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Linguistic complexity of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series
Gottwald, Michal ; Malá, Markéta (advisor) ; Jančovičová, Ivana (referee)
This bachelor thesis examines the language complexity in the initial and final volumes of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, testing the hypothesis that the novels' linguistic features, impacting readability, are adjusted to the intended readers' evolving comprehension and reading skills. As the series progresses, the complexity is expected to increase, reflecting the maturation of its audience. The research investigates whether the series' later novels are syntactically and lexically more complex than the earlier ones, with the help of employing corpus stylistic methodology. The theoretical part of this thesis outlines the definition of linguistic complexity and its relation to readability and discusses various methods of analyzing literature from a linguistic perspective. The complexity is measured using various criteria: the number of tokens, types, chapters, sentences, the extent and types of clausal subordination and non-finite clauses. Sentence length and type-token ratio are also considered. The methods include frequency lists and keyword analysis, complemented by a detailed examination of text samples. KEYWORDS complexity, children's literature, sentence structure
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