A Corpus-âbased Approach to the English Middle ...

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A Corpus-‐based Approach to the English Middle Construc7on Fuminori NAKAMURA (Keio University) fumi3648[at]gmail.com

Introduc7on and Aims

1. To introduce new kinds of middle sentences 2. To consider the mechanism of linguis7c change 3. To explain future survey

The middle construc7on

Note: •  This is for a full descrip7on of the middle construc7on by using linguis7c theory. •  Thus, it does not mainly aim to explore some linguis7c ability by examining the construc7on.

Seman7c frames: NP V (Adv). Seman7cs: An en7ty (NP) has a certain property (Adv) concerning an ac7on (V). a.  The book sells well. b.  The car drives easily. c.  This water drinks like water. d.  The knife cuts easily (pseudo-‐middle)

Backgrounds: language change and acceptability

•  The seman7cs and acceptability of the middle construc7on may change li`le by li`le. •  Thus, analyses should be updated with newly collected data. •  Originally acceptability of middle instances varies among speakers. (from Honda 2005)a. This movie watches easily (Goldberg 1995: 187) b. *That ﬁlm watches well. (Dixon 1991: 330)

previous studies

•  The contemporary linguis7cs have made a`empt to explain the phenomenon mainly in terms of (i) aﬀectedness or (ii) ac7vity. •  (i) implies that eﬀec7ve nouns cannot be the subject of the construc7on (verbs of crea7on). (ii) implies that non-‐ac7ve verbs cannot appear in the middle construc7on. From <>

Collected examples

•  Though the number is quite small, the middle construc7on with verbs of crea7on can be found.

A. A dense-‐crumb carrot cake bakes easily in a springform pan. B. Odes to herself write easily when she's narcissis7c mood. (Rosta 1995: 127)

•  Not ac7vity verbs also appears in some instances as well.

From

Nominal 1

3 4 5 6 7 8

Alterna7ve approaches: mul7variant analogy-‐based explana7on.

•  This approach is not a diﬀerent approach from previous ones, rather a synthe7c approaches in that hypotheses such as ac7vity and aﬀectedness are factors in this approach. The network itself form the middle construc7on Most abstract framework Tag/Regular Expression

diﬀerent from other intransi7ve construc7on （similar to entrenchment, Seman7c path, inheritance）

____ ____easily

[NP V (Adv)] Corpus research Adv High coverage Ddv Low Precision

____ reads ____

The book ____ ____ n  n  n 

Most instan7ated cases Instances

Two aspects of this approach. 1.  Rela7on between words (for Acceptability) • 

_____ reads easily

The book ____ easily

The book reads easily

•  The book reads ____

Able to search each block independently. Unable to search this network at once Each Block does not characterize the middle construc7on

Corpus research Adv High Precision Ddv Low coverage

Example •  “The cake bakes easily with the pan” case According to 1, the rela7onship between “cake” and “bake” is a key factor to determine its acceptability.

• 

When schema7za7on (increasing slots) in general, colloca7onal informa7on between nouns and verbs, verbs and adverbials, and nouns and adverbials in this case accumulate. This is a linguis7c representa7on of aﬀordances to a large extent. (the rela7onship between “book” and “read”). This is used for the acceptability judgment.

2.  Rela7on between slots and words. (for crea7vity) •  •  • 

The middle construc7on forms a network. When a new instances appears, exis7ng acceptable instances will be accessed to judge accessibility. The slot in [ ] reads easily chooses nouns similar to book ontologically. The slot in the book [ ] reads easily chooses verbs similar to read. The slot in the the book reads [ ] adverbials similar to easily.

•  •  • 

119

8.35

9 10

scone

4

7.71

gratin

2

7.55

loaf

7

7.47

cookie

2

6.93

pastry

4

6.78

snap

2

6.59

batch

5

6.48

bun

3

6.44

17

6.39

tart

2

6.18

chart

5

5.09

tin (4)

7

4.96

tray

3

4.88

clay

2

4.52

shore

2

4.31

brick

2

3.91

earth

2

2.61

potato (10) bean 7

11 12 13

dish 3 14 15 16 17 18

The object list of verb bake, adapted from Word Sketch

Selected References

Goldberg, Adele. 1995. Construc6ons: a construc6onal •  grammar approach to argument structure. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. •  Honda, Akira. 2005. Afodansu-‐no ninchi-‐imiron [An aﬀordance-‐theore6c approach to Cogni6ve seman6cs]. Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press. Rosta, Andrew. 1995. ‘How does this sentence The English middle construc7on has been changing li`le by li`le and they have marginal members of interpret?’ The seman7cs of English mediopassives. In Aarts, Bas and Charles F. Meyer the category that show diﬀerent acceptability among speakers. (eds.), T he v erb i n c ontemporary E nglish: t heory To explain mul7-‐factor framework is necessary to capture subtle diﬀerences. and descrip6on. Cambridge: Cambridge The future research aims to a par7ally-‐ordered set (list) from most prototypical verbal clusters to University Press. 123-‐144. most unlikely clusters like below, according to acceptability. One goal of this research as a linguis7c enterprise is to

Summary • 

cake (62)

LogDICE (Relevance)

biscuit 2 bread 49 pie 6 2

A. French acquires more rapidly than Esperanto when children are under six. (Rosta 1995: 127) B. Tomorrow never knows. (such as in Beatles 1966)

Raw. Freq.

explore the rela7onship between individual acceptability and changes of a language.