Analysis on Hegemony Based on the BNC

（西南財經大學經貿外語學院，四川 成都 611130）

【Abstract】：This paper intends to analyze the usage of hegemony based on the BNC， for example， the frequently used collocation， the existing forms of hegemony， the text domain for various forms of hegemony and for the specific form of hegemony， the age of authors， the sex of authors.With the changing social context， additional meaning and usage may add to the hegemony. Therefore， it is worth carrying out a research to analyze the new meaning， usage of hegemony in the new social context.

【Key words】： hegemony， corpus， cultural hegemony

Introduction

When I prepared presentation about the cultural hegemony， I wondered what’s the first image in people’s minds. After conducting an initial survey among a group of ten people In Wetchat group， I found that they mainly associate hegemony with America， capitalism， economy， but neglect other factors such as ideology， culture， mores. It is admitted that the strong economy power and political strategy bring forth American influence. However， what prevail in China now are American movies， values and cultures. This highlights the importance to further investigate the ideologies associated with hegemony. Thus I wonder whether more attention should be paid to ideological factors. With the changing social context， additional meaning and usage may add to the hegemony. Therefore， it is worth carrying out a research to analyze the new meaning， usage of hegemony in the new social context.

Literature Review

Many scholars analyze hegemony from different perspectives. Marx （1845 [1932]） claims that： “The fundamental basis of hegemony， specifically the power of the bourgeois class to rule over subordinated classes， was based on their economic power as well as their control over the ideas that enabled them to rule without much resistance.” For him， economic hegemony is the concentration of his study. Based on Marx’s theory， Lenin formulated the theory of political hegemony. Both Marx and Lenin laid a foundation for the following theories on hegemony. With respect to culture， “Antonio Gramsci put forward the cultural hegemony， which is the idea that the ruling class can manipulate the value system and mores of a society， so that their view becomes the world view” （Laurie， Timothy 2015）. According to Roger Scrution（1982）， drawing on writers such as Machiavelli and Pareto， Gramsci reckons that a politically dominant class maintains its position not simply by force， or the threat of force， but also by consent. Thus he adopted the concept of hegemony to describe the way in which he believed the bourgeoisie established. Working to extend Gramsci’s elaboration of the concept of hegemony， Laclau （2001） reckons that： “hegemony is not as the imposition of pregiven set of ideas but as something that emerges from the political interaction of groups； it is not simply the domination by an elite， but instead is a process of ongoing struggle that constitutes the social”. It refutes the conception of social objectivity and historical inevitability， deconstructs the Marxist theories of economic determinism and class struggle.

From the above general review， hegemony has been explained from perspective of economy， politics， culture， social psychology. But just as Gramsci（1971） noted： “hegemony must be constantly renewed， given changes in the nature of the political economy and dominant beliefs”， thus researching way of hegemony should also be renewed. With the changing social context， the explanation of hegemony should be updated. Hence I will collect information of hegemony in the British National Corpus（BNC） so that the current usage of hegemony can be revealed. Then based on the analysis of the searching results， I will give an updated explanation for hegemony.

I will carry on a research for hegemony in the British National Corpus（BNC）， which is a 100 million word collection of samples of written and spoken language from a wide range of sources. As for the searching procedure， firstly， I will carry out the collocation for hegemony to see what words occur frequently with hegemony. Then in terms of the frequent collocation， I will analyze key factors， such as text domain， the sex of authors. Secondly， by practicing the distribution， I will analyze text domain， age of authors， sex of authors， of the whole texts. The searching result is representative based on its large quantity of texts and timely update. However， there are some limitations in this paper that the final results lack more evidence from the oral English. because the written text occupies 90 percent in BNC， while the oral text occupies only 10 percent. Hence， further research in oral texts is indispensable.

Result

1.Diversification

After carrying out a search in BNC web， the further discussion will be made based on the analysis of the searching results in this part. Initially， When the preceding words， modifying hegemony， are narrowed down to adjective by collocation， there are various forms of hegemony in BNC which can be seen on table 1. Specifically， in terms of the criteria of space， there are exist local hegemony， regional hegemony. For the content of hegemony， there are ideological hegemony， cultural hegemony， economical hegemony， political hegemony. Besides， there are American hegemony， Roman hegemony. Furthermore， the hegemony exits not only across the countries， but also among different social classes. For example， bourgeois hegemony ranks seventh among all searching results， which signifies that the hegemony from bourgeois occurs frequently in the BNC. Beyond that， there is a relative new expression， the medical hegemony in BNC. Accordingly， it can be seen that the forms of hegemony are diversified. And it will be further proved by following analysis.

Next， according to the text domain for hegemony， 165 texts belong to the world affairs， 101 texts go to the field of social science， and 21 for the area of arts， 23 for commerce and finance. Based on the distribution of percentage in table 2， even the text domain of world affair occupies largest part， but the text domain for hegemony covers various fields， ranking from world affairs to the commerce and finance. Thus it can be estimated that the hegemony， is not only for the field of economy， politics as Marx and Lenin thought， but also for the new field， for example， cultural， medical field. In that way， it can be forecasted that hegemony may occur in more areas in the future with the changing social context.

2.Ideological Hegemony and Cultural Hegemony

Among all adjectives modifying the hegemony in table 3， ideological and cultural are in top five. In addition， if ranked by the log-likely hood， the ideological hegemony ranks firstly， surpassing the political hegemony. It indicates that ideological hegemony and cultural hegemony occur frequently in BNC web. With the advancing of economy， people meet the needs of safety， food， even have the surplus. Then a trend that they would more focus on the ideology， culture， is possible. While， the result that the military hegemony ranks lastly， indicates that military hegemony occurs less frequently. It can be explained that the peace is the keynote of world development now so that there is less military hegemony.

From table 4， ideological hegemony is mainly mentioned by Marxist. Gramsci is a famous representative Marxist， and structuralist is a branch of Marxist. Thus they are included into the group of Marxist. Considering people who practice cultural hegemony， capitalist occurs most frequently. Thus， with reference of the Gramsci’s definition of hegemony， it can be conclude that ideological hegemony， which is mainly talked by Marxists， refers that people， mainly from capitalism group， exercise domination of ideologies and thoughts to others.

From table 5， some features of cultural hegemony can be concluded. Specifically， cultural hegemony bears a similarity with ideological hegemony that both are mainly mentioned by Marxists. While words occurred with cultural hegemony are diversified. And words of high frequency like political， bourgeois， party， institutional， implies that cultural hegemony is closely related to politics. But it cannot be ignored that there are also cultural hegemony in the field of dance and music.

Beyond that， capitalism is highly relevant to hegemony. To be specific， 10 randomly chosen concordance lines for ideological hegemony， are related to capitalism， saying “serve interests of capitalism through an ideological hegemony”， “ideological hegemony in modern capitalism”， etc. Furthermore， when considering economic hegemony， the texts in which it occurs are about economic hegemony from capitalism countries， the

US， America. Thus these searching results can support the theory of Anna Cornelia Beyer（2010）， who argues that global governance is a product of American leadership and describes is as hegemonic governance.

Conclusion

This paper has analyzed some information of hegemony， for example， the frequently used collocation， the existing forms of hegemony， the text domain for various forms of hegemony and for the specific form of hegemony. Firstly， it can be concluded that the forms of hegemony are diversified. Specifically， in terms of content of hegemony， there are ideological， cultural， political， military， medical hegemony. For the consideration of space， there are global， local hegemony. Furthermore， its diversification can be further proved by its various text domains in which the hegemony occurs， ranking from world affairs， social science to arts. Secondly， cultural hegemony and ideological hegemony are mainly talked by Marxists， and highly relevant to capitalist. Thus based on all searching results， it can be explained that the hegemony tends to be used in various areas， in which the ideological hegemony and cultural hegemony occur in high frequency.

The explanation may excites interest on in-depth researching for hegemony. It is surprised to find that ideological and cultural hegemony occur frequently now. And it would be interesting to find out reasons for the fact. But there are still some limitations in this paper that， the searching results are not totally representative only based on the BNC. Therefore， I will continue to collecting more evidences in various fields to enrich the definition of the hegemony.

Reference

Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe， Hegemony and Socialist Strategy： Towards a Radical Democratic Politics （Verso， 2nd Edition， 2001）.

Gramsci A （1971） Selections from the Prison Notebooks. New York， NY： International Publishers.

Lauren Langman， （2006） \"Thank you Felix Geyer\"， Kybernetes， Vol. 35 Iss： 3/4， pp.317 – 322.

Lukacs G （1971） History and Class Consciousness. London： The Merlin Press.

Marx K and Engels F （1845 [1932]） The German Ideology. New York， NY： Vintage Books.

Marx K and Engels F （1845 [1932]） The German Ideology. New York， NY： Vintage Books.