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Testi specialistici inglese 2020-
G. Garzone, Perspectives on ESP and Popularization, CUEM, Milan, 2006. Murphy, Editing Specialised Texts in English – a corpus-assisted analysis, LED, Milan, 2011. WHAT IS CORPUS LINGUISTICS? It’s a research methodology. Linguistics is made up of many branches : Linguistics Sociolinguistics Psycholinguistics Neurolinguistics
corpus linguistics is thought as a branch of linguistics, but it’s not a domain in itself, rather it’s a methodology to study phonetics, syntax, sociolinguistics… Corpus = body > collection of texts How can we study language? What do we need? How do we know what we say is right? There are many different approaches :
- Introspection > “the armchair linguist”
- Data observation > “the corpus linguist” Collects data and observes them “These two don’t speak to each other very often, but when they do, the corpus linguist says to the armchair linguist, ‘Why should I think that what you tell me is true?’, and the armchair linguist says to the corpus linguist: ‘Why should I think that what you tell me is interesting?’”. WHAT IS A CORPUS?
- it’s a collection of texts
- In any language(s)
- Spoken language (transcribed) or written language
- Usually naturally-occurring (not written specially) > naturally-occurring text, it’s a type
of text that you find and collect, rather then, you sit down and you write it on purpose. The idea of using a corpus is to capture some kind of text and observe it
- Stored and searchable electronically
- Representing something; a SAMPLE
WHAT DOES A CORPUS DO?
- nothing….
- but…corpus software rearranges language so that various kinds of observations can
be made
- It provides accessible evidence
- …software finds words and phrases…
- …and performs calculations
TYPES OF CORPORA
Reference Corpus – contain as many different types of text as possible Representative of the whole language
Examples of corpora A collection of the works of a particular writer or writers A collection of available texts from different decades or centuries A collection of current texts on a given topic A collection of current texts broadly representing a language or a society BROWN Size > 1 million words Age > 1961 (date of birth of corpora) Sampling > 500 samples of 2000 words in each Representativeness > American English , based on the categories from the BROWN university library. LOB Size > 1 million words Age > covering 1961 Sampling > 500 samples of 2000 words each, or the nearest natural delimiter (end of sentence etc) Representativeness > British English , based on a list of everything that was published in 1961 BANK OF ENGLISH Size > 450 million words Age > constantly updated Sampling > FULL TEXT (from beginning to the end) Representativness > MONITOR CORPUS Present-day English, mainly newspaper material from Murdoc empire. The bigger the better. BRITISH NATIONAL CORPUS Size > 100 million words Age > early 1990’ s Sampling > 4124 texts, spoken and written. Normally samples are of the size 45, words. Representativeness > General British English LEARNER CORPORA ICLE, International Corpus of Learner English Sylviane Granger Each national section covers about 200,000 words from 200 students ICE INTERNATIONAL CORPUS OF ENGLISH A set of several subcorpora of International variants of English. For example the East African, South Africa, Singapore… Size > 1 million Age > 1990- Sample should have been 500 samples of 2000 words. Proved difficult. Many shorter texts put into one big file. Representativeness > e.g. English speaking communities in East Africa http:// www.ucl.ac.uk/english-usage/ice/avail.htm
Biber, Conrad, Reppen, Davies Waves of Europeans in the US: Gries, Roemer, Wulff, Oakey Empirical semantics: technology and observation J.R.Firth and M.A.K. Halliday worked in the tradition of empirical text analysis. Sinclair developed this: particularly as regards multi-word units of meaning Discoverable by observing recurrent patterns across large text collections Sinclair discovered a new view of language: language looks different when you look at a lot of it at once, with the help of technology. Sinclair’s method of linguistic analyses was to seek patterning in long authentic texts. 1980s, 1990s, he studied patterning which is visible only across machine-readable corpora of hundreds of millions of running words. —> Theory of phraseology; Cobuild series of reference materials for advanced learners. Corpora + technology=> shift in theory Corpora are just data Quantitative methods are just methods But their combination has led to a shift in theory. Principles of empirical observational study (Stubbs)
- The observer must not influence what is observed. Data and analysis must be independent. Interpretation of the data is however unavoidable.
- Repeated events are significant. A repeated event is not mere performance (syntagmatic - horizontal), but probability in the system (paradigmatic - vertical). —> Corpus linguistics looks at what is usual and typical. Patterns are in language and CL observes them.
- Computer-assisted methods which can help in discovering patterns of language use involve new observational techniques.
- They are quantitative
- They provide a way of studying the relation between paradigmatic oppositions and syntagmatic constraints. More characteristics of corpus linguistics Inherently sociolinguistic – attested texts, real communicative acts in a discourse community Inherently diachronic (and comparative) Inherently quantitative ANALYSING A TEXT VS ANALYSING A CORPUS A TEXT A CORPUS A single piece of writing that you can analyse exhaustively from beginning to end A collection of texts —> different methodology It has structure, unity you can discover Outside close reading and control The analyst is in control — direct observation Beginning, middle and end — arbitrary You observe things that cannot be observed with the naked eye
SIZE OF THE CORPUS?
Combinations of words Meaning occurs through combinations of words (phraseological units) To find examples of phrases, you need a lot of text. E.g. fit into place actually occurs mostly with jigsaw, but you need a huge corpus to find many examples of it. Phraseology A huge corpus makes it possible to learn the words surrounding a word: Eg. lap is usually followed by both a preposition and a possessive adjective. This is shown in a corpus-based dictionary, which illustrate the most common collocates with the entry, whether the word is used with animate/inanimate subjects, etc. Is the essence of language observable? No, texts are a sample. They are traces (products) of cognitive and social communicative events (processes). One must distinguish between what you think language is (ontology) and how you think you can discover this essence (epistemology), A materialist epistomology (the principle that data must be observable) does not necessarily commit us to a materialist ontology (that only sense data are real). ENGLISH FOR GENERAL PURPOSES (EGP)
- English used in everyday conversation
- English used in shops and the market
- English used in the family
ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC/ SPECIAL PURPOSES (ESP) SPECIALIZED DISCOURSE
<—- difference Indirect observation, via software —> research question must be formulated; other levels of observation required SMALL LARGE May be inevitable (e.g. dead language like Anglo- Saxon) Underlying regularities will show more clearly through surface variation If your small corpus gives you sufficient results, fine 10 of the high frequency words in English (the, of, and, to, a, in, that, is, was, it) —> 20% of running text If similar events are repeated with variation, many examples help you see the underlying regularity
I’m non socialist (student graduated) becoming specialist > I don’t start from 0 knowledge because I’m graduated, but I don’t have the specialised knowledge of corpus linguistics which I’m going to gain. The typical situation here is education. Eg.: Educational purpose: academic textbooks, instruction manuals These types of texts create a secondary culture.
- specialist to lay public Popularisation = make a scientific or academic subject accessible to the general public by presenting it in an understandable form. Eg: to provide info of a technical nature to a wider audience-broadening culture/general knowledge e.g. magazines, books, encyclopaedias, TV, radio… Levels of technical specificity in written discourse Widdowson (1979) identified 3 different levels of technical specificity within written texts in the scientific field:
- Scientific journalism > if you read Nature (magazine) talks to different people, educated and non educated in that field.
- Scientific instruction > the idea of teaching
- Scientific exposition > is announcing the way something works, not necessarily peer to peer, but it’s more the teacher-student situation. The same division applies to oral discourse Example 1 of a specialised language: Seaspeak English is the lingua franca of many spheres in life, including shipping. In the 1980s, Edward Johnson (now prof at Cambridge Uni) developed a simple, but specialised languages to facilitate clear communication in maritime shipping.
it’s called Seaspeak Characteristics of Seaspeak It’s a type of English, but it’s a special language It regulates:
- the pronunciation of numbers, times, or positions
- the order in which info is given, i.e. identification of speaker and type of message to be
sent (advice, info, request, warning…)
- https://prezi.com/ptuefpoyz4i3/seaspeak/
Example 2: The English of Air Traffic Control (ATC)
- international standard, as adopted by the International Civil Aviation Organisation -
ICAO
- Call sign details for ground stations and aircraft
- Conventional expressions
- ex. A set of compulsory skeleton messages for use in ATC exchange
MORPHOSYNTAX OF SPECIALIZED DISCOURSE
- Nominalization
- Premodification
- Encapsulation/grammatical metaphor/repackaging of information/shared information
- Lexical density - syntax changes, NP VP NP
- Depersonalization
- Passives
- Legal discourse, postmodification, relatives
- NOMINALIZATION = VERBS turned into NOUNS Something that would typically be represented as a VERB ———————————> antconc: [tion// isation// *ization] i.e. a process (s.o. doing sth or sth happening) is represented as a NOUN Examples Monopolization occurs when a brand totally monopolizes a game. The implicit associations test offers an effective measure of brand attitudes, because it requires participants to categorize brands faster than they would be able to think about their categorizations consciously. According to previous studies, the interactive nature of the game gets participants more involved with the products (Escalas 2004) and the positive feelings induced by the game should extend to positive feelings toward the featured products (Homer 2006). The effects of interactivity on brand attitudes may also be significant. Excerpt from a Linguistics text In addition, business reporting genres may also include survey reports, bank reports and a variety of others. Reporting genres, thus, seem to form a colony of business and other forms of reports, in that they serve a general communicative purpose of reporting but, at the same time, have subtle variations in the way they are constructed, interpreted and used by experts in business and other professional contexts. The interesting thing about this process of colonisation is that although these overlapping generic constructs fall within the same discipline, they still display subtle generic distinctions. Nominal style Nominalisation in specialised text often makes texts hard to understand for non- specialists. In a nominal style, clauses are replaced by nominalised phrases: instead of because the surface of the retina is spherical - because of the sphericity of the retinal surface Lexical verbs like investigate or report are replaced by empty verbs and a noun, e.g. to make an investigation, to give a report More examples of verbal vs nominal style The study emphasizes affect and the functioning of the brain => the study’s emphasis on affect and brain functioning… The study justifies using the implicit associations test to test brand attitudes ==> the study provides good justification for using the implicit associations test to test brand attitudes
3. GRAMMATICAL METAPHORE
Written variants have a metaphorical quality as happens normally with metaphor i.e. transfer of meaning
- from concrete to abstract sense
- from material to mental processes From Because the council is proposing to lend money instead of giving it, people who work as doctors are feeling bitterly resentful. to Doctors bitterly resent it that the council is proposing that money should be lent instead of being given. to The council’s proposed replacement of subsidies by a loan is incurring the bitter resentment of the medical profession Grammatical metaphor can also be seen from the point of view of the repackaging of information. Nominalisations, for example, may encapsulate information presented previously. e.g. Video games possess many characteristics which make them an ideal platform for advertisements, but it remains important to test them directly to determine whether they are really as effective for forming positive brand attitudes in players as theory suggests. This study attempts to determine the effectiveness of video game produce placement on short-term brand attitudes. ENCAPSULATION One of the biggest determinants of increased positive brand attitudes is perceived trustworthiness, which positively affects the brand attitudes of consumers with little brand experience and thus implies that consumers who are new to a brand but see it being used by someone they consider trustworthy will form more positive opinions about the brand. This implication is especially important for video game product placement. The noun implication encapsulates the previous sentence, referring to it anaphorically and summing it up. Given, shared information eg.: Improvements in technology have reduced the risks and high costs associated with simultaneous installation. Thus risk and cost reduction leads to enhanced market satisfaction. risk and cost reduction = presented as given information = shared knowledge
Textual aspect: thematic progression
Effects of syntactic features on textualisation The pervasive use of nominalization is linked to textual construction: nominalization picks up the preceding topic and presents it as something given. E.g. Although newspaper circulation declined rapidly with the severe economic recession in the early 1990s, Finland still has one of the world’s highest newspaper circulations per capita. The strong role of newspapers is not expected to change radically during the next 10-15 years. The mediatization of Finnish society means that the media has taken the role of traditional social institutions.
4. LEXICAL DENSITY LD is a way of measuring the amount of content information in a clause or text. Calculated by dividing number of content words in a clause complex by number of clauses in the complex An example of spoken language and informal tenor: I can’t mind the kids today because I must go to football training and can’t leave early because we’ve got an important game on Saturday and if we win it we go into the finals but Wednesday ’s fine because I don’t have training so I can mind them then if that’s OK with you 1 clause complex of 10 clauses with complex logical relations = grammatical intricacy i.e. most of the “work” is done by grammatical words:
- The number of content words decreases as more information can be assumed 20:10 = 2 > LD Written mode + formal tenor + more specialised field i.e. different genre (contextual configuration of field, tenor, mode) Due to the importance of a win in Saturday’s football game as a prerequisite for an appearance in the final, the necessity of my training attendance diminishes my child minding capacity tonight.
- Logical relations (enumeration, summation, apposition, exemplification, result, contrast)
- Rare markers: impersonal
- Macro text features for readability 1. Frequencies of Sentences types An example of a (rare) interrogative in a specialized text To further assess additional differences between the brand design strategies used in sample brand-logos, stylistic techniques are also investigated according to the following research question: How do Korean and American brand designs differ in terms of motif and colour? 2. COHESION AND COHERENCE: anaphoric reference
- Very common in general English
- Less so in specialized discourse
- Preference for repetition GRAMMATICAL COHESION A) personal pronouns: he, she, it, they.. B) The definite article: the C) Deictics: this, that, those… D) implied: same, differente, other, else, such, the said… The repetition of “ whereas ” in the UDHR
- On the contrary, although, when in fact OR An introductory statement of a formal document.
- In a^ contract , a ‘whereas’ clause is an introductory statement meaning "considering that" or "that being the case." The clause explains the reasons for the execution of the contract.
- When^ whereas^ is placed at the beginning of a legislative bill, it means "because" and is followed by an explanation for the enactment of the legislation
LEXICAL COHESION
Paradigmatic relations = Hyponymy, synonymy, antonymy (hypernym: rights. Hyponyms (sub-categories?) syntagmatic relations = collocation (discourse specific) (due recognition) Lexical cohesion: referential synonymy Stylistic study concerns itself with the situational features that influence variations in language use, the criterion for the classification of language variety, and the description and interpretation of the linguistic features and functions of the main varieties (both literary and non-literary) of a language-- in this book, of the Modern English language. Lexical Cohesion: antonymy and synonymy This study re-examines the relationship between regime change and interstate conflict. Does democratization push states away from violent confrontation even in the short term, or does regime change bring with it heightened probabilities of interstate conflict? Since the historical record presents both violent and peaceful political transitions , what factors enable certain states to transit towards a stable and peaceful political equilibrium? Lexical cohesion: collocation Much of the academic research on the social practices of mobile phone users has been carried out in recent years, and most published work has appeared only in the last three years. Finding comparative data to determine differences in social practices of adults and children is thus problematic but some relevant literature has been published by researchers in Scandinavia and the UK.
3. Lexical repetition
- maximum clarity
- Avoidance of ambiguity
- Even with morphologically distinct forms
- For instance, Glenn found that Americans prefer a factual-inductive style, citizens of the former USSR prefer an axiomatic-deductive style and members of the Arab communities have a preference for an affective-intuitive style.
So, perhaps a final conclusion from the previous argument might be that interactivity has to be learned, both by producers and consumers. c) Apposition or exemplification A way of showing that the following unit of discourse is equivalent to or included in previous point: in other words ; or an example
- for instance /example. After the breakup of the Soviet Union, violent conflict occurred in several of the 15 newly independent states. Georgia’s regime transition, for example, was followed by the election of an openly nationalist president in 1991. Gamsakhurdia seized dictatorial powers and propagated exclusionary nationalism favoring ethnic Georgians.6These actions exacerbated existing tensions with its minorities and the country was soon involved in violent interstate disputes with Russia in Abkhazia. Similarly , newly independent Moldova experienced violent conflicts in the Transnistria and Gagauz regions immediately following its regime transition. d) Result/inference signal that the second unit of discourse states results/consequences of the previous unit: — consequently; thus; therefore. Because of the various uncertainties in any new product development process, some vaporware is certainly unintentional. However, some industry participants allege that certain firms intentionally engage in vaporware to gain a competitive advantage. Therefore , it should not be surprising that the practice of vaporware has figured in several headlines and has been the subject of government scrutiny. e) Contrast or conflict between information in different units alternatively; in contrast; on the other hand; (concession) Although, nevertheless, in any case. Similarly , newly independent Moldova experienced violent conflicts in the Transnistria and Gagauz regions immediately following its regime transition. On the other hand, the Ukraine and the Baltic republics underwent relatively peaceful and consistent transitions to democracy. Although a few respondents would listen to music on their PC or mobile, ring tones were not downloaded by any of the diarists. 5. Rare textual features: interpersonal markers Transition : mark insertion of item not directly following from previous discourse – incidentally Interpersonal : express attitudes of speaker/writer – frankly; personally; in all honesty
Eg.
- Nevertheless, viewers will not become easily accustomed to higher levels of interactivity on or via television. Presumably, this will happen much faster among young people and experienced computer users.
- Cuba allowed US dollars to circulate in the economy and, ironically , dollars soon became the dominant currency 6. Readability and intelligibility in specialised texts
- Specialized texts (particularly procedural texts) need to be both readable (easy to read) and intelligible (comprehensible)
- Intelligibility includes readability; readability may not include intelligibility. E.g. a popular magazine prioritizes readability (and entertainment) over intelligibility; a law or regulation must be intelligible but it may not be easy to read. A macro textual feature (affecting layout) Vertical enumeration
- Vertical Enumeration (listing words/phrases vertically in text) - an important tool in textual organization, similar to paragraphs;
- Provides visual information about the logical connection underlying segmentation and grouping of concepts;
- Helps create textual cohesion.
- Psychology research has shown that more than 5 elements listed in a series are hard to remember - enumerations must be limited;
- Vertical enumeration^ gives prominence to part of a text, setting it apart: certain pieces of information are easier to find, but the overview may be compromised;
- Horizontal^ layout^ in enumeration enhances^ explanatory value: for texts where the overall meaning is important, this is more readable. Effects of enumeration
- • Places emphasis on results
- • No indication of the process that led to results
- • Erases the writer and depersonalises the text
- • In prescriptive texts, enumeration reduces the likelihood of contestation
- • Impression of objective, neutral vision of reality Vertical enumeration in a legal text
- An introductory statement allows the reader to anticipate and interpret the items in the following enumeration (see the following rights in the example from the Canadian Employment Insurance Act):
- Section 50 (3)
- A claimant is not disqualified from receiving benefits if, in order to take advantage of the opportunity to obtain employment, the claimant would have lost any of the following rights: (a) to join or not join an association, organization or union of workers; (b) to continue to be a member and observe the lawful rules of an association, organization or union of workers
Lexicology vs terminology // **Lexicography vs Terminography Monoreferentiality: a term signals ONE concept in specialized subject domains
- General English and Information Communication Technology (ICT)** In general English mobile is an adjective, meaning “able to move or be moved freely or easily”. e.g. My in-laws are not very mobile any longer. In (ICT) mobile is a term. Definition from the PC Mag Dictionary: remote, portable, on-the-go. The term "mobile" used by itself is wireless parlance for the client device, such as a cellphone or laptop. 2) General English and Literary terminology In general English conceit is a noun meaning “excessive pride in oneself”. In literary terminology, conceit means an elaborate metaphor: e.g. the idea of the wind's singing is a prime romantic conceit. Homonyms in terminology
- In EGP there are many homonyms ( bank, point , etc.)
- In terminologies, homonyms and polysemes within the same subject^ field are treated as separate entries (because the definition of the concept is different). e.g. in Automotive Engineering emission (the process of emitting exhaust gases) and emission (the exhaust gases themselves). LEXICOLOGY : the study of words in general TERMINOLOGY : the study of special- language words or terms associated with particular areas of specialist knowledge. LEXICOGRAPHY : the process of making dictionaries, most commonly of general- language words, occasionally of special- language words (i.e. terms). TERMINOGRAPHY : concerned exclusively with compiling collections of the vocabulary of special languages. The outputs of this work may be known by a number of different names - often used inconsistently - including "terminology", "specialised vocabulary", "glossary", and so on. (www.computing.surrey.ac.uk)
TERMS CANNOT BE SUBSTITUTED BY SYNONYMS , ONLY BY DEFINITION OF
PHRASE
Eg. In the example, hybrid TV as a term is defined In a popularised text a term might be used but it needs to be explained in a user-friendly way. Or even hybrid ITV It is suggested that so-called hybrid ITV - TV combined with telephone and email reply channels - offers better opportunities for high interactivity than set-top-box ITV. What is hybrid ITV? You can only explain it by definition or paraphrase. There isn’t a synonym. LEXICAL PRODUCTIVITY (1): securitisation In specialised texts we are often describing new things, and new things need new names —> lexical productivity. The term is introduced in inverted comas, to show that it is something new that needs to be explained. > “securitization”. The second time, the term is used as an adjective. LEXICAL PRODUCTIVITY (2): selectorate In terms of a theory employed in some discussions below, Bueno de Mesquita et al. (2003: 42-3) characterize political systems in part by the size of their selectorate , ‘those who meet the polity criteria for enfranchisement or … citizenship’, and ‘whose endowments include the qualities or characteristics institutionally required to choose the government’s leadership and necessary for gaining access to private benefits doled out
