Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory

Published by De Gruyter Mouton

Volume 18 Issue 1

February 2022

Issue of Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory

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Contents
Journal Overview

Publicly Available February 9, 2022

Frontmatter

Page range: i-iv

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Articles

Open Access February 20, 2020

A corpus-based analysis of meaning variations in German tag questions Evidence from spoken and written conversational corpora

Yulia Clausen, Tatjana Scheffler

Page range: 1-31

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Abstract

This paper addresses semantic/pragmatic variability of tag questions in German and makes three main contributions. First, we document the prevalence and variety of question tags in German across three different types of conversational corpora. Second, by annotating question tags according to their syntactic and semantic context, discourse function, and pragmatic effect, we demonstrate the existing overlap and differences between the individual tag variants. Finally, we distinguish several groups of question tags by identifying the factors that influence the speakers’ choices of tags in the conversational context, such as clause type, function, speaker/hearer knowledge, as well as conversation type and medium. These factors provide the limits of variability by constraining certain question tags in German against occurring in specific contexts or with individual functions.

May 10, 2019

Effects of task and corpus-derived association scores on the online processing of collocations

Kyla McConnell, Alice Blumenthal-Dramé

Page range: 33-76

Abstract

In the following self-paced reading study, we assess the cognitive realism of six widely used corpus-derived measures of association strength between words (collocated modifier–noun combinations like vast majority ): MI, MI3, Dice coefficient, T -score, Z -score, and log-likelihood. The ability of these collocation metrics to predict reading times is tested against predictors of lexical processing cost that are widely established in the psycholinguistic and usage-based literature, respectively: forward/backward transition probability and bigram frequency. In addition, the experiment includes the treatment variable of task : it is split into two blocks which only differ in the format of interleaved comprehension questions (multiple choice vs. typed free response). Results show that the traditional corpus-linguistic metrics are outperformed by both backward transition probability and bigram frequency. Moreover, the multiple-choice condition elicits faster overall reading times than the typed condition, and the two winning metrics show stronger facilitation on the critical word (i.e. the noun in the bigrams) in the multiple-choice condition. In the typed condition, we find an effect that is weaker and, in the case of bigram frequency, longer lasting, continuing into the first spillover word. We argue that insufficient attention to task effects might have obscured the cognitive correlates of association scores in earlier research.

February 15, 2019

Conservation in ongoing analogical change: The measurement and effect(s) of token frequency

Anne Krause-Lerche

Page range: 77-114

Abstract

In a number of studies of analogical levelling, it has been found that the conservation of irregular formation patterns is typically correlated with the token frequency of the members of a changing class. Interestingly, although it was suggested decades ago that this “conserving effect” of high token frequency may also affect ongoing analogical change, only one case of a change-in-progress in morphology has been investigated so far. Moreover, instead of scrutinizing the concept of frequency, previous research has largely taken the importance of lemma token frequency for granted. The present contribution analyses a case of ongoing analogical levelling in the formation of the imperative singular of German strong verbs with e/i-gradation. A corpus-based study is used to test whether the phenomenon is rightly classified as ongoing change and whether and which frequency variables can explain the trajectory of this change. Evidence is presented that justifies the assumption of a conserving effect of token frequency in ongoing morphological change; however, the study stresses the importance of reconsidering the concept of frequency for different languages and different phenomena of change because even measures like lemma token frequency are not as indisputable as they seem.

March 7, 2020

Syntactico-semantic realizations of pronouns in the English transitive construction: A corpus-based analysis

Haerim Hwang

Page range: 115-143

Abstract

Pronouns serve as early linguistic cues for the acquisition of the English transitive construction (TC), but previous research has been limited to first language (L1) settings. This study focuses on TC input in the English as a foreign language (EFL) context, investigating syntactico-semantic differences in realizations of TC arguments, particularly pronouns, between L1 parental input and Korean EFL input. To this end, four corpora were created by collecting spoken data from L1-English parents talking to their children, L1-Korean EFL teachers, L1-English EFL teachers, and auditory EFL textbooks. From these corpora, transitive clauses were extracted so that their arguments could be categorized. Mixed-effects negative binomial regression analyses and hierarchical cluster analyses (preceded by principal component analyses) showed that in the realization of TC arguments, Korean EFL input differs syntactically and semantically from L1-English parental input, both for the subjects and objects of TCs. The syntactic difference was particularly pronounced for objects, where fewer pronouns were observed in the EFL input than in the L1-English parental input. Semantically, co-occurrence regularities between transitive verbs and arguments were identified only in the L1-English input and not in the EFL input. Pedagogical implications of the findings are also discussed.

March 20, 2020

Light verb variations and varieties of Mandarin Chinese: Comparable corpus driven approaches to grammatical variations

Hongzhi Xu, Menghan Jiang, Jingxia Lin, Chu-Ren Huang

Page range: 145-173

Abstract

This article presents a classification and clustering based study to account for the differences among five Chinese light verbs ( congshi , gao , jiayi , jinxing , and zuo ) as well as their variations in Mainland China Mandarin (ML) and Taiwan Mandarin (TW). Based on 13 linguistic features, both competition and co-development of these light verbs are studied in terms of their distinct and shared collocates. The proposed method discovers significant new grammatical differences in addition to confirming previously reported ones. Most significant discoveries include selectional restrictions differentiating deverbal nominals and event nouns, and degrees of transitivity of VO compounds. We also find that most variations between Mainland China Mandarin and Taiwan Mandarin are in fact differences in tendencies or preferences in contexts of usage of shared grammatical rules.

Open Access June 13, 2019

Toward an optimal code for communication: The case of scientific English

Stefania Degaetano-Ortlieb, Elke Teich

Page range: 175-207

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Abstract

We present a model of the linguistic development of scientific English from the mid-seventeenth to the late-nineteenth century, a period that witnessed significant political and social changes, including the evolution of modern science. There is a wealth of descriptive accounts of scientific English, both from a synchronic and a diachronic perspective, but only few attempts at a unified explanation of its evolution. The explanation we offer here is a communicative one: while external pressures (specialization, diversification) push for an increase in expressivity, communicative concerns pull toward convergence on particular options (conventionalization). What emerges over time is a code which is optimized for written, specialist communication, relying on specific linguistic means to modulate information content. As we show, this is achieved by the systematic interplay between lexis and grammar. The corpora we employ are the Royal Society Corpus (RSC) and for comparative purposes, the Corpus of Late Modern English (CLMET). We build various diachronic, computational n-gram language models of these corpora and then apply formal measures of information content (here: relative entropy and surprisal) to detect the linguistic features significantly contributing to diachronic change, estimate the (changing) level of information of features and capture the time course of change.

About this journal

Objective
Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory (CLLT) is a peer-reviewed journal publishing high-quality original corpus-based research focusing on theoretically relevant issues in all core areas of linguistic research, or other recognized topic areas. It provides a forum for researchers from different theoretical backgrounds and different areas of interest that share a commitment to the systematic and exhaustive analysis of naturally occurring language. Contributions from all theoretical frameworks are welcome but they should be addressed at a general audience and thus be explicit about their assumptions and discovery procedures and provide sufficient theoretical background to be accessible to researchers from different frameworks.

Topics

Corpus Linguistics
Quantitative Linguistics
Phonology
Morphology
Semantics
Syntax
Pragmatics

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Research Articles

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