A diachronic perspective on telecinematic language

Abstract Previous corpus-based studies, which have mostly focused on a particular film or series, have identified various key characteristics of telecinematic language. However, a restriction on those results applies as regards the stability of findings across time and across individual productions. To address this gap, and following calls for more nuanced perspectives on telecinematic language as a whole, this study re-assesses a number of claims pertaining to lexical and lexicogrammatical aspects through a diachronic lens. To this end, it uses the Northern American sections of the new Movie and TV Corpora, multi-million word corpora compiled from subtitles of a wide range of film and series genres in the English-speaking world from the 20th and 21st century. Overall, the diachronic view of the data is suggestive of a highly complex nature of telecinematic language, with levels of emotionality and informality increasing over time for most items tested.