The power of imagination in Roald Dahl´s and Mark Twain´s works

GRADO EN ESTUDIOS INGLESES Curso académico 2023/2024 Título: The power of imagination in Roald Dahl´s and Mark Twain´s works. Alumno/a: Claudia López Jiménez Firmado:_____ ______________________ Tutor/a: Teresa López Soto Firmado: ______________________________________ Código Seguro De Verificación 1WV8Vy+/Vz0ntK0HdRe3Sw== Fecha 12/05/2024 Firmado Por MARIA TERESA LOPEZ SOTO Url De Verificación https://pfirma.us.es/verifirma/code/1WV8Vy%2B%2FVz0ntK0HdRe3Sw%3D%3D Página 1/1 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................... 6 1.1 Roald Dahl ............................................................................................. 8 1.2 Mark Twain .......................................................................................... 11 2. OBJECTIVES AND HYPOTHESIS ......................................................... 14 2.1 Objectives ............................................................................................ 14 2.2 Hypothesis ........................................................................................... 16 3. MATERIALS AND METHODS ................................................................ 16 3.1 Materials .............................................................................................. 16 3.2 Methods ............................................................................................... 20 4. RESULTS ................................................................................................ 21 4.1 Descriptive statistics ............................................................................ 21 4.2 Concordance ....................................................................................... 23 4.3 Interferential statistics .......................................................................... 29 5. DISCUSSION .......................................................................................... 30 6. CONCLUSION ........................................................................................ 33 7. REFERENCES ........................................................................................ 34 3 INDEX OF TABLES Table 1. Semantic Categories, lexical terms and their absolute frequency present in Corpus 1. ....................................................................................................... 17 Table 2 Semantic Categories, lexical terms and their absolute frequency present in Corpus 2. ....................................................................................................... 18 Table 3 Lexical neighbourhood for “boy” across both corpora ......................... 23 Table 4 Lexical neighbourhood for “home” across both corpora ...................... 24 Table 5 Lexical neighbourhood for “street” across both corpora ...................... 25 Table 6 Lexical neighbourhood for “green” across both corpora ...................... 25 Table 7 Lexical neighbourhood for “book” across both corpora ....................... 26 4 INDEX OF FIGURES Figure 1 The magic garden of Mr. Wonka's factory in Tim Burton's film “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, 2005 ..................................................................... 10 Figure 2 Histogram comparing the absolute frequency of each semantic category in both corpora .................................................................................................. 21 Figure 3 Histogram presenting percentage in both corpora ............................. 22 Figure 4 Concordance plot in the word “boy” from the semantic category Childhood from Corpus A .................................................................................. 26 Figure 5 Concordance plot in the word “boy” from the semantic category Childhood from Corpus B .................................................................................. 27 Figure 6 Concordance plot in the word “home” from the semantic category Family from Corpus A ................................................................................................... 27 Figure 7 Concordance plot in the word “home” from the semantic category Family from Corpus B ................................................................................................... 27 Figure 8 Concordance plot in the word “book” from the semantic category Utensil from Corpus A ................................................................................................... 27 Figure 9 Concordance plot in the word “book” from the semantic category Utensil from Corpus B ................................................................................................... 28 Figure 10 Concordance plot in the word “father” from the semantic category Family from Corpus A ....................................................................................... 28 Figure 11 Concordance plot in the word “little” from the semantic category Childhood from Corpus A .................................................................................. 29 Figure 12 Scatter plot presenting the correlation between both corpora. ........ 29 5 Abstract Roald Dahl and Mark Twain are known for being important childish writers. Both make use of the imagination in their most important works. However, it is highlighted the fact that their imagination is different, due to it, they have different types of readers. Through this Corpus linguistics, one will try to analyse their novels in order to demonstrate the hypothesis. Furthermore, one will need some tools that will help us to demonstrate it. Finally, a section called Discussion will be created in order to explain all these tools ant their importance in this Corpus Linguistic. Resumen Roald Dahl y Mark Twain son conocidos por ser importantes escritores infantiles. Ambos hacen uso de la imaginación en sus obras más importantes. Sin embargo, se destaca el hecho de que su imaginación es diferente, debido a ello, tienen diferentes tipos de lectores. A través de este Corpus lingüístico, se intentará analizar sus novelas para demostrar la hipótesis. Además, se necesitarán algunas herramientas que nos ayuden a demostrarla. Por último, se creará una sección llamada Discusión para explicar todas estas herramientas y su importancia en este Corpus Lingüístico. Keywords: Imagination, childhood, family, realism, fantasy. Palabras Clave: Imaginación, infancia, familia, realismo, fantasía. 6 1. INTRODUCTION In this work, an analysis of corpus linguistics through some of the best-known works of the writers Roald Dahl (1916-1990) and Mark Twain (1835-1910) will be made. In order to carry out this analysis, an objective study method such as corpus linguistics is used so that the words are able to tell how the universe of these two famous writers is configured. All this analysis is carried out with the aim of conducting a study on the vision of the imagination of two writers who have traditionally been compared by the imaginative works they create. Roald Dahl and Mark Twain stand as significant figures in children's literature. Both authors are revered for their imaginative prowess, though Dahl is noted for his fantastical imagination while Twain leans more towards realism. In this study, the objective is to delineate the imaginative realms of both writers and conduct a thorough analysis of their distinct styles. Although their shared objective is to captivate young audiences, individual preferences may sway towards one over the other. Before beginning an investigation into the imagination of both writers, one must ask: what is imagination? This word is defined by Merriam-Webster as “The act or power of forming a mental image of something not present to the senses or never before wholly perceived in reality”. If it had not been for the use of imagination carried out by many famous inventors, many elements we know today would not exist. Inventors such as Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, and John Logie Baird gave society such important inventions as the light bulb, telephone, and television through the use of imagination. Imagination is something that is on everyone’s mind, but each person has a certain level of imagination. For example, Squire et al. (1) recently asserted that “patients with bilateral hippocampal damage can have difficulties imagining future experiences.” (Maguire, 2011, 1). Despite the highlighted differences in imagination between Dahl and Twain, both share a common goal: to engage a wide audience through storytelling. This study aims to shed some light on how imagination is portrayed by looking into the lexical terms used with a quantitative perspective in mind. 7 Continuing with important terminology to bear in mind, one would like to emphasize visualization as being one of the main characteristics of imagination, defined by Merriam-Webster's dictionary as “the act or process of interpreting in visual terms or of putting into visible form”. From a neuroscience point of view, visualization is equivalent to actual visual stimulation, i.e., the same brain pathways are activated in the brain when we see an object as when we visualize it in our mind. This aspect is important, as the study has taken this objectification into account when designing the materials for the study, as seen in the corresponding section below. The main aim of this paper is none other than to analyse and explore the different types of imagination employed by the writers Roald Dahl and Mark Twain in their different novels. Through this analysis and exploration, one seeks to understand how these authors use imagination as a narrative tool to create fictional worlds, develop characters and convey the different messages of their novels. Finally, the aim is to understand how, depending on the social, cultural and personal context of each writer, they have written in one way or another and have highlighted some aspects or others in their books. The hypothesis put forward is that Roald Dahl and Mark Twain use different types of imagination in their literary works, influenced by their social, cultural and personal contexts. It is expected that this analysis will show major differences in the way Dahl and Twain create characters, stories and literary worlds. Furthermore, the idea is put forward that the visualisation used to transcend such imagination is completely the opposite between these two writers, although there are still some similarities in the message they convey, which is that of an escape from reality. Thus, the following research question is posed: in what ways do Roald Dahl and Mark Twain use imagination in their novels to bring their fictional worlds to life and develop their characters? What are the key differences in the two authors' approaches to narrative imagination and how do these differences reflect their respective historical, cultural and philosophical contexts? 8 1.1 Roald Dahl Roald Dahl is one of the best-known children's writers of all time. This writer lived in the 20th century and is known for his ability to transport both children and adults to fantastic worlds, in which the great use of imagination is highlighted. According to Tumer (2009) “in Dahl books is always a child who is capable of doing things that seem impossible.” (14). With great ingenuity, Dahl wove stories that have touched generations over the years. His literary library ranges from twisted fairy tales to unforgettable adventure stories, always with great use of imagination. This study will explore Dahl's distinctive use of imagination in his works, showing how his fantastic narratives and his ability to challenge literary conventions have left an undeniable mark on the literary landscape for both children and adults. In order to better understand the nature of Dahl, there will first be a short introduction to his life, as well as short excerpts from some of his most famous and well-known novels and short quotations from some authors talking about him. Roald Dahl was a British author who was born in 1916 and is well known for his captivating storytelling and vivid imagination. Dahl's childhood experiences influenced his writing. He attended boarding school, where he endured both disciplinary measures and adjustment challenges, shaping his perspectives on authority and rebellion, evident in his later works. Dahl started his career in the aviation industry during World War II, where he served as a fighter pilot. His experiences as a pilot and his subsequent injuries informed his later stories of adventure and resilience. This fact is supposed to be one of the main reasons for his imagination, his first narration is proof of that: Over to You: 10 Stories of Flyers and Flying (1946), in which he describes the horrors of the war. 9 When he formed a family, he suffered many misfortunes: His daughter Olivia died, his wife suffered a serious disease, and his son Theo suffered an accident with many sequels. For that reason, the imagination was an escape route for Dahl, who appealed to the magical places invented by him in order to escape reality. Despite all the misadventures in his life, this escape route allowed him to get by and write his famous novels. He is considered an adult who understands children’s problems, as when he was a child, he had many misfortunes, too. The main themes of Dahl’s children’s books embrace magic, miracle, loneliness, death and fear – the themes that are close to children’s minds, their lively imagination, their feelings, their worries, fears and dreads. And Dahl also respects the rule that all children’s books should end up happily. (Klúgova, 2007, 20) Some of the most outstanding examples of Dahl's great use of imagination are none other than some of his most famous titles: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964), Matilda (1988) and James and the Giant Peach (1961). These titles coincide with Dahl's exceptional use of imagination and creativity. His imaginative narratives often blended different elements of fantasy, creating worlds that were both enchanting and slightly threatening. Dahl had an uncanny ability to tap into the fears and desires of children, creating characters and situations that deeply resonated with his audience. According to Burger (2002, 2) Dahl’s books are inspired by folklore, as in them, one can observe the apparitions of giants, witches, talking animals and magic features. The images of Dahl's stories depicted in the visual arts, particularly in film, show a great use of colour, highlighting vivid colours, grandiose shapes and movements. This can be seen in many of the most famous films based on his novels, such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), for example. 16 2.2 Hypothesis Although both writers have been considered writers for children and have the same intention when writing, it is highlighted that Dahl has a different type of imagination than Twain in his novels, as in Dahl’s works one can find a fantastic imagination. This type of imagination is not found in Twain’s works, as in them the imagination is more realistic than in Dahl's novels. For that reason, this hypothesis assumes that in Corpus A we will find more fantastic terms than in Corpus B. On the contrary, Corpus B will appear in more realistic terms. 3. MATERIALS AND METHODS 3.1 Materials In order to carry out this study on these two famous writers, an exhaustive research and collection of different novels by Dahl and Twain has been carried out and after this, different types of key terminology have been extracted from the novels in order to create different lists with different semantic categories that are able to demonstrate the proposed thesis. In order to demonstrate this hypothesis, two Corpora have been created. On the one hand, Corpus 1 belongs to Roald Dahl’s most famous novels: Matilda (1988), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964) and James and the Giant Peach (1961). The total number of word tokens in this corpus is 106502 and of word types is 9654. The distribution of the first corpus is: 𝑥"=884.33; SD= 661,09; max=2277; min= 99. In this corpus there are nine semantic categories: Childhood, family, adult, place, flora, fauna, colour, utensil and fantasy. According to this explanation, a table with the different semantic categories, their lexical terms and their absolute frequency is presented. Through these semantic categories, it will be easier to demonstrate the way of transmitting each of these authors. On the one hand, Dahl makes use of an imagination through colour. On the other hand, Twain makes use of more realistic imagination. 17 Table 1. Semantic Categories, lexical terms and their absolute frequency present in Corpus 1. SEMANTIC CATEGORIES ABSOLUTE FREQUENCY LEXICAL TERMS Childhood 2277 Matilda, Charlie, James, little, boy*, child*, Mike, Veruca, Beauregarde, Violet, Willy, Wonka, grown, Sweet*, Girl, sugar, Amanda, playground, Augustus Family 1060 Father, grandpa, children, aunt, house, mother, home, parents, grandma, love, dad*, son, family, daughter, brother, wife, husband, Wormwood Adult 1501 Wonka, old, grandpa. father*, mother, man*, Oompa, Loompa*, headmistress, parents, grandma, teacher, Willy, woman*, Josephine, George, Georgina, Rupert, Henry, Fred Place 865 Room, house, factory, school, home, river, tunnel, bar, garden Village, street*, country, hill, Corridor, classroom, city, walls, road, cottage, land, ocean, roof, somewhere, town, England Flora 484 Wormwood, hortensia, tree, stem, tea, beans, cacao, grass, blueberry, leaves, peach, fruit, lavender Fauna 736 Earthworm, grasshopper, ladybird, spider, sponge, seagull, silkworm, shark, seagull, squirrel*, creature*, fish, parrot, penguin, pest, tail, centipede Colour 453 Green, white, black, red, brown, blue, pink, colour, grey, silver, purple, coloured, gold* 18 Utensil 484 Bucket, glass, television, car*, desk, chair, pipe, box, TV, book* Boat, newspaper Fantasy 99 Giant*, creature, extraordinary On the other hand, Corpus 2 belongs to Mark Twain's most famous novels: Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1878), The Prince and the Pauper (1881) Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) and Tom Sawyer Abroad (1894). The total number of word tokens in this corpus is 105090 and of word types is 8302. The distribution of this second corpus is: 𝑥!=542.4; SD= 492.94; max=1540; min= 67. In this corpus there are nine semantic categories: Childhood, family, adult, place, flora, fauna, colour, utensil and fantasy. According to this explanation, a table with the different semantic categories and their lexical terms and absolute frequency is presented. Table 2 Semantic Categories, lexical terms and their absolute frequency present in Corpus 2. SEMANTIC CATEGORIES ABSOLUTE FREQUENCY LEXICAL TERMS Childhood 1540 Tom, prince, boy*, Sawyer, Huck, Canty, Sid, Joe, child*, Ben, girl*, Huckleberry, Lady*, lad, John, Finn Miss, Becky, sweet, pauper Family 384 Father, home, house, widow, aunt, mother, son, couple, brother, family Mum, nan, uncle Adult 943 Jim, man*, King, Lord, Sir, nigger, Hendon, Mary, Lady, dervish, Polly, Thatcher, woman, Watson, Potter, servants, doctor, Edward Place 943 Place*, river, town, house, land, door, desert, England, island, woods, country, village, bank, church, city, hill, camp, London, Wales, palace, Illinois, room, bridge, 19 shore, lake, wall, ladder, ocean, street, houses, Missouri, cavern, sea, tower Flora 67 tree*, log, corn Fauna 259 Dog, camel*, bird*, lion, fish, animals, flea, horse, snake, cat, seal, bear, beetle Colour 250 Dark, white, black, gold, blue, red, rose fair, silver, crimson, green Utensil 385 Book*, clock, clothes, bed, glass, boat, knife, gun, ball, canoe, hat, thread, arm, blanket, candle, chair, map Fantasy 111 Believe*, spirit, whised, flew, roger, adventures, dreams A. Childhood: The terms that appear in this semantic category are linked with all the works, as in all of them the main characters are children. In this way, this semantic category is one of the most important in the study, as the main characters are children in all the novels that will be described. B. Family: This is an important semantic category, as this term has to do with the relationship between the children or their families and with the importance of them in all the works, as in all of them, the family presents a problem or on the contrary, a help to the main characters, that are children. In the majority of childish novels, the family is important in children's lives, although in a minority of novels, the family does not appear in it. C. Adult: This semantic category will be used to show that, like the previous semantic category, adults could show a problem or help the main characters, as they can be seen to protagonists as people who accompany them to solve their problems or, on the contrary, as people who provoke the problem that the child needs to solve. D. Place: The function of this semantic category is to demonstrate that in all these works, different places are named, as one of the main characteristics 20 of this type of work is the creation of different types of places in which the protagonist lives the adventures. E. Flora: The target of this semantic category is to show that during all the adventures that protagonists live in the story, the places in which they live are full of plants, another consequence of the high level of imagination of both writers. F. Fauna: The objective of this semantic category is to demonstrate that animals are very important in this type of novel, protagonists are in the majority of the cases related to all types of animals. G. Colour: This semantic category tries to provide that in childish novels the authors refer to many colors, as one of the main characteristics in this type of novels is the relationship between children and different and varied colors. H. Utensil: The purpose of this semantic category is to prove that in this type of novel, utensils are very important, as the characters use them to sort out the problems that present them. I. Fantasy: This semantic category intends to demonstrate the apparition of magic features in the works, as fantasy is one of the main results of imagination. 3.2 Methods In the first place, the different works of both writers have been selected from different web pages, although the most relevant is Project Gutenberg. To demonstrate this hypothesis, some programs have been used. In the first place, the works of each writer have been converted into a txt file and used in Antcont (v.3.5.7) (Anthony, 2010). Through this program, a "word list" has been created to know the frequency of these words and also to find the different terms of each semantic category represented before. The bigger the frequency, the more important this word was for Dahl and Twain. Afterward, "Concordance" has been used to find the place in which these words are collocated in the works. Due to this step, we can learn some different and important concepts for our investigation. 21 Finally, the tool "Concordance Plot" is used to know the repetition of these words during the work. Because of this step, we can know if a word is really important to understand the type of imagination of each writer. All of these steps would lead us to the results. 4. RESULTS 4.1 Descriptive statistics To show the results of the investigation, a histogram with the absolute frequency of each semantic category will be displayed. Figure 2 Histogram comparing the absolute frequency of each semantic category in both corpora As it can be observed, both corpora have the same semantic categories, this means that all the semantic categories of Corpus 1 will appear in Corpus 2. One can observe that the majority of the semantic categories are more important in Corpus 1 than in Corpus 2, as in the first corpus, absolute frequencies are higher than in the second one. For that reason, it is observed that only the semantic categories Place and Fantasy are more important in Corpus 2 than in Corpus 1, the rest of the categories show a higher frequency in Corpus 1 than in Corpus 2. 22 Furthermore, one can know that in Corpus A, the semantic category Childhood is more important than the semantic category Colour, this will also happen in Corpus B. Now, the section of Outliers in both Corpora will be described: In Corpus 1, one has the following dates: x p=884.33; SD= 661.09. According to it, if one adds both dates, this result will be obtained: 1545.42. In this way, in this first Corpus, there is only one outlier, the semantic category Childhood. Furthermore, if one subtracts both dates, this result will be obtained: 223. 24. In this way in this Corpus there is only one outlier, the semantic category Fantasy. In Corpus 2, one has the following dates: x p=542.4; SD= 492.94. If one adds both dates, the following result will be obtained: 1035.34. In this way, in this Corpus, there is also only one outlier: The semantic category Childhood. In the second place, if one subtracts both dates, one will obtain this result: 49.46. In this case, there is no outlier. To go on with the results, a comparison between percentages of the different semantic categories in Corpus 1 and Corpus 2 will be displayed isolated. Figure 3 Histogram presenting percentage in both corpora 23 As it can be observed, in this histogram there are many differences in comparison to the first one. For example, in this figure, the semantic categories Childhood and Utensil present a higher percentage in Corpus 2 than in Corpus 1. Furthermore, one has realized that the semantic category Fantasy has a very low percentage in Corpus 1. 4.2 Concordance In order to continue with the results, one is going to describe the lexical neighbourhood of the most important lexical terms of each semantic category to observe the relation between the different words of each corpus. Table 3 Lexical neighbourhood for “boy” across both corpora Left neighbours Sample Right neighbours Good 5 Roald Dahl Grandma 2 Good 4 Mark Twain Grandma 0 Year 4 Roald Dahl Little 0 Year 0 Mark Twain Little 3 First 0 Roald Dahl Feel 2 First 2 Mark Twain Feel 3 Model o Roald Dahl Father 2 Model 3 Mark Twain Father 1 New 1 Roald Dahl Trousers 3 New 5 Mark Twain Trousers 0 24 Time 2 Roald Dahl Heart 1 Time 2 Mark Twain Heart 3 Table 4 Lexical neighbourhood for “home” across both corpora Left neighbours Sample Right neighbours Child 5 Roald Dahl Honey 2 Child 0 Mark Twain Honey 0 House 2 Roald Dahl School 3 House 1 Mark Twain School 3 Take 6 Roald Dahl Aunt 1 Take 0 Mark Twain Aunt 1 Go 1 Roald Dahl Go 10 Mark Twain Stay 0 Roald Dahl Stay 3 Mark Twain 25 Table 5 Lexical neighbourhood for “street” across both corpora Left neighbours Sample Right neighbours Village 2 Roald Dahl Village 2 Village 0 Mark Twain Village 0 Down 0 Roald Dahl New York 2 Down 2 Mark Twain New York 0 Town 1 Roald Dahl Town 1 Mark Twain Table 6 Lexical neighbourhood for “green” across both corpora Left neighbours Sample Right neighbours Funny 2 Roald Dahl Ask 2 Funny 0 Mark Twain Ask 2 Smock 2 Roald Dahl Colour 2 Smock 0 Mark Twain Colour 0 Shout 7 Roald Dahl Peer 2 Shout 0 Mark Twain Peer 0 Cry 5 Roald Dahl Say 16 Cry 0 Mark Twain Say 0 32 than Dahl. According to Phelps (1907, 8), Twain's objective when describing a place was "purely and wholly artistic." The second word that has been analyzed is "home," linked with the semantic category Family. It can be observed that the lexical neighbors of this word are linked with the semantic categories Childhood and Family. In this case, it is observed that the majority of terms are more relevant in Corpus A than in Corpus B, because Dahl was a writer who not only wrote for children but also thought about them. He said in an interview: I have a great affinity with children. I see their problems. If you want to remember what it'slike to live in a child's world, you've got to get down on your hands and knees and live like that for a week. You find you have to look up at all these bloody giants around you who are always telling you what to do and what not to do […] So subconsciously in the child's mind these giants become the enemy […] When I wrote Matilda, I based it on this theory …"(Klúgova, 2007, 12) The third word analyzed is "street," linked with the semantic category Place. This term presents a higher frequency in Corpus A but a lower one in Corpus B. This is an unexpected result, as it was assumed that this term was more important in Corpus B than in Corpus A, as Twain visited many places before starting to write. The penultimate word is "green," linked with the semantic category Colour. This word is more relevant in Corpus A than in Corpus B, probably because "fantasy worlds" are characterized by a large range of colors, and the "real world" described by Twain does not have a wide range. The last word is "book," linked with the semantic category Utensil. This word is relevant in both corpora, as a book is a door to imagination, and both writers are characterized by its use. In sixth place, Concordance plot has helped in understanding the place where some words appear in the novels. It has been noticed that there are some unexpected results. First and second plots show the frequency of the word "boy" in both corpora, showing that this term is more important in Corpus B than in Corpus A, probably because all the main characters in Corpus B are boys. In the word "home," a bigger difference between both corpora has been observed, as it is more relevant in Corpus 2. This fact contradicts the idea of Klúgova (2007, 16), who said that in Dahl's works, family was very relevant. The last word compared 33 between both corpora is "book." This word is the term that shows more differences in both corpora. According to it, this word is only important in the first novel of Corpus A: Matilda. However, in Corpus 2, the term is important in all the novels. This is because in Dahl's works, he makes reference to more fantastic elements, while Twain makes reference to more real elements; the book is a real element. The importance of the word "father" in Corpus A has been analyzed, observing that this character is important in the majority of his novels. In this way, the idea of Klugova (2007, 16), who said that Dahl makes reference to the family, is supported. Finally, the word "little" has been analyzed in Corpus A: As observed, it is a relevant term in all the novels, as it makes reference to children, the main characters in all the novels. In seventh place, inferential statistics have been presented. Firstly, Data has been obtained by the "Pearson Correlated Coefficient Calculator." This program has shown that the scatter plot and the R-value have a strong positive correlation. Furthermore, this webpage has demonstrated that the result is significant. Finally, applying the paired t-test, it has been realized that the study is very statistically significant. Finally, it can be affirmed that the hypothesis has been demonstrated. Some points have led to adding new interpretations to the hypothesis, but despite everything, it has been established. Definitively, it can be assumed that both writers have a high level of imagination; Roald Dahl has an imagination linked with fantastic places and powers in which he makes use of many adjectives to describe the magical places, and Mark Twain has an imagination more related to the adventures that a child lives during his or her childhood in real places. Because of that, he makes reference to elements of everyday life. 6. CONCLUSION In conclusion, this study has helped us in order to better understand the imaginative capacity of both writers. Through the analysis conducted, the significance of imagination not only within children's literature but also in everyday lives becomes apparent. 34 On one hand, it becomes clear that Roald Dahl makes use of a more fantastic vocabulary in which he makes reference to fantastic creatures and incredible powers. On the other hand, Mark Twain's narratives are grounded in a more realistic vocabulary. This dichotomy highlights the divergent approaches taken by each author, with Dahl's works leaning towards the whimsical and Twain's towards the pragmatic. Furthermore, it highlights the influence of both writers not only on other authors, but also on people. According to Scott (1960), due to Twain's descriptions being real, foreign tourists go out of their way to visit the places in which he was inspired to write all his famous works. Besides, as it can be observed there are many books related to their most important works. For that reason, both authors have a high imaginative capacity. Finally, this study illuminates the potential for corpus linguistics to serve as a valuable tool for investigating literary themes and styles. By employing inferential statistics, this analysis provides a rigorous framework for exploring the imaginative capacities of literary giants like Dahl and Twain. The demonstrated statistical significance of this study reaffirms its relevance and potential for informing future research endeavors in the field of literature and linguistics. 7. REFERENCES Burger, P. (2002). Contemporary legends in the short stories of Roald Dahl. Contemporary Legend, 136-158. Dahl, R., & Blake, Q. (2023). Matilda. Puffin Books. Davis, P. (2013). Mark Twain's Dream Life. Mark Twain Journal, 51(1/2), 50-65. Retrieved March 21, 2024. Dictionary by Merriam-Webster: America's most-trusted online dictionary. (2021). Retrieved 22 March 2024, from https://www.merriamwebster.com/dictionary Gribben, A. (1985). The Importance of Mark Twain. 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Univ of California Press. 37 Appendix corpus 1 SEMANTIC CATEGORY WORD TOKEN FREQUENCY Children Matilda 411 Charlie 257 James 245 Little 247 Boy* 162 Child* 200 Mike 49 Veruca 47 Beauregarde 41 Violet 40 Willy 28 Wonka 325 Grown 22 Sweet* 38 Girl 79 Sugar 16 38 Amanda 13 Playground 12 Augustus 45 Family Father 138 Grandpa 159 Children 135 Aunt 117 House 98 Mother 96 Home 58 Parents 45 Grandma 40 Love 29 Dad* 41 Son 22 Family 21 Daughter 20 Brother 16 39 Wife 13 Husband 12 Adult Wonka 325 Old 194 Grandpa 159 Father* 166 Mother 96 Man 69 Oompa 64 Loompa* 63 Headmistress 56 Men 49 Parents 45 Grandma 40 Teacher 28 Willy 28 Woman* 45 Josephine 22 40 George 19 Georgina 17 Rupert 17 Henry 14 Fred 13 Place Room 168 House 98 Factory 85 School 78 Home 58 River 34 Tunnel 32 Bar 31 Garden 31 Village 20 Street 18 Country 17 Hill 17 41 Corridor 15 Classroom 15 City 15 Streets 14 Walls 14 Road 12 Cottage 11 Land 11 Ocean 11 Roof 11 Somewhere 11 Town 11 England 10 Flora Wormwood 83 Hortensia 33 Tree 29 Stem 19 Tea 19 48 Place Place* 102 River 70 Town 49 House 46 Land 45 Door 42 Desert 36 England 36 Island 34 Woods 34 Country 27 Village 26 Bank 25 Church 24 City 24 Hill 23 Camp 22 London 22 49 Wales 22 Palace 21 Illinois 21 Room 20 Bridge 20 Shore 21 Lake 18 Wall 18 Ladder 14 Ocean 14 Street 14 Houses 12 Missouri 11 Cavern 10 Sea 10 Tower 10 Flora tree* 40 Log 16 50 Corn 11 Fauna Dog 28 Camel* 48 Bird* 38 Lion 22 Fish 16 Animals 15 Flea 15 horse 15 Snake 15 Cat 14 Seal 12 Bear 11 Beetle 10 Colour Dark 52 White 44 Black 35 51 Gold 22 Blue 20 Red 17 Rose 15 Fair 14 Silver 11 Crimson 10 Green 10 Utensil Book* 57 Clock 34 Clothes 32 Bed 28 Glass 23 Boat 22 Knife 21 Gun 19 Ball 18 Canoe 31 52 Hat 18 Thread 18 Arm 15 Blanket 14 Candle 14 Chair 11 Map 10 Fantasy Believe* 32 Spirit 17 Whished 15 Flew 13 Roger 12 Adventures 11 Dreams 11