A corpus-based validation study of the universal processing hypothesis in English relative clause formation

Bibliographic Data

ID22299166
AuthorsAkihiro Ito (0000-0001-8549-4350, Aichi Gakuin University), Jun Yamashita (0000-0002-0912-6350, Nagoya University), Junko Yamashita (0000-0002-3692-9597, Nagoya University)
Year2005
Volume149-150
Pages77-91
Publication date2005-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueITL - International Journal of Applied Linguistics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0019-0829 • E-ISSN: 1783-1490
PublisherJohn Benjamins Publishing Company (PUBLISHER • NL)
DOI10.2143/itl.150.0.2004373
OpenAlexW2060209492
LanguageEN
References cited8

The present study focuses on spoken and written data in the British National Corpus (BNC). Based on a review of recent studies on English relative clauses, we formulated a Universal Processing Hypothesis (OS >OO>SS> SO) as target hypothesis to be validated using a corpus data approach. A computer program was designed to calculate the frequency of appearance of the four types of relative clauses (OS, OO, SS, and SO). The results indicated this hypothesis to be a valid predictor of frequency of appearance of relative clauses in the domain for written corpus texts. However, it is not supported in context-governed spoken material. Limitations of the present investigation and the direction of future research are also discussed

Context (archaeology) · Corpus linguistics · Domain (mathematical analysis) · Frequency · Linguistics · Natural language processing · Relative clause · Statistics · Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science · History · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Mathematics · Natural Language Processing Techniques · Second Language Acquisition and Learning

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