Keywords in Er Ma
摘要
This chapter identifies and categorizes keywords relevant to Er Ma’s two pre-identified themes using corpus linguistic methods. It generates keyword lists by comparing Er Ma with two reference corpora, ensuring keyword specificity to the novel. Using Johnson’s classification model, keywords are categorized into participants, circumstances, abstract concerns, and verbal groups. The chapter selects seven “Chinese Keywords” representing contrasting Chinese protagonists and two general Chinese terms, plus six “British Keywords” representing contrasting British characters and general British references. These theme-related keywords establish the foundation for analyzing translator functional styles in subsequent chapters, bridging linguistic forms with literary functions through corpus stylistic analysis.