This paper presents the first entirely linguistic typology of contemporary American television, derived from a
multi-dimensional (MD) analysis of the USTV corpus. The USTV corpus comprises 930 texts from 191 different TV programs, classified into 31
different registers (including nine telecinematic ones: drama series, miniseries, movies, sitcoms, soap operas, general animation,
children’s animation, short-feature animation, and children’s and teens’ shows). The linguistic typology we present in this study is based
on the linguistic characteristics present in the individual programs, with no a priori textual categorizations. A cluster
analysis grouped the individual programs into clusters that shared similar dimensional profiles. The resulting typology comprises nine
different text types – namely Presentation of information, Opinion and discussion, Analysis and debate, Description, Interactive recount,
Engaging demonstration, Playful discourse, Simplified interaction, and Simulated conversation. The paper discusses and illustrates each text
type and considers how telecinematic discourse relates to each of them.
He earned his PhD at the University of Chicago (1965) specializing in philosophy of science, BD and MA from the University of Chicago (1961) specializing in history of religions and logic, respectively, and BA from Western Reserve University (1957) specializing in history, philosophy, and religion.He has published 26 books and over 115 refereed articles and founded or co-founded 7 scholarly journals.
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