MULTI-WORD UNITS AND PRAGMATIC FUNCTIONS IN GENRE SPECIFICATIONMustafa Aksan – Yeşim AksanMersin University, Turkey

13th IPrA Conference 08-13 September 2013 - New Delhi, India

Aims

To classify the multi-word units, i.e., three-word n-grams on the basis of their structural patterns and functions

To explore discourse characteristics of imaginative and informative texts in terms of the distribution of the n-grams identified

Corpus Methodology in Discourse Analysis

The major contribution of corpus linguistic study of discourse comes from relatively more practical aspect of structural identification.

A corpus analysis makes it possible to identify textually significant structures from a large naturally occurring language use data.

Furthermore, a corpus analysis, among others, gives us quantitative differences that would help derive qualitative conclusions in a more concrete and reliable manner.

Multi-word unit

"… the most frequent recurring lexical sequences in a register”

(Biber, Conrad, Cortes 2004)

Lexical bundle, chunk, cluster, n-gram

As Sinclair (1991, p. 108) observes:

By far the majority of text is made of the occurrence of common words in common patterns, or in slight variants of these common patterns. Most everyday words do not have an independent meaning, or meanings but are components of a rich repertoire of multi-word patterns that make up a text. This is totally obscured by the procedures of conventional grammar.

Multi-word units have identifiable discourse functions, suggesting that they are an important part of the communicative repertoire of speakers and writers, even though they do not correspond to the well-formed structures traditionally recognized by linguistic research.

It is possible to decide on the genre or register properties of a text or discourse by simply looking at the recurrent multiword units as they are prefabricated expressions specialized or conventionalized to a particular type as they are used over and over again.

Different registers tend to rely on different sets of multi-word units of meaning.

Research on multi-word units

Multi-word units in genre | register specification

Biber et al. (1999, 2004)Carter & McCarthy et al.(2006)Cortes (2004)Hyland (2008)

Data

Two equal size sub-corpora covering a period of 20 years (1990-2009) were constructed from the database of Turkish National Corpus (TNC)

Corpus of Contemporary Turkish Fiction (CCTF)

Corpus of Contemporary Turkish Informative Prose (CCTIP)

Data

CCTFImaginative prose

Samples from novels and short stories

1.009.548 words

CCTIPInformative prose

Samples from academic and non-academic texts

999.102 words

Composition of the corpora

Method

Ngram Statistical Package software tool (Banerjee & Pedersen, 2003) is used to generate rank order frequency lists of n-grams

Data extraction and sorting are done via AntConc 3.2.5w (Anthony, 2011)

Method

A total of 110 tri-grams were analyzed

N-grams which are the part of a bigger n-grams were ignored.(Eg. ya da çok > az ya da çok)

The statistical analyses were done via Minitab16.

Type 1: NPs or NP Fragments

Type 2: Postpositional Phrases

Type 3: Degree Expressions

Type 4: Conjunctive Patterns

Type 5: Ne ‘wh’-Patterns

Type 6: Modality Patterns

Type 7: Copular/Existential Constructions

Structural Description of Tri-grams

Structural Types of Tri-Grams in Turkish

What comes out frequency driven analysis are mostly Noun Phrases (NP) or NP fragments

The following types that we have identified are almost exclusively NPs yet, we have identified more categories to underlie their special role in the text due to their respective frequencies in the text. For example, degree expressions and quantifiers as well as demonstratives are in fact NP elements.

Type 1: NPs or NP fragments

1.1. Indefinite NP fragments : Degree+adjective+indefinite article

daha büyük bir ‘something much bigger’

1.2. Indefinite NPs: Adjective/demonstrative+indefinite article+(some)thing

kötü/öyle bir şey ‘something bad/like that’

Type 1: NPs or NP fragments

1.3. Indefinite NP : Adjective+InArt+Head Noun

kısa/uzun bir süre ‘short/long period’

Type 2 : Postpositional Phrases

2.1. PPs with Indefinite NP complements: InArt+Noun+Postposition

bir süre/önce/sonra/için ‘ a period/after/before/for’| lit: after a while

2.2. PPs with oblique NP complements: demonstrative/ quantifier+ Noun+ postposition

o güne kadar ‘ till that day’

Type 2 : Postpositional Phrases

2.3. Postposition without complement combining

following items: Postposition+participle/quantifier

için gerekli olan ‘necessary for X’

Type 3 : Degree Expressions

3.1. Adverbial hiç ‘never, ever, no/any’ patterns: ADV+Dem/Art+N/P

hiç bir zaman ‘never’ ; bir daha hiç ‘never again’; daha önce hiç ‘never before’

3. 2. Adverbial çok ‘very’ and daha ‘more’ patterns: ADV+ADV+ADJ

çok daha fazla ‘much more’ bir kere/kez daha ‘one more time’

Type 4 : Conjunctive Patterns

4.1. Conjunctive ve ‘and’ patterns: CONJ+fragment from second conjunct

ve bu arada ‘and meanwhile’

4. 2. Disjunctive ya da ‘or’ patterns: Disjunctive+demonstrative/determiner

ya da bu ‘or this’ ya da başka ‘or another’

Type 4 : Conjunctive Patterns

4.3. Additive da patterns: Adverbials+da ‘additive’

bu kez de ‘ and this time’

4. 4. Disjunctive ama ‘but, however’ patterns: Disjunctive+adverbials

ama bir türlü ‘but in no way’ ama bu kez ‘but this time’

Type 5 : Ne ‘wh’ Patterns

Ne-patterns (wh-patterns): ne+conditional/adverbial

ne var ki gloss: ‘what exist RLT’ literal: ‘however’

ne kadar çok gloss: ‘what as much more’ literal: ‘the

more’

ne olursa olsun gloss: ‘what happens happen’ literal: ‘in

any case’

Type 6: Modality Patterns

Modality Patterns: Modal adverb+particle+(demonstrative)

belki de bu ‘maybe/perhaps this’

belki de en ‘maybe/perhaps the most’

kim bilir belki ‘who knows maybe/perhaps’

Type 7 : Copular / Existential Constructions

7.1. Linking: bir (some)thing + negative marker / become

bir şey değil gloss: ‘a thing not’ literal: ‘(it is) not something’

bir şey oldu gloss: ‘ a thing become-PST’ literal: ‘something happened’

7. 2. Existential constructions: bir (some)thing+var/yok ‘exist/not’

bir şey var ‘there is something’bir şey yok ‘there is nothing’

Referring Expressions Text Organizers Stance Expressions Conversational Features

Functions of N-grams

Discourse Functions

Referential Expressions Time reference Place reference Vague expression Quantification Description

Text Organizers Transitional signals (additive,

contrastive/comparative, alternative, expansive) Resultative signals (inferential relations, causative

relations) Focusing signals Framing signals

Discourse Functions

Stance Expressions Epistemic stance, other stance markers

Conversational Features Interactional markers-question/inquiry Reporting

(Biber et al., 2004; Cortes, 2004; Carter & McCarthy, 2006; Hyland, 2008)

Referring Expressions

Time reference tam o sırada ‘meanwhile/at that moment’

Place reference dünyanın her yerinde ‘in all over the

world’

Vague expression gibi bir şey ‘something like X’

Quantification bir o kadar ‘even more’

Description çok güzel bir ‘ a very nice X ‘

Text Organizers

Transitional signals bir başka deyişle ‘in other words’

Resultative signals bunun sonucu olarak ‘as a result of’

Focusing signals çok önemli bir ‘a very important X’

Framing signals söz konusu olan ‘ the given X /is about’

Stance Expressions and Conversational Features

Epistemic stance ve belki de ‘and maybe’

Conversational Features

Interactional markers (questioning) öyle değil mi ‘isn’t it so / don’t you agree’

Reporting dedi kendi kendine ‘said to her/himself’

Genre Specific Uses of Tri-grams

Scale of Ratio Figures Across Genres

Low ratio (0-30%) between the use of tri-grams in imaginative and informative texts: Genre-specific use of linguistic expressions- Difference among genres

Mid ratio (40-59%) between the genres: The use of tri-gram in one genre is half of the figure in another genre

High ratio (75-98%)between the genres: Similarity in the use of linguistic expressions

Category 1- The least similar (00.1-0.18)

Imaginative• Speech/thought representation• Temporal reference• Detailed, vivid descriptions

Informative:

•Text organizers: Transitional signals

•Tangible descriptions

s/he

thou

ght

in o

ther

wor

ds

said

to m

ysel

f

said

to h

er/h

imse

lf

in te

rms o

f

as if

s/he

was

as a

par

t of

in a

X v

oice

X to

be

the

first

as a

resu

lt

like

a li

ttle

kid

as a

who

le

of th

is ki

nd

not o

nly

... b

ut a

lso …

mea

nwhi

le

beca

use

of th

is

requ

ired

by X

ther

e w

as a

sile

nce

just

for a

mom

ent

by th

e w

ay

in a

ll ov

er th

e w

orld

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

informative

fiction

Category 2- The less similar (0.20-0.39)

Imaginative• Temporal reference• Detailed descriptions

Informative

• Text organizers: Transitional signals

• Tangible descriptions

• Focusing signals

with

out a

wor

d

alm

ost t

he sa

me

neve

r aga

in

don'

t you

agr

ee

a un

ique

X

but i

n no

way

but t

his ti

me

a w

ider

X

as u

sual

the

give

n X

a ve

ry im

port

ant

a sli

ght X

for a

whi

le

even

mor

e

ther

e w

as sm

th.

after

all

on th

e ot

her h

and

ever

afte

r

a ve

ry b

ig/g

reat

X

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

informative fiction

Category 3- Half of the figure (0.40-0.58)

The use of tri-gram in one genre is half of the figure in the other genre

and

thus

not s

omet

hing

som

ethi

ng b

ad

in o

ther

wor

ds

imm

edia

tely

som

ethi

ng im

port

ant

(if) a

nd o

nly

(if)

first

of a

ll

how

ever

yet a

gain

/stil

l

alth

ough

som

ethi

ng h

appe

ned

who

kno

ws,

may

be

may

be th

e m

ost X

not s

omet

hing

X

or th

at

may

be th

is is

once

aga

in

the

mor

e

besid

es

020406080

100120140160180200220

informa-tive

and

thus

not s

omet

hing

som

ethi

ng b

ad

in o

ther

wor

ds

imm

edia

tely

som

ethi

ng im

port

ant

(if) a

nd o

nly

(if)

first

of a

ll

how

ever

yet a

gain

/stil

l

alth

ough

som

ethi

ng h

appe

ned

who

kno

ws,

may

be

may

be th

e m

ost X

not s

omet

hing

X

or th

at

may

be th

is is

once

aga

in

the

mor

e

besid

es

020406080

100120140160180200220

informative

fiction

Tri-grams typical of imaginative writingTri-grams Imaginative Informative Ratio

said to myself 18 1 0.06

said to her/himself 17 1 0.06

as if s/he was | seemed… 16 1 0.06

like a little kid 28 3 0.11

just for a moment 30 5 0.17

isn’t it so | don’t you agree

35 8 0.23

but in no way 24 6 0.25

but this time 26 7 0.27

as usual | as always 61 18 0.30

after all 60 22 0.37

Conversational Features in Imaginative Texts

dedi kendi kendine (talked to himself / herself)'Ne hoş!' dedi kendi kendine, 'ben duruyorum, tabiat önümde resmi geçit yapıyor. Ayşe Kulin-Nefes Nefese “How cute!” he said to himself, “I’m standing still and the nature is marching in front of me”. Ayşe Kulin – Breathless dedim kendi kendime (talked to myself)İkincisinde kapıcıyı buldum karşımda. "Olacak şey değil," dedim kendi kendime. Onu görmek çok güçtür çünkü. Cemil Kavukçu-Yalnız Uyulanlar İçin I faced with the doorman in my second attempt. “It is unbelievable”, I said to myself. Cause, it is usually difficult to find him. Cemil Kavukçu – For these who sleep alone.

Öyle değil mi ? ‘isn’t it so? / don’t you agree? : Several Pragmatic Functions in Imaginative Texts

1.Confirming or not confirming the proposition stated by the addressee

"Evet, bitti işte. Bak şimdi kardeşcağızım, önce Nihan'ı ve Cemo'yu bulacağız. Onlar da bu mektubun muhatabı, öyle değil mi?""Öyle..." Şöhret Baltaş-Koşarken Yavaşlar Gibi “Yes, it’s over. Look, my dear brother, first we’ll find Nihan and Cemo. They are also the addressees of this letter, aren’t they? / isn’t it so?“Yes …”

2. Self-confirming through the elaboration of the topic by means of List readingİşimi yaparken gevezelik etmek hoşuma gider. Bazıları buna kaytarmak diyor, ama hayır efendim! Ben asla kaytarmam! Hem işimi yaptığım sürece kimse bana karışamaz, öyle değil mi? İster konuşurum, ister türkü söylerim, ister göbek atarım! Dost Körpe-Günah Yiyen I like small talks during work. Some say it’s laziness, but no sir! I never shirk my duties! It is none of their business since I finish my work, isn’t it so? If I wish, I may talk, sing or dance.

2. Self-Confirming through the elaboration of the topic by means of ExampleHem yaza düğün dernek var. İktisat etmeliyiz öyle değil mi, henüz on para biriktiremedik. Erdeniz Atasü-Dağın Öteki Yüzü Besides, we will have a wedding in summer. We need to save money, don’t we, we haven’t saved a dime yet. Erdeniz Atasü – The other side of the mountain

3. Summative or text closing signal They who saw them sitting in those big state offices; riding beatiful horses, drinking the best wines, eating the most delicious meals, becomes scared and thrills. They, right at the same time, seems as in gold but rotten cotton inside, aren’t they? But you are not interested in them, only deals with my oranges.I kept silent. I wasn’t in a mood to answer him. I left and thought about what the man said. Who is this man, if not being a master in his sarcasm for his anger to the evil on earth? Time changes in this World; but there always exists a template unchanged. Don’t you think so? İskender Pala - Ayine

Referential Expressions in Imaginative Texts

Time Referencebir an için (a moment for) ‘just for a moment’İçeri girince bir an için öyle durdu; İskender Savaşır-Tutku 2000 After arriving in, he hesitated for a moment. İskender Savaşır – Obsession 2000 tam o sırada (exactly that time) ‘meanwhile / at that moment’Adama atabileceğim iri bir taş aradı gözlerim. Tam o sırada üstü başı dağınık, belli ki kafası da karışık bir asker belirdi. Ergun Kocabıyık-Bal-Ayı I searched for a stone to throw at him. Just at that moment, a shabby-looking soldier, also seeming to have an untidy mind, appeared. Ergun Kocabıyık – The Honeymoon

Referential Expressions in Imaginative Texts

Descriptionbir hali vardı (a state existed) ‘seemed a little …’Havalı bir hali vardı Senem'in, yere göğe sığmayan...Ahmet Günbay Yıldız-Benim Çiçeklerim Ateşte Açar Senem seemed a little frisky, she was feeling her oats. Ahmet Günbay Yıldız – My flowers bloom in firebir çocuk gibi (a child like) ‘like a little kid)’Hüsrev Bey yeniden sustu, utangaç bir çocuk gibi önüne baktı. Ahmet Altan-Yalnızlığın Özel Tarihi Hüsrev Bey silenced again and looked down, like an embarrassed little kid. Ahmet Altan – The Private History of Loneliness

Text Organizers in Imaginative Texts

ama bir türlü (but one way) ‘but in no way’Bağırmak için olanca gücümü harcıyorum, ama bir türlü sesim çıkmıyor. Zeynep Ankara- Kanatsız Düşüşler I use my last efforts to shout but in no way could utter anything. Zeynep Ankara – Falling without wings

 ne de olsa (what more being) ‘after all’Neyse, onun ailesiyle kalabilirim, ne de olsa üvey kızıyım, herhalde beni misafir olarak kabul ederler. Elif Şafak-Baba ve Piç Anyway, I can stay with his family, I’m his stepdaughter after all. I don’t doubt that they will welcome me as a guest. Elif Şafak – The Bastard of İstanbul

Tri-grams in imaginative texts and genre properties Time markers, descriptive expressions and conversational features (reporting and interactional markers) reflect the properties of fictional technique: “degree of specification, fictional point of view and fictional sequencing” as stated by Leech and Short (1981: 185). Descriptive focus (vividness and objectivity in description) is said to be “limited to literature…since literature through its medium of language can range over the whole data of human experience” (Leech and Short 1981:183). All these properties of imaginative texts / (fiction as a) genre are conveying the every day language use through more metaphorical and creative descriptions, informal choices of referential expressions and text organizers.

Tri-grams typical of informative texts

Tri-grams Informative Imaginative Ratio

in other words 59 1 0.02

X to be the first 25 2 0.07

as a result 24 2 0.08

because of this 47 5 0.11

of this kind 27 3 0.11

as a whole 18 2 0.11

a unique X 17 4 0.24

the given X | is about 16 5 0.31

Text Organizers in InformativeTexts

Transitional Signals

bir başka deyişle (a other saying) ‘in other words’

Somut düşünce bile, ancak, belli bir soyutlama düzeyinin üzerine konduğu zaman bir anlam taşır bilimde. Bir başka deyişle, somut düşünce, bilimsel olabilmek için, belli soyutlamalara dayalı sonuçlar ile karşılaştırmalı olarak anlam taşır. Emre Kongar-Devrim Tarihi ve Toplumbilim In science, even concrete thinking makes sense only if it is based on a certain level of abstraction. In other words, to be scientific, concrete thinking becomes meaningful when compared with abstraction based results. Emre Kongar – Sociology and the history of Revolution

bunun sonucu olarak (this result being) ‘as a result’…limanın ticaret hacminin artması Anadolu'dan Türkçe konuşan pek çok Rum ve Ermeninin Samsun'a gelip yerleşmesine sebep olmuştur. Bunun sonucu olarak Samsun merkez kaza içerisinde gayri Müslimlerin sayısı Müslümanların sayısını geçmiştir. Emin Yolalıcı-19.yy’da Canik Sancağının Sosyal ve Ekonomik Yapısı. The trading volume increase of the port caused lots of Anatolian Greeks and Armenians to arrive at Samsun and settle there. As a result, the population of Non-Muslims exceeded the Muslims. Emin Yolalıcı – The Socio-Economical Structure of the Canik Province in the 19. Century.

bu nedenle de (and this reason) ‘as a consequence’ Adverts, being a needs trigger in the 20. Century, prepares to be a new form of communication in the 21. Century. As a consequence, advertising requests to enlarge its activity space out to the limits of all visible horizons of the earth. Sürreya Çakır-Görsel Medya ve Gerçeklik İlişkisi

Text Organizers in InformativeTexts

Framing Signalsile ilgili olarak (with related being) ‘related to / about’Ancak Almanlar Enigma operasyonu ile ilgili olarak titiz prosedürler oluşturmalarına rağmen,… Süleyman Sevinç-Engima Although Germans formulated strict procedures about Operation Enigma … Süleyman Sevinç – Enigma

başta olmak üzere (heading being) ‘being in the first place’Ekonomik başkent Şangay başta olmak üzere Çinlilerin de son aylarda dolar satışını hızlandırdığı belirtildi. Cengiz Özakıncı-Euro Dolar Savaşı The financial capital Shangai being in the first place, it is reported that China accelerated dollar sales in recent months. Cengiz Özakıncı – Euro/Dollar War

Text Organizers in Informative Texts

Focusing Signal

çok önemli bir (very important one) ‘a very important’

Türkiye çok önemli bir ülke, Jeopolitik bakımdan, coğrafi bakımdan, stratejik bakımdan çok önemli, yenidünya düzeni orta doğuda yeni haritalar çizmek istiyor. Ergun Yılmaz-Musanın Mücahiti Turkey is a very important country; geopolitically, geographically, strategically important. The New World Order tries to draw new borders in the Middle East. Ergun Yılmaz – The warrior of Moses

Referential Expressions in Informative Texts

Description

bir bütün olarak (one whole being) ‘as a whole’

This review will let you consider the assignment as a whole and figure out if proper links between the chapters exist. Türker Baş – How to prepare academic assignments bir parçası olarak (one part being) ‘as part of’

All mankind and Turkish Society as a part of it, is in a critical turning point of a new age.daha geniş birWhen you move to a social environment broader than your family, again we observe that our body language becomes the basic mean for communication. Zuhal Baltaş – Acar Baştaş – Language of the Body

Tri-grams in informative texts and genre properties Informative texts aim to state, explain or explore facts on a variety of entities. Thus, descriptive tri-grams, tri-grams serving the function of all types of text organizers and a small amount of tri-grams functioning as stance markers represent the straightforward and concrete style of informative genre.

Category 4- The more similar (0.60-0.75)so

man

y

a be

tter

ther

e is

noth

ing

noth

ing

just

for a

mom

ent

imm

edia

tely

once

mor

e

in a

ny ca

se

som

ethi

ng li

ke th

is

neve

r eve

r

for a

long

tim

e

a bi

gger

/gre

ater

X

till t

his m

omen

t

now

at t

his ti

me

020406080

100120140160180200220

informative

fiction

Category 5- The most similar (0.78-0.96)so

met

hing

else

a m

ore

bette

r X

after

a w

hile

so m

any

X

som

ethi

ng li

ke X

but a

gain

/stil

l

but t

his ti

me

in sp

ite o

f all

som

ethi

ng li

ke th

at

and

may

be

ther

e is

som

ethi

ng

even

mor

e

day

by d

ay

unfo

rtun

atel

y

som

ethi

ng ca

lled

020406080

100120140160180200220240

informativefiction

Similarity observed in imaginative and informative genre in

• Referential expressions: Time reference, quantification, vague expressions

• Text organizers: Transitional signals- contrastive / comparative relations

• Stance markers: Epistemic stance

Functions of Vague Expressions

(…) markers of purposive vagueness and approximation. Vagueness is central to informal conversation, and its absence can make utterances blunt and pedantic, especially in such domains as references to number and quantity (…). Vagueness also enables speakers to refer to semantic categories in an open-ended way which calls on shared cultural and real-world knowledge to fill in the category members referred to only obliquely (see Chafe 1982; Powell 1985; Channell 1994).

McCarthy& Carter (2006, p. 22)

gibi bir şey (like one thing) ‘something like X’Bu gerçek görünmezlik hoşuma gidiyor. Demin yanınızdaydım; şimdiyse suyun dibindeyim. Mucize gibi, tılsım gibi bir şey bu. Hur Yumer-Ahdım Var This real unvisibility gives pleasure to me. Just a moment ago, I was next to you, but now I am in deep water. It’s something like a miracle, a spell.

diye bir şey (called one thing) ‘something like’ Elbette dönemin ruhu diye bir şey vardır ve bu her dönem kendi eğrilerini yaratır. Murathan Mungun-Bir Kutu Daha Of course there exists something like zeitgeist and it always creates its own curves. Murathan Mungan – Yet another box 

Conclusion

We have provided an initial list of tri-grams in Turkish.

We have noted our initial observations on the on the structural typology of such forms as they occur in the corpora and their respective discourse functions.

Compared to English, the structural types of multi-word units in Turkish are far less in number.

Conclusion

It is possible to argue that genre/register differentiation can be captured via detailed analysis of tri-grams extracted from a corpus.

Following Hyland (2008)Essentially, these are words which follow each

other more frequently than expected by chance, helping to shape text meanings and contributing to our sense of distinctiveness in a register.

References

Anthony, L. (2010). AntConc (Version 3.2.2.5w) [Computer Software]. Tokyo, Japan: Waseda University. http://www.antlab.sci.waseda.ac.jp/Banerjee, S & Pederson, T. (2003). The design, implementation and use of the (N)gram (S)tatistic (P)ackage. Proceedings of the fourth international conference on intelligent text processing and computational linguistics, 370-381.Biber, D., Conrad, S. and Cortes, V. (2004) If You Look at ... : Lexical Bundles

in University Teaching and Textbooks, Applied Linguistics 25(3): 371–405.Carter, R. A., McCarthy, M. J. (2006). Cambridge grammar of English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Conrad, S. (2004). ‘Lexical Bundles in Published and Student Disciplinary Writing: Examples from History and Biology’, English for Specific Purposes 23(4): 397–423.

References

Hyland, K. (2008). As can be seen: Lexical bundles and disciplinary variation. English for specific purposes, 27(1), 4–21. McCarthy, M.C., Carter, R. 2006. This that and the other: Multi-word clusters in spoken English as visible patterns of interaction. In: McCarthy, M.J. (ed.) Explorations in corpus linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 7-26. Minitab 16 Statistical Software 2010.[Computer Software]. State College, PA: Minitab, Inc. (www.minitab.com).Sinclair, J. (1991). Corpus, concordance, collocation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

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