A corpus-based study of PP placement

in translated and non-translated journalistic Dutch.

Annelore Willems, Gert De Sutter Faculty of Translation Studies

University College Ghent – Ghent University

{annelore.willems,gert.desutter}@hogent.be

Grammar and Genre 2012

Stylistic rule in Dutch: a prepositional phrase (PP) should be extraposed in subordinate clauses whenever the distance between the subject and V-final becomes too large.

dat ikSU contacten hebV-final binnen een vijftiental ondernemingen van de Bel20. that ISU contacts haveV-final within about five enterprises of the Bel20.

Post field position or extraposition

dat ikSU binnen een vijftiental ondernemingen van de Bel20 contacten hebV-final. that ISU within about five enterprises of the Bel20 contacts haveV-final.

Middle field position or non-extraposition

Background

1. Try to investigate whether this stylistic rule is reflected in actual language use.

2. Try to investigate whether this rule has an identical effect in different genres of journalistic texts and in translated and non-translated Dutch.

Purpose

Dutch Parallel Corpus (DPC)• a 10-million-word, parallel corpus of Dutch, English and French• sentence-aligned with basic linguistic annotations• 5 different text genres but for this presentation only journalistic texts

Data selection:• dependent clauses starting with the grammatical conjunction dat (=

that)• PP phrases where variation between extraposition and non-

extraposition is possible

Method: Which data will be used?

Length between SU en V-final in words Length of the PP in words

dat ikSU contacten binnen een vijftiental ondernemingen van de Bel20 hebV-final.

that ISU contacts within about five enterprises of the Bel20 haveV-final.

Operationalisation

The length of the PP will be positively correlated with extraposition. If the distance between SU and V-final becomes too large, the PP

will be extraposed. There will be a difference between news items and comment

articles. Biber & Conrad 2009

There will be a difference between translated and non-translated journalistic texts. Baker 1993, Puurtinen 1998

Hypotheses

Results: general trend

The length of the PP will be positively correlated with extraposition.

1 = 2 or 3 words2 = 4 to 6 words3 = 7 to 11 words4 = 12 or more words

AV = extrapositionMV = middle field

Logistic regression analysis:

The length of the PP will be positively correlated with extraposition.

Factor O.R. p-value

Length PP 16.10 9.67e-16 ***

If the distance between SU and V-final becomes too large, the PP will be extraposed.

1 = 0 words2 = 1 or 2 words3 = 3 or more words

AV = extraposition

Logistic regression analysis:

If the distance between SU and V-final becomes too large, the PP will be extraposed.

Factor O.R. p-value

Length between SU and V 1.47 8.27e-05 ***

Stylistic rule in Dutch…a PP should be extraposed in subordinate clauses whenever the

distance between the subject and V-final becomes too large.• length of the PP itself• length between SU and V

… can be confirmed.

Summary

Results: genre specific trends

Overall distribution extraposition/non-extraposition in news articles and comment articles:

There will be a difference between news items and comment articles.

Factor O.R. p-value

Subtype 0.81 0.003**

The length of the PP: no difference between news articles and comment articles

There will be a difference between news items and comment articles.

45%

63%

88%

41%53%

78%

95%

100%

The length between SU and V: no difference between news articles and comment articles

There will be a difference between news items and comment articles.

37%

62%52%

43%

68%57%

Overall distribution extraposition/non-extraposition in translated and non-translated texts:

There will be a difference between translated and non-translated journalistic texts.

Factor O.R. p-value

(non-)translated 0.45

The length of the PP: no difference between translated and non-translated journalistic texts

There will be a difference between translated and non-translated journalistic texts.

44%57%

86%

43%60%

82%

99%93%

The length between SU and V: no difference between translated and non-translated journalistic texts

There will be a difference between translated and non-translated journalistic texts.

41%53%

78%

95%

64%58%

40% 42%

66%

50%

Difference between news articles and comment articles for the overall distribution of PP’s.

Stylistic rule has no different effect in news articles and in comment articles.

Stylistic rule has no different effect in translated and in non-translated texts.

Summary

Thank you!

For further informationannelore.willems@hogent.be

Interference?

Structural interference: the word order in the source text influences the word order in the target text.

One last thing…

Position source texts Position PP target text

Extraposition Non-extraposition P-value

EN After V-final 62% 38%8.71e-10

Before V-final 27% 73%FR After V-final 64% 36%

1.597e-08Before V-final 15% 85%

Corpora: DPC

Text Type SRC → TGT DU EN FR Total

Journalistic texts

EN → DU 262 768 264 900 0 527 668

FR → DU 240 785 0 265 530 506 315

DU → EN 250 580 259 764 0 510 344

DU → FR 314 989 0 340 319 655 308

Total 1 069 122 524 664 605 849 2 199 635

Overview DPC

57% 43%

translatednon-translated

Overview translated/non-translated

58% 42%

extrapositionnon-extraposition

Overview extraposition/non-extraposition