Exploring the ‘language of intimacy’ in English and French romance novels by means of a corpus-driven approach

Abstract Subgenres of the novel have traditionally been defined first and foremost in terms of their content. Yet, in addition to revisiting themes, settings, plot patterns and character constellations, popular fiction — i.e. genres such as fantasy, science fiction and romance novels — in particular also tends to feature recurring linguistic patterns. These can be revealed by a corpus-driven approach that identifies statistically significant recurring lexico-syntactic constructions, which give rise to phraseological motifs. This article exemplifies what corpus-driven approaches can contribute to genre theory by drawing upon corpora of English and French romance fiction. A corpus-driven approach makes it possible to identify characteristics of a genre-specific ‘language of intimacy’ as well as stylistic differences between English and French romance novels.