The Distribution Patterns of Valency-changing Verbs: An Approach of Quantitative Linguistics

The present study attempts to explore the distribution patterns of the valency-changing verbs from the perspective of quantitative linguistics. We took authentic spoken language data as the research materials. The corpus used in this paper is a self-built spoken English corpus containing about 21,000 words. We half-manually annotated the corpus with the help of SpaCy, a natural language processing tool. According to the annotation results and statistical data, we obtained a total of 217 valency-changing English verbs and 248 sentence components governed by them. After analysis, the current study came to the following conclusions: First, bivalent verbs are most frequent among the three types of valency-changing verbs; second, after fitting all the language data to different probability distributions, we found that the rank-frequency distributions of all the valency-changing English verbs with different numbers of obligatory arguments obey the power law, and the frequencies of bivalent valency-changing verbs obey other kinds of distributions such as the mixed Poisson distribution.

Explain the law: When the evidence is not enough

The article responds to the current variability of research into linguistic laws and the explanation of these laws. We show basic features to approach linguistic laws in the field of quantitative linguistics and research on linguistic laws outside the field of language and text. Language laws are usually explained in terms of the language system—especially as economizing—or of the information structure of the text (Piantadosi 2014). One of the hallmarks of the transmission of linguistic laws outside the realm of language and text is that they provide other kinds of explanations (Torre et al. 2019). We want to show that the problem of linguistics in the explanation of linguistic laws lies primarily in its inability to clarify the internal structure of language material, and the influence of the theory or method used for sample processing on the result of law analysis—which was formulated by Peter Grzybek (2006). We would like to show that this is the reason why linguistics avoids explanations of linguistic laws.

English Loanwords in Mongolian Usage

Many authors have examined the influence of loanwords in languages using statistical methods. However, English loanwords in Mongolian are rarely studied in quantitative linguistics. The results of the present study show that English loanwords in Mongolian share the universal feature of other tested languages, as their frequency distribution abides by Zipf’s Law. In addition, we define and test nine English loanword models depending on borrowing method and parts of speech, and find that the results can be described using a power function.

Demonstrating change from a drop-in space soundscape exhibit by using graffiti walls both before and after

Impact evaluation in public engagement necessarily requires measuring change. However, this is extremely challenging for drop-in activities due to their very nature. We present a novel method of impact evaluation which integrates graffiti walls into the experience both before and after the main drop-in activity. The activity in question was a soundscape exhibit, where young families experienced the usually inaudible sounds of near-Earth space in an immersive and accessible way. We apply two analysis techniques to the captured before and after data – quantitative linguistics and thematic analysis. These analyses reveal significant changes in participants' responses after the activity compared to before, namely an increased diversity in language used to describe space and altered conceptions of what space is like. The results demonstrate that the soundscape was surprisingly effective at innately communicating key aspects of the underlying science simply through the act of listening. The impacts also highlight the power of sonification in stimulating public engagement, which, through reflection, can lead to altered associations, perceptions, and understanding. Therefore, we show that this novel approach to drop-in activity evaluation, using graffiti walls both before and after the activity and applying rigorous analysis to this data, has the power to capture change and, thus, have a short-term impact. We suggest that commonly used evaluation tools suitable for drop-in activities, such as graffiti walls, should be integrated both before and after the main activity in general, rather than only using them afterwards as is typically the case.

Explain the law: When the evidence is not enough

The article responds to the current variability of research into linguistic laws and the explanation of these laws. We show basic features to approach linguistic laws in the field of quantitative linguistics and research on linguistic laws outside the field of language and text. Language laws are usually explained in terms of the language system—especially as economizing—or of the information structure of the text (Piantadosi 2014). One of the hallmarks of the transmission of linguistic laws outside the realm of language and text is that they provide other kinds of explanations (Torre et al. 2019). We want to show that the problem of linguistics in the explanation of linguistic laws lies primarily in its inability to clarify the internal structure of language material, and the influence of the theory or method used for sample processing on the result of law analysis—which was formulated by Peter Grzybek (2006). We would like to show that this is the reason why linguistics avoids explanations of linguistic laws.

Words of Warfare: Life of Mission Soldiers in the Perspective of Quantitative Linguistics

The paper focuses on the analysis of a sample of military language from the stylometric perspective. The corpus is the chronicle of the 8th Czech Armed Forces Guard Company, which operated at the Bagram Air Field base (BAF). We work on the assumptions that in the corpus, there will be (A) a prominent presence of military slang; (B) a high proportion of abbreviations; (C) frequent linguistic devices expressing mutuality and collectiveness of the soldiers’ enterprise. The texts were subjected to keyword and collocation analyses; these determined several stylistic features of theirs (such as use of English-based expressions, protocol-like language, or idiosyncratic collocations), which testify to the multifaceted character of the military chronicle genre.

A Statistical Study of lyrics of “Huar” from Northwest China

As an intangible cultural heritage, “Huar” from Northwest China is a folk song created and shared by many ethnic groups in Gansu, Qinghai and Ningxia provinces. It is a precious card of Chinese national culture. However, current research on “Huar” is mainly based on qualitative methods. This paper uses statistical methods to study the lyrics of “Huar". First, the word frequency of the lyrics of “Huar” is analysed statistically. Then, the lyrics of Hezhou Huar and Taomin Huar are compared and analysed from the perspective of quantitative linguistics ("Huar” mainly includes Hezhou Huar and Taomin Huar). By comparing three quantitative indicators, it is concluded that the lexical richness of Taomin Huar is higher than that of Hezhou Huar. Based on the frequency distribution of parts of speech, the similarities and differences of the use of parts of speech between Hezhou Huar and Taomin Huar are found. This paper uses statistical methods to analyse “Huar", which has certain research value and social value.

The Cluster Configuration of the Semantic Space of Polysituational Juridical Verbs with the Subject «Judge» in English

The article is dedicated to the analysis of the semantic space of polysituational juridical verbs with the subject «judge» in English. The theoretical part of the research combines some aspects of «verb-centric» conception and «quantitative linguistics». A polisituational verb» implies a complex verbal situation consisting of several simple situations. The notion of a «juridical verb» correlates with a juridical social sphere. The article substantiates diagnostic semantic features which constitute the structural elements of the semantic space. The semantic features are organized into semantic plans. One semantic plan («chronostructural») being «categorical» integrates the features «basic situation» and «background situation». The «subcategorical» semantic plans are: «teleological » (the features: «definite» and «indefinite» situations), «temporal» (the features: «retrospective» and «prospective» situations), «motivational» («strong» and «weak» situations), «adject-legal» («base», «sanctions» and «processual» law), «adject-functional» («instrumental» and «purpose-oriented» law), «adjectsubstantive» («material» and «person» adject), «interactive» («convergent», «divergent » and «invergent»), «hierarchical» («dominant» and «subordinate» subject), «axiological» («positive» and «negative» evaluation). Each subcategorical semantic feature (exept for temporal plan features) correlates with one of the categorical («basic situation» or «background situation»). The actant «judge» is modeled by means of the following features within a basic situation: «processual» law, «instrumental» law and «dominant» subject. By means of cluster analysis the semantic features were grouped into two clusters («Divergent» and «Convergent-invergent») in correlation with an accusatorial or a justificatory-undifferentiated sentence. The differential (most relevant) semantic characteristics within the basic situation are the features of interactive and motivational plans, within the background situation they constitute the features of adject-legal, adject-functional and interactive plans.