In Search of a Measure of Grammaticality: A Probabilistic Approach

Liang Maocheng

In Search of a Measure of Orality:

A Probabilistic Approach

Xu Jiajin

Register Variation: A SP-WR case

Xu JiajinBeijing Foreign Studies University

4

Written language bias

• For decades• Have we gone astray in linguistic

inquiry?

• In the least, equal attention should be given to spoken language.

5

• What are the defining features of spoken language?

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Written/literate features

• Long, embedded complete sentences• Relative clauses• Long, nominalised abstract words• Passive voice• etc

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Spoken features

• Incomplete sentences, ellipsis• Questions, interrogative sentences• Tag questions• Inversion, post-posed elements• Contractions• Small, easy everyday words• Interactive, interpersonal, expressive• Hedges, discourse marker use• Fillers, pause markers• Negation (Yes). No.

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Why do they differ?

• According to Wallace Chafe (1982), two factors explain the differences between written discourse and verbal interaction:

• 1) Writing takes longer than speaking;

• 2) Writers do not contact with readers.

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• The first factor is responsible for the very many fragments in SD; and

• the second factor is responsible for the detachment from the readers as opposed to the high involvement in verbal communication.

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Distinctive features b/t speech & writing

• Think about typical written discourse and typical spoken discourse

• Academic writing (research articles)

• Everyday casual conversation (small talk)

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Paper reading and replicate

• Writer/reader visibility in EFL written discourse

• Stephanie Petch-Tyson

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Spoken features of learner writing

• Writer reader visibility

• Petch-Tyson （ 1998）

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Questions for reading

• Research aims

• Data

• Method

• Conclusion

• Critique

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Biber’s MF/MD model

• 67 features (Biber 1988)

• 125 features (Biber 2007)

• 141 features (Xiao 2009)• Features collected in literature and according to

intuition• List of spoken features will never be exhausted.• BFSU_MF_MD tool

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Two overarching approaches

• Rule-based: Sth that we are sure about• Pro and con• - Can never be exhaustive

• - A blind men and elephant matter

• + It’s good enough if we get the best part. • 5万和 3万没有差别

• Probabilistic: Greedy and exhaustive

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A keyword approach to Speech writing difference

Spokencorpus

Writtencorpus

vs

vsSP Word list WR Word list

SP Keywordlist

How a keyword list is generated?

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Task: Keywordcorpus driven approach

• Observed: dem: • Demographically sampled spoken data

• Reference: aca + fic + news

• Probabilistic approach

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Bibliography 1/3

Biber, D. 1988. Variation across Speech and Writing. Cambridge: CUP.Biber, D. et al. 1999. Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written Langua

ge. London: Longman.Brazil, D. 1995. A Grammar of Speech. Oxford: OUP.Cameron, D. 2001. Working with Spoken Discourse. London: SAGE Pub

lications.Carter R. & M. McCarthy. 1997. Exploring Spoken Language. Cambridg

e: CUP.Chafe, W. 1994. Discourse, Consciousness, and Time. Chicago: Univers

ity of Chicago Press.Campoy, M. & M. Luzón. (eds.). 2007. Spoken Corpora in Applied Lingui

stics. Bern: Peter Lang.

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Bibliography 2/3

Cornbleet, S. & R. Carter. 2001. The Language of Speech and Writing. London: Routledge.

Ellis, R. & G. Barkhuizen. 2005. Analyzing Learner Language. Oxford: OUP.

Hughes, E. (ed.). 2006. Spoken English, TESOL and Applied Linguistics. New York: Palgrave.

McCarthy, M. 1998. Spoken Language and Applied Linguistics. Cambridge: CUP.

Muller, S. 2005. Discourse Markers in Native and Non-native English Discourse. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Petch-Tyson, S. 1998. Writer/ reader visibility in EFL written discourse. In S. Granger ( ed. ) . Learner English on Computer. 107-118.

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Bibliography 3/3

丁海涛， 2008 ， A Keyword Approach to Spoken Features in the English Essays by Chinese non-English Major College Students，中国外语教学研究中心硕士论文。

文秋芳、丁言仁、王文宇， 2003，中国大学生英语书面语中的口语化倾向，《外语教学与研究》（ 4）： 268-275。

文秋芳， 2009，学习者英语语体特征变化的研究，《外国语》（ 4）。吴琼， 2007 ， A Register Analysis of Spoken English of Chinese EFL

Learners: A Multi-dimensional Approach（中国英语学习者英语口语语域的多维度研究），中国外语教学研究中心硕士论文。

许家金、许宗瑞， 2007，中国大学生英语口语中的互动话语词块研究，《外语教学与研究》（ 6）： 437-443。

Thank you

xujiajin