Variation across two dimensions: testing the Complexity Principle and the Uniform Information Density Principle on adjectival data

Kaatari, Henrik

doi:10.1017/s1360674316000344

Cited by 6 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…The term (subject) extraposition has, for example, been used in variation studies of general language use (e.g. Kaatari, 2016) and in studies applying frameworks such as Lexical Functional Grammar (e.g. Ramhöj, 2016).…”

Section: Previous Research On Extrapositionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Following Smith (1986), we view (in)formality as a continuum, and we will use register as a proxy to see where on the formal/informal scale the students' use can be placed. Based on the different situational characteristics of the registers included (Biber et al, 1999: 16; see also Kaatari, 2016), Academic Prose is considered to be the most formal register, followed, in descending order of formality, by Popular Science, News, Fiction and Conversation.…”

Section: Previous Research On Extrapositionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Biber et al, 1999: 722;Groom, 2005;Kaatari, 2017). For example, the construction has been found to be especially common in formal, academic discourse (Kaatari, 2016). Since many studies have observed that learners tend not to achieve an appropriate level of formality in their writing (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Extraposition in learner and expert writing

Larsson

Kaatari

2022

IJLCR

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Subject extraposition (e.g. it is important to remember) is generally considered to be a formal construction that learners, whose writing is often said to be overly informal, have been found to struggle with. This study investigates to what extent register and text type can be used to explore learners’ reportedly “informal” use of this construction. Learner writing is compared to expert writing from several different registers and to native-speaker student writing. The results show that there are important differences across both registers and text types. Furthermore, while the learners’ use is most like that of the experts’ academic writing, certain similarities to the non-academic registers were also noted. The results additionally suggest that earlier claims about the informal status of learner writing seem mainly to have been influenced by the text types included in the corpora previously investigated.

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Section: Previous Research On Extrapositionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Previous Research On Extrapositionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Extraposition in learner and expert writing

Larsson

Kaatari

2022

IJLCR

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“…Their choice depends on how accessible the referent is at the given point in discourse (Ariel, 2001). In morphosyntax, there are studies of use and omission of complementiser and relativiser that, which demonstrate that the predictability of the clause given the matrix verb or head noun/ adjective increases the chances of that-omission (Jaeger, 2010;Kaatari, 2016;Wasow, Jaeger, & Orr, 2011). For instance, the omission of that is more likely after hope than after show because the former is more commonly followed by a complement clause than the latter, for example, I hope (that) everything will be just fine (Jaeger, 2010).…”

Section: Aims Of This Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Communicative efficiency and the Principle of No Synonymy: predictability effects and the variation ofwant toandwanna

Levshina

Lorenz

2022

Lang. cogn.

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There is ample psycholinguistic evidence that speakers behave efficiently, using shorter and less effortful constructions when the meaning is more predictable, and longer and more effortful ones when it is less predictable. However, the Principle of No Synonymy requires that all formally distinct variants should also be functionally different. The question is how much two related constructions should overlap semantically and pragmatically in order to be used for the purposes of efficient communication. The case study focuses on want to + Infinitive and its reduced variant with wanna, which have different stylistic and sociolinguistic connotations. Bayesian mixed-effects regression modelling based on the spoken part of the British National Corpus reveals a very limited effect of efficiency: predictability increases the chances of the reduced variant only in fast speech. We conclude that efficient use of more and less effortful variants is restricted when two variants are associated with different registers or styles. This paper also pursues a methodological goal regarding missing values in speech corpora. We impute missing data based on the existing values. A comparison of regression models with and without imputed values reveals similar tendencies. This means that imputation is useful for dealing with missing values in corpora.

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Converging variations and the emergence of horizontal links

Lorenz

2020

Constructional Approaches to Language

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The guiding question of this paper is how (horizontal) connections are established when new items enter the network of constructions. It presents a quantitative, corpus-based study of the development of to-contraction (e.g. want to > wanna) in American English since the 19th century. From a plethora of earlier forms, gonna, wanna and gotta emerge, first as representations of phonetic reduction, but in time claiming their place as newly emerged, separate nodes in the constructional network. As their frequency increases, their usage patterns (relative to the full form) become increasingly similar. I propose that this marks the emergence of a horizontal link, which can be described as an emerging “metaconstruction”. The study discusses the status of these forms as either phonetic variants, potential allostructions, or independent form–meaning pairings, and provides first-hand evidence for emergent connections via mechanisms of analogy in language. Moreover, it makes an argument that (changing) usage patterns reflect (changing) constructional links and degrees of entrenchment.

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Variation across two dimensions: testing the Complexity Principle and the Uniform Information Density Principle on adjectival data

Cited by 6 publications

References 26 publications

Extraposition in learner and expert writing

Extraposition in learner and expert writing

Communicative efficiency and the Principle of No Synonymy: predictability effects and the variation ofwant toandwanna

Converging variations and the emergence of horizontal links

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