watford Sassari Ulm W?oc?awek Monza Offenbach am Main Cork Bottrop Maribor Santa Coloma de Gramenet Pforzheim Latina Dordrecht Pleven Mataró Zielona Góra Tarnów Leiden Innsbruck Besançon Maastricht Bruges Rotherham Tarragona Zoetermeer Bremerhaven Pescara Nyíregyháza Boto?ani Marbella Remscheid Panev?žys Chorzów Lleida Caen Cambridge Fürth Bergamo Orléans Jaén Satu Mare Reutlingen Daugavpils Râmnicu Vâlcea Zwolle Mulhouse Ourense Kalisz Forlì Salzgitter Koszalin Moers Piatra Neam? Vicenza Västerås Suceava Exeter Namur Kallithea Algeciras Rouen Eastbourne Drobeta-Turnu Severin