Phraseology in specialized resources: an approach to complex nominals

Lexicography ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melania Cabezas-García ◽  
Pamela Faber
Keyword(s):  
Complex Nominals

Beyond Differences: Assessing Effects of Shared Linguistic Features on L2 Writing Quality of Two Genres

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaopeng Zhang ◽  
Xiaofei Lu ◽  
Wenwen Li
Keyword(s):  
Latent Variables ◽  
Moving Average ◽  
College Level ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Writing Quality ◽  
Efl Writing ◽  
Test Corpus ◽  
Argumentative Essays ◽  
Complex Nominals

Abstract This study explored the relationship between linguistic features and the rated quality of letters of application (LAs) and argumentative essays (AEs) composed in English by Chinese college-level English as a foreign language (EFL) learners. A corpus of 260 LAs and 260 AEs were analyzed via a confirmatory factor analysis. Latent variables were EFL writing quality, captured by writing scores, and lexical sophistication, syntactic complexity, and cohesion, each captured by different linguistic features in the two genres of writing. Results indicated that lexical decision times, moving average type-token ratio with a 50-word window, and complex nominals per clause explained 55.5 per cent of the variance in the holistic scores of both genres of writing. This pattern of predictivity was further validated with a test corpus of 110 LAs and 110 AEs, revealing that, albeit differing in genre, higher-rated LAs and AEs were likely to contain more sophisticated words and complex nominals and exhibit a higher type-token ratio with a 50-word window. These findings help enrich our understanding of the shared features of different genres of EFL writing and have potentially useful implications for EFL writing pedagogy and assessment.

scholarly journals A Morphological Analysis of Akan Honorific and Title Names for God

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 1371-1383
Author(s):  
Samuel Yeboah ◽  
Emmanuel Amo Ofori ◽  
Kofi Busia Abrefa
Keyword(s):  
Morphological Analysis ◽  
Morphological Investigation ◽  
Personal Names ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
Morphological Processes ◽  
Complex Nominals

This study is motivated by our observation that earlier works have looked at Akan personal names either from sociolinguistics or non-linguistic perspectives; however, a critical morphological analysis of the structure of Akan honorific and title names for God has eluded researchers in linguistics. It is based on this background that we conduct a thorough morphological investigation into Akan honorific and title names for God, with the aim of addressing the morphological processes that account for their derivation. Drawing on data from both primary and secondary sources, the analysis reveals that Akan honorific and title names ascribed to God have complex nominals and this is manifested through affixation, compounding and reduplication. It further shows that some of the names are recursive in nature and are therefore derived through nominalization of sentences or clauses, especially those that undergo compounding.

The Syntax and Semantics of Complex Nominals

Language ◽  
1979 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 396
Author(s):  
Frederick J. Newmeyer ◽  
Judith N. Levi
Keyword(s):  
Complex Nominals

Syntactic complexity in Finnish-background EFL learners’ writing at CEFR levels A1–B2

2022 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ghulam Abbas Khushik ◽  
Ari Huhta
Keyword(s):  
Unit Length ◽  
Sentence Length ◽  
Length Variation ◽  
Syntactic Complexity ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Verb Phrases ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Automated Tools ◽  
Complex Nominals

Abstract The increasing importance of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) has led to research on the linguistic characteristics of its levels, as this would help the application of the CEFR in the design of teaching materials, courses, and assessments. This study investigated whether CEFR levels can be distinguished with reference to syntactic complexity (SC). 14- and 17-year-old Finnish learners of English (N=397) wrote three writing tasks which were rated against the CEFR levels. The ratings were analysed with multi-facet Rasch analysis and the texts were analysed with automated tools. Findings suggest that the clearest separators at lower CEFR levels (A1–A2) were the mean sentence and T-unit length, variation in sentence length, infinitive density, clauses per sentence or T-unit, and verb phrases per T-unit. For higher levels (B1–B2) they were modifiers per noun phrase, mean clause length, complex nominals per clause, and left embeddedness. The results support previous findings that the length of and variation in the longer production units (sentences, T-units) are the SC indices that most clearly separate the lower CEFR levels, whereas the higher levels are best distinguished in terms of complexity at the clausal and phrasal levels.

scholarly journals Syntactic Complexity of EFL Chinese Students’ Writing

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sue Wang ◽  
Tammy Slater
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
English Learners ◽  
Chinese Students ◽  
Syntactic Complexity ◽  
Sentence Level ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
English Major ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Complex Nominals ◽  
Development Assessment

<p>Syntactic complexity as an indicator in the study of English learners’ language proficiency has been frequently employed in language development assessment. Using the Syntactic Complexity Analyzer, developed by Lu (2010), this article collected data representing the syntactic complexity indexes from the writing of Chinese non-English major students and from the writing of proficient users of English on a similar task. The results indicate that there is a significant difference in the use of complex nominals, the mean length of sentences, and the mean length of clauses between the writings of EFL Chinese students and more proficient users. This study provides suggestions for EFL writing teaching, particularly writing at the sentence level.</p>

The development of complex nominals in expert and non-expert writing

2003 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 267-296 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dorit Ravid ◽  
Shoshana Zilberbuch
Keyword(s):  
Age Groups ◽  
Mental Lexicon ◽  
Developmental Changes ◽  
Childhood And Adolescence ◽  
Input And Output ◽  
Written Texts ◽  
Text Types ◽  
Adolescents And Adults ◽  
Study Population ◽  
Complex Nominals

This study examines the distribution of complex nominal constructions in Hebrew texts produced by non-expert schoolage and adult writers, compared with their distribution in expert-written encyclopedic texts. One aim of the paper was to determine young writers’ ability to distinguish text types through their usage of genre-appropriate morpho-syntactic forms. Another aim was to investigate the distribution of these constructions in expert school-related texts so as to confirm or refute the hypothesis of “resonance” between input and output texts. The study population consisted of native Hebrew-speaking gradeschoolers, adolescents and adults who each produced 2 written texts, one biographical, one expository. The same text types were analyzed in three encyclopedias, targeted for use in each of the age groups under discussion. Our analysis indicates that non-expert writers’ textual output undergoes marked developmental changes during later childhood and adolescence, but no developmental resonance was found in expert texts, which constitute part of the input that novice and non-expert writers are exposed to. Implications for the nature of the mental lexicon and its relationship with grammar are discussed.

scholarly journals General and specific paraphrases of semantic relations between nouns

2013 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 357-384 ◽  
Author(s):  
PAUL NULTY ◽  
FINTAN COSTELLO
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Probabilistic Method ◽  
Semantic Relations ◽  
Semantic Interpretation ◽  
Academic Press ◽  
Class A ◽  
Modern Sculpture ◽  
Complex Nominals ◽  
Relation Classification ◽  
Computational Systems

AbstractMany English noun pairs suggest an almost limitless array of semantic interpretation. A fruit bowl might be described as a bowl for fruit, a bowl that contains fruit, a bowl for holding fruit, or even (perhaps in a modern sculpture class), a bowl made out of fruit. These interpretations vary in syntax, semantic denotation, plausibility, and level of semantic detail. For example, a headache pill is usually a pill for preventing headaches, but might, perhaps in the context of a list of side effects, be a pill that can cause headaches (Levi, J. N. 1978. The Syntax and Semantics of Complex Nominals. New York: Academic Press.). In addition to lexical ambiguity, both relational ambiguity and relational vagueness make automatic semantic interpretation of these combinations difficult. While humans parse these possibilities with ease, computational systems are only recently gaining the ability to deal with the complexity of lexical expressions of semantic relations. In this paper, we describe techniques for paraphrasing the semantic relations that can hold between nouns in a noun compound, using a semi-supervised probabilistic method to rank candidate paraphrases of semantic relations, and describing a new method for selecting plausible relational paraphrases at arbitrary levels of semantic specification. These methods are motivated by the observation that existing semantic relation classification schemes often exhibit a highly skewed class distribution, and that lexical paraphrases of semantic relations vary widely in semantic precision.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document