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In:Style as Motivated Choice: In memory of Peter Verdonk (1934–2021)
Edited by Michael Burke and Joanna Gavins
[Linguistic Approaches to Literature 44] 2025
► pp. 159–180

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Chapter 10
Bob Dylan’s world of words

Beginning to map the linguistic terrain

 | University of Amsterdam
Published online: 8 May 2025
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https://doi.org/10.1075/lal.44.10ste
Abstract
This chapter asks how Bob Dylan’s lyrics can be analysed as motivated style. It examines the output of Wmatrix for six of Dylan’s most appreciated albums across four decades, taking a close look at quantitative patterns of overuse of semantic fields in comparison with a small reference corpus of American English. Findings are discussed in terms of similarities and differences between Dylan’s lyrics and published written general American English, both between the two sets of data as a whole and for each album by itself. Questions about motivated style are addressed against the background of general language patterns, register, and style. In this way, the chapter offers a specific picture of how stylistic analysis of Bob Dylan’s world of words can be made more precise in future stylistic research.
Article outline
  • Peter and Bob, bien étonnés de se trouver ensemble
  • Overall approach
  • Variation in semantic fields: Register and genre
  • From variation to change
  • Style as motivated choice
  • References
References (14)
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