Hesselbach R (2024)
Publication Language: English
Publication Type: Book chapter / Article in edited volumes
Publication year: 2024
Publisher: HeiUP
Edited Volumes: Digital Stylistics in Romance Studies and Beyond
City/Town: Heidelberg
Pages Range: 235-259
ISBN: 978-3-96822-201-1
URI: https://heiup.uni-heidelberg.de/catalog/book/1157/chapter/19374
DOI: 10.17885/heiup.1157.c19374
The purpose of this article is to explore the ways in which the analysis of the syntactic complexity of a text’s sentences can help distinguish between works belonging to different literary subgenres written by the same author. Based on the considerations of an earlier study (Hesselbach 2019), syntactic complexity is understood here as an array of qualitative as well as quantitative features. Applying this method to a corpus of two contemporary French authors and their novels (1979–2002), comprising both crime fiction (roman policier)
and ‘high literature’ (littérature blanche), the results of this study show that syntactic complexity has very little influence on genre distinction, at least for the two subgenres examined. In fact, a very stable distribution of results can be observed in both qualitative and quantitative terms. Furthermore, the evidence suggests that the degree of syntactic complexity is more likely to appear as an author-related characteristic.
APA:
Hesselbach, R. (2024). Investigating the Relation between Syntactic Complexity and Subgenre Distinction - A Case Study on Two Contemporary French Authors. In Hesselbach R, Calvo Tello J, Henny-Krahmer U, Schöch C, Schlör D (Eds.), Digital Stylistics in Romance Studies and Beyond. (pp. 235-259). Heidelberg: HeiUP.
MLA:
Hesselbach, Robert. "Investigating the Relation between Syntactic Complexity and Subgenre Distinction - A Case Study on Two Contemporary French Authors." Digital Stylistics in Romance Studies and Beyond. Ed. Hesselbach R, Calvo Tello J, Henny-Krahmer U, Schöch C, Schlör D, Heidelberg: HeiUP, 2024. 235-259.
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