Collocation Analysis Research Articles

German-Danish or Danish-German? – A study of nationality adjectives in hyphenated compounds

This study is an explicitly comparative linguistic analysis of attributive collocations with nationality adjectives in hyphenated compounds with dansk ‘Danish’ and deutsch ‘German’ as first or second element. In cultural studies of identity, migration, and minorities, as well as in Danish and German media debates, hyphenated compounds continuously raise questions: Could meaning be attributed to the hyphen? Is the first element separated from, connected with, or subordinated to the second element by the hyphen – or vice versa? The present study seeks to explore whether the order of national adjectives in hyphenated compounds carry meaning. The base word nouns are examined to see whether there are semantic differences between nouns modified by nationality adjectives with interchangeable order or fixed order. The study’s premise is that linguistic fixity and conventionality reflect fixed “Denkmuster” (‘patterns of thought’, Stein & Stumpf 2019, 193), also in collocations. The two Sketch Engine corpora, daTenTen20 and deTenTen18, serve as the empirical basis for the comparison. The study shows that quantitatively there is a clear preference for deutsch- or dansk- as the first element, but no general semantic differences can be observed between base words following compounds with adjectives in interchangeable order and those following compounds with adjectives in fixed order.

Defining, labelling and evaluating poverty: A corpus-based discourse analysis of category construction in The Times newspaper 1900–2009

This paper explores the construction of different understandings of poverty in The Times newspaper (1900–2009). Using corpus-based discourse analysis, it examines the premodification of poverty with different nouns. Rising to prominence from the 1950s onwards, the resulting compound nouns, including world poverty and child poverty, facilitate the discursive construction of different types of poverty as distinct entities. Through close reading of concordance lines and collocate analysis, the paper investigates how these categories are presented as qualitatively similar/different and discusses how such representations reflect broader ideological contexts in the UK.

Structural reading: Developing the method of Structural Collocation Analysis using a case study on parliamentary reporting

To analyze large, digitized corpora, we introduce the new approach of “structural reading”, which combines the abstraction of distant reading with the nuance of close reading. We do so by developing the method of “structural collocation analysis” (SCA) that uses metadata categories to investigate how research topics behave across texts belonging to different categories. The method combines the robustness of traditional collocation analysis with the structural dimension of structural topic modeling, bridging corpus linguistics and text mining. SCA enables us to gain novel insights from existing corpora to shed new light on long-standing historical debates. We exemplify this method through a case study on the history of parliamentary reporting, using digitized British parliamentary proceedings. We discovered that discussions on parliamentary reporting were not dominated by a particular political party, but rather by senior MPs and MPs from urban areas – two categories we call “political insiders”. Metadata-based distinctions between different types of politicians thus enabled us to provide new perspectives on the history of parliamentary reporting.

Vocal-visual combinations in wild chimpanzees

Living organisms throughout the animal kingdom habitually communicate with multi-modal signals that use multiple sensory channels. Such composite signals vary in their communicative function, as well as the extent to which they are recombined freely. Humans typically display complex forms of multi-modal communication, yet the evolution of this capacity remains unknown. One of our two closest living relatives, chimpanzees, also produce multi-modal combinations and therefore may offer a valuable window into the evolutionary roots of human communication. However, a currently neglected step in describing multi-modal systems is to disentangle non-random combinations from those that occur simply by chance. Here we aimed to provide a systematic quantification of communicative behaviour in our closest living relatives, describing non-random combinations produced across auditory and visual modalities. Through recording the behaviour of wild chimpanzees from the Kibale forest, Uganda we generated the first repertoire of non-random combined vocal and visual components. Using collocation analysis, we identified more than 100 vocal-visual combinations which occurred more frequently than expected by chance. We also probed how multi-modal production varied in the population, finding no differences in the number of visual components produced with vocalisations as a function of age, sex or rank. As expected, chimpanzees produced more visual components alongside vocalizations during longer vocalization bouts, however, this was only the case for some vocalization types, not others. We demonstrate that chimpanzees produce a vast array of combined vocal and visual components, exhibiting a hitherto underappreciated level of multi-modal complexity.

Promoting Adaptive Apparel on Instagram: The Role of People with Disabilities as Users, Influencers, and Advocates

This study aimed to understand how social media is used as a marketing and promotion tool for fashion brands within the adaptive apparel marketplace and further explores how disability advocates and influencers use social media to promote adaptive apparel. To achieve this goal, the study used a qualitative methodology of semi-structured interviews and a computational methodology of collocation analysis to analyze social media posts from users with hashtags related to adaptive apparel. The result of the study revealed three themes that supported social capital theory, communities of practice, and virtual communities of practice theories – Inclusion, Representation, and Education. Further, the data mining phase provided valuable insights into the significant event and the broader community of people with disabilities. This study showed how fashion brands, disability organizations, advocates, and people with disabilities use social media to market and promote adaptive apparel.

Using a Triple Sensor Collocation Approach to Evaluate Small-Holder Irrigation Scheme Performances in Northern Ethiopia

This study uses a triple-sensor collocation approach to evaluate the performance of small-holder irrigation schemes in the Zamra catchment of Northern Ethiopia. Crop water productivity (CWP), as an integrator of biomass production and water use, was used to compare the overall efficiencies of three types of irrigation systems: traditional and modern diversions, and dam-based irrigation water supply. Farmer-reported data often rely on observations, which can introduce human estimation and measurement errors. As a result, the evaluation of irrigation scheme performance has frequently been insufficient to fully explain crop water productivity. To overcome the challenges of using one single estimation method, we used a triple-sensor collocation approach to evaluate the efficiency of three small-scale irrigation schemes, using water productivity as an indicator. It employed three independent methods: remotely sensed data, a model-based approach, and farmer in-situ estimates to assess crop yields and water consumption. To implement the triple collocation appraisal, we first applied three independent evaluation methods, i.e., remotely sensed, model-based, and farmer in-situ estimates of crop yields and water consumption, to assess the crop water productivities of the systems. Triple-sensor collocation allows for the appraisal and comparison of estimation errors of measurement sensor systems, and enables the ranking of the estimators by their quality to represent the de-facto unknown true value, in our case: crop yields, water use, and its ratio CWP, in small-holder irrigated agriculture. The study entailed four main components: (1) collecting in-situ information and data from small-holder farmers on crop yields and water use; (2) derivation of remote sensing-based CWP from the FAO WaPOR open database and time series; (3) evaluation of biomass, crop yields and water use (evapotranspiration) using the AquaCrop model, integrating climate, soil data, and irrigation management practices; (4) performing and analysis of a categorical triple collocation analysis of the independent estimator data and performance ranking of the three sensing and small-holder irrigation systems. Maize and vegetables were used as main crops during three consecutive irrigation seasons (2017/18, 2018/19, 2019/20). Civil war prevented further field surveying, in-situ research, and data collection. The results indicate that remote sensing products are performed best in the modern and dam irrigation schemes for maize. For vegetables, AquaCrop performed best in the dam irrigation scheme.

PANDANGAN TENTANG PRAKTIK BEDAH PLASTIK DALAM ARTIKEL OPINI DI SURAT KABAR KOREA TAHUN 2010–2019

This research aims to reveal Korean’s perspectives on plastic surgery practices through a corpus-based text analysis of Korean online newspapers. The research used quantitative and qualitative methods to observe keywords, significant collocates, and semantic preference. The data used were 106 opinion articles about plastic surgery in Chosun Ilbo and Donga Ilbo (2010–2019). Keyword analysis shows that the most frequently used keywords are seonghyeong (189 times) and seonghyeongsusul (116 times). Analysis of significant collocates and semantic preferences revealed that plastic surgery was frequently discussed in relation to body parts, people (collocate yeoseong (women), junggukin (Chinese), hwanja (patient), gwangganggek (tourist)), country (collocate jungguk (China), hangguk (Korea)), intensity (gwadohan (excessive)), and effect (phihae (loss)), and others. Plastic surgery clinics are frequently addressed in terms of location (collocate Gangnam, Seoul), intensity (collocate daehyong (big scale)), and others. Based on the findings of this study, plastic surgery is primarily performed on local women and international patients, particularly Chinese tourists. Plastic surgery is also perceived as having a negative impact, being overdone, and causing numerous difficulties. Plastic surgery performed on foreign patients is considered as beneficial to Korean economic progress, but it should not be performed on Koreans.

Pojemnik jako kulturowy wyznacznik obrazu wody u Hausańczyków

The paper focuses on cultural categorization of water in Hausa based on names of three water containers: a bottle, a sachet, and a container called buta. The main part of the paper concerns the analysis of collocations, metaphors, and fixed phrases, indicating the association of three types of water with certain events, activities, and domains of social life such as religious practices, celebrations, hygiene, eating meals, or hosting guests. In conclusion, it is shown that the three types of water have a strictly defined function and are related to culturally embedded values.

Downscaling soil moisture in regions with high soil heterogeneity: the solution based on ensemble learning with sequential and parallel learner

Soil moisture plays an important role in the water and heat exchanges between the land surface and atmosphere, and it has great importance for agricultural production, ecological planning, and water resources management. Although microwave remote sensing has been widely used in large-scale soil moisture monitoring, the accuracy of the downscaled retrieval results cannot be guaranteed for regions with high vegetation coverage and high soil heterogeneity. To address these challenges, this study built soil moisture indice set based on MODIS and elevation data by calculating the Pearson correlation coefficient (R) and Maximum Information Coefficient (MIC), then constructed decision tree models (Gradient Boosting Decision Tree and Random Forest) about the indice set and low-resolution Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) by using two ensemble learning methods (Bagging and Boosting). The models were applied to the high-resolution soil moisture indices in Jilin Province for the years 2017 to 2020 to generate 1 km-resolution products. In the validation process, Triple Collocation Analysis (TCA), comparison of soil moisture maps with coarse and fine resolution, and in-situ measurements in Lishu County, Tongyu County, and Jilin City were used to evaluate the differences between downscaling soil moisture results and ground observations at network, seasonal and point scales. The results were as follows: (1) The correlation coefficient (R2) calculated by the TCA method was 0.733 (GBDT_36km) > 0.649 (RF_36km), and the error variance was 0.0004 (GBDT_36km) < 0.00058 (RF_36km). (2) R at network scale was 0.798 (GBDT_SM) > 0.662 (RF_SM), RMSE was 0.040 (GBDT_SM) < 0.044 (RF_SM), the point scale R was 0.864 (GBDT_SM) > 0.833 (RF_SM), RMSE was 0.029 (GBDT_SM) < 0.039 (RF_SM). The R in four stages of the growth period was GBDT_SM > RF_SM, RMSE was GBDT_SM < RF_SM. In conclusion, the GBDT and RF models can reliably downscale soil moisture in Jilin Province, and the Boosting ensemble learning method represented by GBDT had a better estimation performance.

Rhetorical Functions of Lexical Collocations in the Inaugural Speech of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu

In political communication, inaugural speeches are pivotal, signifying the start of a leader’s term and a new chapter in a nation’s history. These serve as a momentousoccasion where the leader outlines their vision, pledging to guide the country to prosperity and unity. This study delves into the inaugural speech delivered by PresidentBola Ahmed Tinubu upon assuming the highest office in Nigeria in May 2023. Through a meticulous analysis of lexical collocations, the study uncovers the underlying linguistic intricacies, thematic emphasis, and rhetorical strategies employed by President Tinubu in his address, to gain insights into the rhetorical techniques used to connect with the audience and convey his vision as well as the impact of his address on political discourse and public perception. Downloading the speech from the Punch Newspaper website, the analytical approach followed the principles of lexical collocation theory and systemic functional linguistics. The analysis reveals eight strategic rhetorical purposes in President Tinubu’s use of lexical collocations in his speech. These functions encompass appeals to religiosity, political sensibility, national pride, patriotism, unity, hope, calls to action, policy clarification, and exemplifying an inclusive government. His language choices resonate with the audience, eliciting emotions and nurturing a national sense of pride and identity. The analysis of President Tinubu’s inaugural speech contributes to a better understanding of his linguistic legacy and communication strategies during his tenure in office. It becomes a part of the historical record, revealing the president’s approach to governance and leadership.

Summarizing multiple aspects of triple collocation analysis in a single diagram

With the ongoing expansion of global observation networks, it is expected that we shall routinely analyze records of geophysical variables such as temperature from multiple collocated instruments. Validating datasets in this situation is not a trivial task because every observing system has its own bias and noise. Triple collocation is a general statistical framework to estimate the error characteristics in three or more observational-based datasets. In a triple colocation analysis, several metrics are routinely reported but traditional multiple-panel plots are not the most effective way to display information. A new formula of error variance is derived for connecting the key terms in the triple collocation theory. A diagram based on this formula is devised to facilitate triple collocation analysis of any data from observations, as illustrated using three aerosol optical depth datasets from the recent Aerosol Cloud meTeorology Interactions oVer the western ATlantic Experiment (ACTIVATE). An observational-based skill score is also derived to evaluate the quality of three datasets by taking into account both error variance and correlation coefficient. Several applications are discussed and sample plotting routines are provided.

Korpusna kontrastivna analiza metaforičnih kolokacij izrazov &lt;i&gt;right&lt;/i&gt; in &lt;i&gt;pravo&lt;/i&gt;: ali različne pravne kulture ustvarjajo različne metafore?

The paper focuses on the contrastive analysis of metaphorical collocations of the nouns right and pravo in the web corpora of English and Croatian. It categorizes metaphorical collocations based on the Master Metaphor List (Lakoff, Espenson, and Schwarts 1991), and attempts to detect the similarities and differences in the cognitive structuring of the two terms. The paper is thus an attempt to investigate the metaphorical dimension of legal collocations, a perspective largely ignored to date in the study of collocations in legal discourse. By combining the corpusbased approach, which allows us to access a significant number of collocations, and using the Master Metaphor List, the paper reveals the network of conceptual mappings operating in the background of collocations and proposes that such cognitive structuring cuts across different legal cultures.

Analysis of Collocations and Semantic Preferences of English Synonyms ‘Critical, Serious and Crucial’: A Corpus Based Approach

Analysis of Collocations and Semantic Preferences of English Synonyms ‘Critical, Serious and Crucial’: A Corpus Based Approach

Uncertainty in Sea State Observations from Satellite Altimeters and Buoys during the Jason-3/Sentinel-6 MF Tandem Experiment

The Copernicus Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich (S6-MF) and Jason-3 (J3) Tandem Experiment (S6-JTEX) provided over 12 months of closely collocated altimeter sea state measurements, acquired in “low-resolution” (LR) and synthetic aperture radar “high-resolution” (HR) modes onboard S6-MF. The consistency and uncertainties associated with these measurements of sea state are examined in a region of the eastern North Pacific. Discrepancies in mean significant wave height (Hs, 0.01 m) and root-mean-square deviation (0.06 m) between J3 and S6-MF LR are found to be small compared to differences with buoy data (0.04, 0.29 m). S6-MF HR data are found to be highly correlated with LR data (0.999) but affected by a nonlinear sea state-dependent bias. However, the bias can be explained robustly through regression modelling based on Hs. Subsequent triple collocation analysis (TCA) shows very little difference in measurement error (0.18 ± 0.03 m) for the three altimetry datasets, when analysed with buoy data (0.22 ± 0.02 m) and ERA5 reanalysis (0.27 ± 0.02 m), although statistical precision, limited by total collocations (N = 535), both obscures interpretation and motivates the use of a larger dataset. However, we identify uncertainties in the collocation methodology, with important consequences for methods such as TCA. Firstly, data from some commonly used buoys are found to be statistically questionable, possibly linked to erroneous buoy operation. Secondly, we develop a methodology based on altimetry data to show how statistically outlying data also arise due to sampling over local sea state gradients. This methodology paves the way for accurate collocation closer to the coast, bringing larger collocation sample sizes and greater statistical robustness.

Exploring the actual spatial resolution of 1 km satellite soil moisture products

High-resolution soil moisture data is crucial in the development of hydrological applications as it provides detailed insights into the spatiotemporal variability of soil moisture. The emergence of advanced remote sensing technologies, alongside the widespread adoption of machine learning, has facilitated the creation of continental and global soil moisture products both at fine spatial (1 km) and temporal (daily) scales. Some of these products rely on several data sources as input (satellite, in situ, modelling), and therefore an evaluation of their actual spatial and temporal resolution is required. Nevertheless, the absence of appropriate ground monitoring networks poses a significant challenge for this assessment.In this study, five high-resolution (1 km) soil moisture products (S1-RT1, S1-COP, SMAP-Planet, SMAP-NSIDC, and ESACCI-Zheng) were analysed and evaluated throughout the Italian territory, together with a coarse resolution (12.5 km) dataset for comparison (ASCAT-HSAF). The main objective is to investigate their actual spatial and temporal resolution, and accuracy. Firstly, a cross-comparison of the products in space and time is carried out, including the use of triple collocation analysis. Secondly, an application-based assessment is implemented, considering irrigation, fire, drought, and precipitation case studies.The results clearly indicate the limitations and the potential of each product. Sentinel-1 based products (S1-COP and S1-RT1) are found able to reproduce high-resolution spatial patterns by detecting localised events for irrigation, fire, and precipitation. Their lower temporal resolution leads to accuracies lower than that of the SMAP-Planet product, and comparable with SMAP-NSIDC and ESACCI-Zheng products. However, SMAP-Planet is found to have an actual spatial resolution coarser than 1 km. The study highlights the need for further research to improve the high-resolution soil moisture products, and particularly to determine accurately the spatial resolution represented in soil moisture products. At the same time, the analysed products are found able to address high-resolution applications for the first time, opening promising activities for their operational use in hydrology and water resources management.

Ideologies as conceptual networks: towards a data-intensive approach

ABSTRACT This article introduces a data-intensive approach to visualizing political ideologies as text networks. The methodology combines network theory with collocation analysis from corpus linguistics. Its similarities and differences to Michael Freeden’s morphological approach are highlighted. The prospects are examined by focusing on the case study of Finnish socialism in the early 20th century. Primary sources consist of printed labor newspapers, handwritten newspapers produced by ordinary working people, and parliamentary speeches. The empirical part demonstrates that the network approach is useful for (1) locating key political words based on centrality in the network, (2) identifying clusters of words related to each other more strongly than to the rest of the network, and (3) seeing the structure of an ideological network. The main contribution of the article is methodological for the approach can be applied to other machine-readable sources, both at small and large scales, to automatically extract information on the linguistic patterns characteristic of a political ideology under investigation.

From Argentina to Zimbabwe: Exploring the global appeal of the International Baccalaureate

This paper presents the third stage of a larger research project examining perceptions of the International Baccalaureate (IB) to better understand its growing influence on education systems around the world. The first two stages involved a synchronic and diachronic analysis of IB discourse in a 27 million word specialized corpus of global press articles, created as an unsolicited window into public opinion (Mautner, 2008). The present study uses the same corpus to explore how the IB is represented in different countries, what values and attitudes may be associated with it, and how it interacts with other global education actors. Bottom up and top down methods from corpus-assisted discourse studies (CADS) were used to analyze 34,104 newspaper articles from 56 countries. Frequency, collocation and concordance analyses revealed four dominant discourses of deficiency connected to national education systems in countries across the ideological spectrum that helped to legitimize the inclusion of private actors in the provision of education. Results also showed unique discourses associated with the IB in North America, thereby highlighting the key role that this region plays in the IB world.

A harmonized global gridded transpiration product based on collocation analysis

Transpiration (T) is pivotal in the global water cycle, responding to soil moisture, atmospheric stress, climate changes, and human impacts. Therefore, establishing a reliable global transpiration dataset is essential. Collocation analysis methods have been proven effective for assessing the errors in these products, which can subsequently be used for multisource fusion. However, previous results did not consider error cross-correlation, rendering the results less reliable. In this study, we employ collocation analysis, taking error cross-correlation into account, to effectively analyze the errors in multiple transpiration products and merge them to obtain a more reliable dataset. The results demonstrate its superior reliability. The outcome is a long-term daily global transpiration dataset at 0.1°from 2000 to 2020. Using the transpiration after partitioning at FLUXNET sites as a reference, we compare the performance of the merged product with inputs. The merged dataset performs well across various vegetation types and is validated against in-situ observations. Incorporating non-zero ECC considerations represents a significant theoretical and proven enhancement over previous methodologies that neglected such conditions, highlighting its reliability in enhancing our understanding of transpiration dynamics in a changing world.

Assessing global transpiration estimates: Insights from tree-scale sap flow analysis

Ecosystem transpiration estimation presents significant uncertainties, prompting the need for direct assessment through sap flow measurements to validate T products and their associated modeling mechanisms. Additionally, the scarcity of global site data urges us to seek reliable error assessment and integration methods that do not rely on observations. This pioneering study conducts a comprehensive global-scale analysis, evaluating uncertainties in four prominent products using SAPFLUXNET data and delving into multi-source data assessment and fusion using collocation analysis. Results highlight GLEAM’s superior performance across diverse vegetation types, closely trailed by weighted average and PMLv2, with ERA5L displaying the poorest performance. While discrepancies exist among product performances, their estimations across low, median, and high percentiles demonstrate moderate differences. Further sensitivity analysis underscores the critical role of accurately representing vegetation responses to VPD, root-zone soil moisture, and radiation for improved transpiration estimates. Additionally, collocation analysis emerges as a reliable tool for error analysis, with collocation-based fusion results effectively reducing input errors and demonstrating the best estimation of multi-year mean and trend. This study strongly advocates for heightened precision in these products and continual assessments to refine ecological models.

Beyond warzones: conflict-stricken states as viewed by the Czech corpus collocations

Abstract The aim of the article is to observe how countries that have faced armed conflicts in the recent decades are perceived in a corpus of Czech, mostly journalism texts. We focus on eight countries where soldiers of the Czech Republic or the former Czechoslovak Republic have been deployed on the basis of a mandate after 1989 (Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Iraq, Kosovo, Kuwait, Mali, and Yugoslavia). The picture of each country is determined via a quantitative, corpus-based approach. First, a frequency analysis is conducted in an attempt to show whether texts tend to mention some conflict-affected countries more frequently than others. Second, a collocation analysis is carried out to identify the stereotypes associated with the studied countries. The results show very different perceptions of the states, ranging from those connected solely to warfare (Iraq, Afghanistan) to those that are nowadays mostly seen as holiday destinations (Croatia). Moreover, some countries do not seem to be paid much attention at all (Mali). The outcome of the research may be of use for journalists, political scholars, and geographers and provides the respective disciplines with a new methodological approach.