LINGUISTIC VARIATION OF ENGLISH COGNITIVE VERBS

Анотація

The objective of this paper is to follow the linguistic change of English cognitive verbs overtime, their
variation across dialects, genres, registers, as well as gender related usage preferences. The data for the study
of the linguistic variation has been taken from the BYU corpora (GloWbE, COCA, COHA, BNC, CORE)
and MICASE. Leveraging both corpus-based and corpus-driven approaches enabled addressing the problem
comprehensively and identifying salient (socio)linguistic variables within the class. The distribution of the
top English cognitive verbs across dialects, genres, registers and their overtime change suggest that linguistic
variation is highly typical of the verbs under analysis and follows distinctive patterns requiring deeper scrutiny.
The tendency towards more abstract senses, deviation from grammatical norms and domain-specifi c usage
uncovers hidden semantic processes triggered by the external factors. The fi ndings can benefi t the study of
linguistic variation in general and be used by lexicographers and language instructors.
Keywords: linguistic variation, language change, language variety, linguistic variable, corpus.