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Lexical Competition and Change: A Corpus-Assisted Investigation of Gambling and Gaming in the Past Centuries

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  • Longxing Li
  • Chu-Ren Huang
  • Vincent Xian Wang

Abstract

This article investigates the interplay of lexical competition and socio-historical events through a close examination of the use of gambling and gaming based on large-scale synchronic and diachronic corpora. We first set the background for comparison through a synchronic study of the collocational patterns and grammatical relations of the two words using Sketch Engine. We show that gambling tends to be associated with negatively perceived activities and strong disapproval, whereas gaming tends to collocate with recreational activities, business, and technology. Using Google Books Ngram Viewer, we focus on the drastic diachronic changes in use of the two words, from competition to co-development. Based on corpora trends, we correlate the rise and fall of the two words and the change in their competition relation to particular socio-historical events: gold rushes, sports betting, the popularity of video games, and the gaming industry boom. The classical competition model of near synonyms remained valid until recent socio-economic events introduced additional and unique meanings for both words. The article thus shows that linguistic variations as collective human behavior changes can be leveraged to evidence other collective human behavior changes.

Suggested Citation

  • Longxing Li & Chu-Ren Huang & Vincent Xian Wang, 2020. "Lexical Competition and Change: A Corpus-Assisted Investigation of Gambling and Gaming in the Past Centuries," SAGE Open, , vol. 10(3), pages 21582440209, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:sagope:v:10:y:2020:i:3:p:2158244020951272
    DOI: 10.1177/2158244020951272
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Jean M. Twenge & Hannah VanLandingham & W. Keith Campbell, 2017. "The Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television: Increases in the Use of Swear Words in American Books, 1950-2008," SAGE Open, , vol. 7(3), pages 21582440177, August.
    2. John Forster, 2016. "Global sports governance and corruption," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 2(1), pages 1-4, December.
    3. repec:pal:palcom:v:2016:y:2016:i:palcomms201548:p:15048- is not listed on IDEAS
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    Cited by:

    1. Muchamad Sholakhuddin Al Fajri & Victoria Okwar, 2020. "Exploring a Diachronic Change in the Use of English Relative Clauses: A Corpus-Based Study and Its Implication for Pedagogy," SAGE Open, , vol. 10(4), pages 21582440209, November.
    2. Chu-Ren Huang & Sicong Dong & Yike Yang & He Ren, 2021. "From language to meteorology: kinesis in weather events and weather verbs across Sinitic languages," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 8(1), pages 1-13, December.
    3. Qi Su & Pengyuan Liu & Wei Wei & Shucheng Zhu & Chu-Ren Huang, 2021. "Occupational gender segregation and gendered language in a language without gender: trends, variations, implications for social development in China," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 8(1), pages 1-10, December.

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