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A study on Chinese register characteristics based on regression analysis and text clustering

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Veröffentlicht/Copyright: 30. März 2017
Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory
Aus der Zeitschrift Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory Band 15 Heft 1

Abstract

This paper reports an innovative Chinese register study based on regression analysis for sentence length distribution and text clustering. Although end of sentence is not conventionally marked in Chinese, we resolve this issue by assuming that segments between periods, question marks, and exclamation marks are sentences, which can be further divided into simple sentences and compound sentences. We also assume that segments between punctuation marks that express pauses in utterances form sentences (i.e., clauses). Using regression analysis, we find that the frequency distribution of sentence and clause lengths in Chinese can be fitted by the formula F = aLbcL, where L is sentence/clause length. Texts from different registers give rise to different fitted values of the parameters, and hence can serve to differentiate these registers. Finally, we use these parameters to represent and cluster texts from different registers. The successful text clustering results further prove that the parameters of the fitted results are reliable linguistic characteristics for different registers. In terms of linguistic theories, our study shows that it is just as effective to model sentence length in Chinese using sociological words (i.e., characters) as it is using linguistic words.

Keywords: sentence length distribution; regression analysis; Chinese register; text clustering

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the anonymous CLLT reviewers for their insightful and helpful comments. Research on this paper was funded by National Social Science Fund in China (Grant Award Number: ‘16BYY110’) and by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University -Peking University Research Centre on Chinese Linguistics.

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  Appendix

Table 11:

The numbers of simple sentences in every class.

123456789101112
1–56–1011–1516–2021–2526–3031–3536–4041–4546–5051–5556–60
73111001256118980345730518088673881

Figure 32: The observed and fitted values of the number of simple sentences (gray line refers to observed value).
Figure 32:

The observed and fitted values of the number of simple sentences (gray line refers to observed value).

Published Online: 2017-03-30
Published in Print: 2019-05-27

© 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Artikel in diesem Heft

  1. Frontmatter
  3. A study on Chinese register characteristics based on regression analysis and text clustering
  4. Keymorph analysis, or how morphosyntax informs discourse
  5. Reliability vs. granularity in discourse annotation: What is the trade-off?
  6. Similarity is closeness: Using distributional semantic spaces to model similarity in visual and linguistic metaphors
  7. The influence of social distance on speech behavior: Formality variation in casual speech
  8. Entrenchment and persistence in language change: the Spanish past subjunctive
  9. The English gerund revisited
https://doi.org/10.1515/cllt-2016-0062
Schlagwörter für diesen Artikel
sentence length distribution; regression analysis; Chinese register; text clustering

Artikel in diesem Heft

  1. Frontmatter
  3. A study on Chinese register characteristics based on regression analysis and text clustering
  4. Keymorph analysis, or how morphosyntax informs discourse
  5. Reliability vs. granularity in discourse annotation: What is the trade-off?
  6. Similarity is closeness: Using distributional semantic spaces to model similarity in visual and linguistic metaphors
  7. The influence of social distance on speech behavior: Formality variation in casual speech
  8. Entrenchment and persistence in language change: the Spanish past subjunctive
  9. The English gerund revisited
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