Tibetan Buddhist English: a corpus approach to the Tibetan Buddhist genre of shastra within the Kagyu Shedra curriculum

Frye, Ingrid Jessica (2022) Tibetan Buddhist English: a corpus approach to the Tibetan Buddhist genre of shastra within the Kagyu Shedra curriculum. Doctoral thesis (PhD), Manchester Metropolitan University.

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Abstract

Against the backdrop of the argument of the incomprehensibility of Buddhist English language to non-specialist audiences due to the high frequency of Sanskrit loanwords and unexplained terminology and a general lack of data-driven, empirical research on the use of Buddhist English beyond Buddhology and translation studies, this thesis investigates the following research questions: (1) What are pervasive linguistic features of the genre shastra in Tibetan Buddhist English? (2) Based on question 1, what are the characteristics of such linguistic features? (3) What is the link between such linguistic features and their situational context of Tibetan Buddhist shastras? (4) How do the linguistic features of Tibetan Buddhist shastras compare to other written registers? Compilation and frequency-based analysis of a small specialised corpus of Tibetan Buddhist Shastras (commentaries) identified four typical linguistic features: lexical closure, low type-token ratio (TTR), frequent use of the indefinite pronoun one and the frequent use of Sanskrit loanwords. Analysis was carried out following Biber and Conrad’s (2013) framework for register analysis, comprising situational, linguistic and functional analyses. Lexical closure properties in the corpus provided a reliability measure for the findings of the study. Together with a low frequency of personal pronouns and a high frequency of the generic pronoun one, they aligned with characteristics of general and academic written registers. Existing characteristics of written registers have been challenged for their disassociation of high TTR and the use of the specific pronoun one, which in Buddhist English were found to be features of written register, indicative of the frequent repetition of titles and headings and frequent anaphoric referencing to aid the Buddhist practice of memorisation. The high frequency of loanwords proved to align with the claim of incomprehensibility of Buddhist language for a non-specialist audience, yet the relationship between situational and linguistic analysis indicated that such shortcomings of Buddhist English are mitigated through the common Buddhist practice of textual study as part of so-called “Shedras in the West”. Contributions include the provision of empirical data on the under-investigated register of Buddhist English Shastras, and to register classifications of written and academic registers. Methodological contributions were made through provision of a first-ever corpus-based study of Buddhist English, thereby testing the validity of established corpus approaches in a small specialised context. Theoretical contributions included an evaluation of Biber’s multidimensional analysis framework (1988, 2007), calling for an extension of the existing frameworks to account for the deviations in the findings based on the Buddhist English register shastra. Furthermore, the study provides a template for the calculation of lexical closure as a measure for representativeness in small corpora. Additional contributions are made by illustrating the pedagogic application of corpus data in the classroom by means of sample classroom tasks.