Comparable Corpora Research Articles

Nominal construction of epistemological positions and power relations in journalistic stance taking: Variation across British and Chinese media discourse in English

Pursuing new ways of understanding the norm of objectivity and journalistic authority in the analysis of contemporary journalistic discourse has been a focal point of interest. Latest developments in the study of journalistic discourse have extended beyond the more traditional critical discourse analysis to methodologies that involve large corpora of texts and in-depth linguistic analysis to capture attitudinal expressions. We aim to study epistemological positions and power relations in journalistic stance taking focused on noun + that-complement clause constructions based on a comparable corpus of British and Chinese media discourse and the application of a functionally based taxonomy of stance nouns. Through the empirical observation about the deployment of different types of stance nouns, our study revealed important similarities between the two discourse types in that they both rely heavily on stance nouns showing beliefs, attitudes and cognitive grounding in addition to those of actions, processes and states of affairs specific to events. More significantly, the study pinpointed important differences by unveiling a preference for verbal propositions and speech acts in British media discourse and a contrasting preference in Chinese media discourse for propositional truth judgements deploying stance nouns designating epistemic status. Most importantly, the current study has suggested a corpus-based approach to stance taking in journalistic discourse by way of functional classification of nouns as a linguistic analytical procedure that has proven to be particularly suited for this purpose.

The Variations in the Use of Sentence Connectors in Timed and Untimed Student Writing: A Comparative Corpus Study of British Students

This study investigates the use of sentence connectors in British students' timed and untimed writings, utilizing data from the British component of the International Corpus of English (ICE-GB). By comparing the frequency and patterns of 54 selected connectors between these two writing conditions, the research reveals that students tend to overuse certain basic connectors like and and or, particularly in timed examinations. The analysis also highlights the impact of time pressure on linguistic choices, showing a preference for simpler connectors in timed settings. The findings contribute to understanding native English speakers' connector usage and suggest implications for academic writing and teaching strategies.

More spoken or more translated?

Abstract This article explores the features of simultaneous interpreting (SI) from a multidimensional (MD) analysis perspective (Biber 1988), drawing on a newly built comparable intermodal corpus, the LegCo+ corpus. The corpus incorporates Cantonese speeches that are both interpreted and translated into English, as SI and written translation (WT), respectively. Additionally, a third English corpus consisting of English native speeches (NS), without mediation, serves as a benchmark comparison. We aim to examine the extent of similarities and differences between SI, NS and WT in terms of the linguistic patterns they display. Our findings show that: (1) SI is a hybrid language mode, exhibiting features that lie between those of non-mediated spoken language and mediated written language; (2) in terms of its spoken nature, SI resembles NS in certain dimensions where typical features are associated with orality, suggesting a strong modality effect; and (3) in terms of its mediated status, SI demonstrates similarities with WT, despite their perceptibly distinct modalities, pointing to a potential mediation-specific effect. These empirical findings emphasize the necessity of understanding the multidimensionality inherent in interpreted language.

Exploring the Grammatical Complexity of International Teaching Assistants: A Comparative Corpus Study

AbstractThe purpose of this study is to analyze the grammatical complexity features of international teaching assistants' (ITAs) mock‐teaching presentations and to compare the distributions of these features to those found in the Oral English Proficiency Test (a local ITA assessment), university classroom teaching, conversation, and academic writing. The data consisted of 186 prospective ITAs' mock‐teaching presentations collected from two ITA training courses at a large U.S. university: one higher‐level course and one lower‐level course. All presentations were transcribed, proofread, and built into a corpus consisting of 247,043 words. Based on the previous corpus studies, a total of 22 grammatical complexity features were selected for the analysis. Overall, the discourse of ITA mock‐teaching involved a substantial number of both the grammatical complexity features commonly found in spoken conversation (e.g., finite adverbial clauses and modals) and those commonly used in academic writing (e.g., noun premodifiers and prepositional phrases). The frequency distributions of the features differed in complex ways between ITA mock‐teaching and the other registers, as well as between the higher‐level and lower‐level ITAs. Pedagogical implications for ITA training and assessment, and future research directions are discussed at the end.

Demonstratives in heritage Greek, Russian, and Turkish in Germany and the United States

Aims and Objectives: This study investigates the use of definite noun phrases involving demonstratives in adolescent and adult monolingually raised and heritage speakers of Greek, Russian, and Turkish with the following research questions: (1) Do heritage speakers of Greek, Russian, and Turkish align with monolingually raised speakers regarding the production of demonstratives? and (2) Do mode and register affect the use of demonstratives? Methodology: We conducted a corpus study on production data of heritage speakers of Greek, Russian, and Turkish residing in the United States and Germany and the respective monolingually raised speakers in Greece, Russia, and Turkey. The majority languages of the heritage speakers were German or English, respectively. Data were elicited in two distinct registers (formal vs informal) and in two distinct modes (spoken vs written). Participants were asked to narrate what happened in a short video showing a fictional minor car accident. Analysis: Oral and written narrations were annotated and analyzed using generalized linear mixed-effects regression modeling on the use of demonstratives by heritage and monolingually raised speakers accounting for individual variation, country of elicitation, mode, and register. Findings: The results show that heritage and monolingually raised speakers of Greek, Russian, and Turkish converge in their use of demonstratives. Also, mode and/or register significantly affect the production of definite noun phrases with demonstratives across all speaker groups. Originality: This is the first cross-linguistically comparable large-scale corpus study with ecologically valid production data of definite noun phrases with demonstratives in bilinguals. Significance: The study contributes to understanding the use of demonstratives in heritage and monolingual Greek, Russian, and Turkish. It provides insights into the use of demonstratives in languages with different determiner systems and the impact of mode and/or register, which seems to be pronounced roughly similarly across these languages.

Does Simplification Occur at Sentence Level in the English Translations of Chinese Academic Works? –A Comparable Corpus Analysis of Syntactic Complexity

ABSTRACT Scholars of translation studies have hypothesized that translated texts tend to show simplification at lexical and syntactic levels compared to non-translated native texts. The present study examined simplification at the sentence level between translated and native English texts from the perspective of syntactic complexity. The research finds that the English translations of Chinese academic works tend to be simpler than their non-translated counterparts on 8 of 14 widely accepted indices of syntactic complexity. The study reveals that simplification at the sentence level exists and tends to occur at indices related to linguistic structures or units with more complex semantic or syntactic relationships. In contrast, complexification tends to occur at indices related to linguistic structures or units with less complex relationships. We suggest future research focus on investigating the extent, ways, and indices at which syntactic simplification occurs in translation, along with its effects and implications, rather than debating its existence.

Cross-cultural adaptation of the writer-reader relationship in non-translated and translated English health information websites on HIV and TB diagnostic testing

The ideal multilingual health information website is relatable to all readers. Natives and immigrants should have a culturally adapted website in their language hosted by their place of residence that imparts the facts and incites a call to action to improve health, and ultimately reduces disease in the diverse community. The writer’s word choices and attitude as conveyed through the text influence the reader’s decision-making process. This paper will examine the differences between the non-translated and translated English versions of multilingual health information websites on HIV and TB diagnostic testing. These samples pertain to a large interdisciplinary study whose purpose is to determine whether the multilingual health communication websites are appropriately written regarding health literacy, and whether each cultural population, in terms of language adaptation, would receive the health information as intended. The study questions whether there exist differences between the translated and non-translated texts in English, Spanish and Catalan; this paper focuses on the two English sub-corpora. A comparable corpus of seventy-three multilingual health information websites underwent a quantitative and a qualitative analysis. The methodology is based on adaptations of Clerehan et al.’s (2005) Evaluative Linguistic Framework to assess the writer-reader relationship. The findings show statistically significant differences between the two English subcorpora as regards the writers’ and translators’ approach; the non-translated English sub-corpus contained more relational and engagement markers, whereas the translated English sub-corpus had more persuasion markers. These results should serve researchers and professionals in the translation and language sciences as well as the public health field for, respectively, future studies and techniques to improve the composition of multilingual health information texts in culturally diverse countries.

Term circulation and connotation

Abstract This paper investigates the connotations that terms from the field of particle physics acquire when they determinologise. Based on a study performed on a comparable corpus composed of texts that represent various specialised, semi-specialised, and non-specialised communicative settings in French, different types of connotations are identified. The analysis sheds light on the diversity of positive and negative connotations terms can carry in semi-specialised and non-specialised texts, and the multiple factors that can influence the emergence of these connotations are discussed.

Between source language constructions and target language expectations

Abstract This paper is situated within Cognitive Translation Studies (CTS). It follows Halverson’s Gravitational Pull Hypothesis (2003, 2010, 2017, 2024), a framework that explains the translation process and its outcome by invoking the cognitive mechanisms of the bilingual mind. The paper adopts the cognitive, multi-method approach of the GPH to describe and compare the use of Spanish passive constructions in a multilingual comparable corpus of translated and non-translated texts. In doing so, it pushes the boundaries of the model by: (a) following an onomasiological rather than a semasiological approach; (b) focusing on constructions rather than lexical items; and (c) explicitly incorporating the aspect of translator socialisation into the hypothesis formulation, thereby taking into account the situatedness of translation. The results provide evidence in support of the GPH, as salience of a construction in the source or target language leads to its overrepresentation in the translated texts, and non-salience leads to its underrepresentation.

Unmasking Media Narratives through Comparative Corpus Linguistic Analysis: A Study of Russia-Ukraine Conflict

In a world inundated with diverse media narratives, the Russia-Ukraine conflict emerges as a focal point of contention, revealing a complex interplay of linguistic strategies and discursive tactics. This study aims to unravel the intricacies of lexical choices, and discursive techniques employed by Sputnik, BBC, and Fox News in their coverage of the Russia-Ukraine conflict through corpus-assisted discourse studies techniques. Three corpora were created comprising 5,347 articles with 5,829,747 tokens, sampled from February 2022 to February 2023. Moreover, Sputnik’s diction strategically employs the phrase “military operation” while eschewing “war”, portraying the conflict as a defensive, legitimate endeavour, thus reinforcing a Russian geopolitical narrative that recasts Ukraine not as a victim but as an active participant with extremist factions. BBC, in contrast, adopts a pro-Western stance, framing Ukraine as a victim and Russia as an aggressor. Fox News calls Russia’s action as an invasion, and highlights the individual roles of political leaders in shaping the conflict. However, to address the limitations of this study, future studies can expand the scope, sources, languages, and genres for analysis. Furthermore, media consumers need to practice media literacy, cross-checking, and critical analysis in the era of overloaded information in order to form well-rounded opinions on complex geopolitical events.

Entropy-based syntactic tree analysis for text classification: a novel approach to distinguishing between original and translated Chinese texts

Abstract This research focuses on classifying translated and non-translated Chinese texts by analyzing syntactic rule features, using an integrated approach of machine learning and entropy analysis. The methodology employs information entropy to gauge the complexity of syntactic rules in both text types. The methodology is based on the concept of information entropy, which serves as a quantitative measure for the complexity inherent in syntactic rules as manifested from tree-based annotations. The goal of the study is to explore whether translated Chinese texts demonstrate syntactic characteristics that are significantly different from those of non-translated texts, thereby permitting a reliable classification between the two. To do this, the research calculates information entropy values for syntactic rules in two comparable corpora, one of translated and the other of non-translated Chinese texts. Then, various machine learning models are applied to these entropy metrics to identify any significant differences between the two groups. The results show significant differences in the syntactic structures. Translated texts have a higher degree of entropy, indicating more complex syntactic constructs compared to non-translated texts. These findings contribute to our understanding of the effect of translation on language syntax, with implications for text classification and translation studies.

Does simplification hold true for machine translations? A corpus-based analysis of lexical diversity in text varieties across genres

Extensive studies have described the linguistic features of human translations and verified the existence of the simplification translation universal. However, little has been known about the linguistic features of machine translations, although machine translation, as a unique modality of translation, has become an integral part of translation practice. This study is intended to test whether the simplification translation universal observed in human translations also holds true for machine translations. If so, are simplification features in machine translations different significantly from those in human translations? And does genre significantly affect simplification features? To this end, we built a balanced comparable corpus containing three text varieties, i.e., machine translations, human translations and target-language originals across three genres namely contemporary novels, government documents and academic abstracts. Based on the corpus, we conducted a systematic comparison of lexical diversity, as a proxy for simplification, of different text varieties. The results show that simplification is corroborated overall in both machine and human translations when compared with target-language originals, and machine translations are more simplified than human translations. Additionally, genre is found to exert a significant influence on the lexical diversity of different text varieties. This study is expected to expand the scope of corpus-based translation studies on the one hand and to offer insights into the improvement of machine translation systems on the other hand.

Culturally Specific Elements in Russian Translations of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

This comparative corpus analysis is based on ten twentieth-century Russian translations of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The concept of acknowledging different cultural needs in translating is at the centre of this study, which addresses the questions of how the translators approached the English text, how they selected culturally acceptable equivalents for their translations, and how they adapted or changed these equivalents in seeking to produce meanings and effects they found in their source. Overall the translators use similar strategies, but their treatment varies according to what kind of cultural specifics are in question, and they take different approaches to what could be called the choice between ‘the Russian Alice’ and ‘the Victorian British Alice’. Trends can also be observed over time, so that, for example, foreignizing translations are a later tendency.

On the emergence of argument encoding in causatives constructions in Romance

Causative constructions in Romance show complex variation regarding the case of the subject of the non-finite clause (causee) and to its position with respect to the main causative verb and the embedded non-finite verb. It has been argued that the variation reflects the diachronic evolution of the causative construction in Romance and also documents an ongoing process of further development. We present original empirical data from a comparative corpus of Bible translations that provide new insights into diachronic evolution as well as to the synchronic variation. Our comparative approach allows us to generalize over additional semantic and pragmatic parameters for the choice of a particular construction. Our data support the assumption of the extension of ECM from clitic to nominal causee constructions in French, but they do not support this for Italian. For Spanish we see some ECM constructions in the most recent translation only.

Chinese “face”-related expressions in Peking and Teochew Opera scripts

Abstract This paper presents a historical contrastive pragmatic study of the use of Chinese “face”-related expressions in Peking and Teochew Opera scripts. The rationale behind this investigation is that contemporary Mandarin and the Minnan Dialect operate with very different inventories of “face”-related expressions, and it is worth considering whether this difference also applies to historical language use, and, if so, how. Studying this matter is particularly relevant for historical pragmatic research because “face”-related expressions have been under-represented in the field. Our study is based on a corpus of nineteen Peking Opera scripts and a comparable corpus of nineteen Teochew Opera scripts, dating from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The results of our analysis show that the historical Mandarin corpus operates with a duality of the “face”-related expressions lian and mian, in a similar way to modern Mandarin, even though we also found differences between the ways in which these expressions were used in former times and at present. Yet such differences are eclipsed if we contrast historical Mandarin with the Teochew scripts where we found a very different “face” duality than in Mandarin, namely a duality of yan and mian. This duality also differs from what one can witness in present-day Minnan.

A Privacy-Preserving Multilingual Comparable Corpus Construction Method in Internet of Things

With the expansion of the Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, multilingual scenarios are gradually increasing, and applications based on multilingual resources are also on the rise. In this process, apart from the need for the construction of multilingual resources, privacy protection issues like data privacy leakage are increasingly highlighted. Comparable corpus is important in multilingual language information processing in IoT. However, the multilingual comparable corpus concerning privacy preserving is rare, so there is an urgent need to construct a multilingual corpus resource. This paper proposes a method for constructing a privacy-preserving multilingual comparable corpus, taking Chinese–Uighur–Tibetan IoT based news as an example, and mapping the different language texts to a unified language vector space to avoid sensitive information, then calculates the similarity between different language texts and serves as a comparability index to construct comparable relations. Through the decision-making mechanism of minimizing the impossibility, it can identify a comparable corpus pair of multilingual texts based on chapter size to realize the construction of a privacy-preserving Chinese–Uighur–Tibetan comparable corpus (CUTCC). Evaluation experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed provable method, which outperforms in accuracy rate by 77%, recall rate by 34% and F value by 47.17%. The CUTCC provides valuable privacy-preserving data resources support and language service for multilingual situations in IoT.

El léxico coloquial proveniente del lenguaje juvenil en la lengua de ficción española e italiana, versiones originales y meta

Abstract Youth lexicon has penetrated and become consolidated in the common colloquial register of adult speakers of any given language. This study uses a comparable bilingual corpus of original Spanish and Italian series, and a parallel trilingual corpus which includes the target Spanish and Italian versions of an analogous French series in order to investigate the use of such voices in national and foreign serial products of both cultures. The frequency of use per minute and the repertoire of terms inserted in the series of the two countries have been compared. The results show that the number of occurrences per minute in the Spanish original fictional language is much higher than in the Italian one, where this kind of words and expressions are often excluded. These data coincide with the number of occurrences per minute recorded in the Spanish and Italian target versions. Therefore, the parallelism between the original and target products of both languages shows that hybridization and domestication have been the predominant strategies in the translation for dubbing.

Unveiling the New Frontier: ChatGPT-3 Powered Translation for Arabic-English Language Pairs

This study evaluates the aptitude of ChatGPT for Arabic-English machine translation. The main objective of this research is to scrutinize the quality of ChatGPT's translations and compare its performance against machine translation systems, such as Google Translate, which are intricately tailored for translation purposes. In addition, the study seeks to investigate the potential integration of ChatGPT into translation workflows. Furthermore, we aspire to discern whether ChatGPT's translation efficacy harmonizes with or diverges from the profound finesse exhibited by human translation expertise. To accomplish this, a comparable corpus of 1000 English sentences and their corresponding Arabic translations was employed to evaluate the translation outputs of both machine translation systems alongside a human translation reference. The corpus was sourced from Tatoeba, an open online platform and underwent electronic assessment using the BLEU (Bilingual Evaluation Understudy) metric. The results indicate a marginal advantage of ChatGPT over Google Translate in delivering high-quality translations. Upon evaluating the corpus, we ascertain that ChatGPT performs impressively well compared to specialized translation systems like Google Translate. However, despite these promising findings, it is essential to acknowledge that even the most advanced machine translation technology, ChatGPT, cannot currently match the proficiency of human translation, at least not in the near future.

Chinese and Vietnamese cross-lingual topic discovery based on word similarity of comparable corpus

Chinese and Vietnamese cross-lingual topic discovery based on word similarity of comparable corpus

Chinese and Vietnamese cross-lingual topic discovery based on word similarity of comparable corpus

Chinese and Vietnamese cross-lingual topic discovery based on word similarity of comparable corpus