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Abstract

This dissertation’s aim is to assess the language use of two television genres within the American dark comedy series Kevin Can F**k Himself. Using the analytical framework of Conversation Analysis on transcripts of dialogue, I will investigate both linguistic feature similarities between the genres, as well as differences that constitute ‘typical’ language of the genre. Three types of language feature will be extracted from the texts: phonological, interactional, and lexical. Additionally, I will assess the naturalness of both dialogues in comparison to how language is generally used in natural conversation.
It will be proposed that there are distinguishable differences in the language of the genres that are due to both sociolinguistic and contextual reasons, and that these differences are genre specific. This research outlines the benefits to applying Conversation Analysis methods to fictional texts, as well as situating itself in the wider discourse around the significance of fictional dialogue as a source of language analysis in a sociolinguistic context.

Course: English Language and Linguistics - BA - C2742S

Date Deposited: 2022-08-01

URI/permalink: https://library.port.ac.uk/dissert/dis13948.html