A Corpus-Based Analysis of William Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale

Abstract

This study was a corpus-based analysis of William Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale. A corpus based on the original text of the play was built for analysis. Then, a program called AntConc was used to acquire the top 200 frequency words from the corpus. Finally, five of the most frequently occurring content words were manually selected to analyze their relationship with the main characters or the content/implications of the play. The results obtained via the AntConc program showed that (1) lord appeared 89 times in the corpus and ranked 50th among the top 200 frequency words. It has the power and implication of making people forget their original intention and self, deceiving people, and causing people to forget how to cherish the people around them. (2) Shepherd occurred 65 times and ranked 68th. It symbolizes the idea of hope. (3) Daughter appeared 34 times and 125th. It assumes a crucial role throughout the whole play and makes the story go smoothly. (4) Honour occurred 34 times and ranked 126th. It represents the transformation of danger into safety. (5) Beseech appeared 18 times and ranked 198th. It can be understood as turning bad results into good results.