Theorising Mode: Theme-Rheme structure in analogue and digital texts ESFLCW 2013 Coventry University, UK, 1-3 July 2013 Anke Schulz

Transcription

1 Theorising Mode: Theme-Rheme structure in analogue and digital texts ESFLCW 2013 Coventry University, UK, 1-3 July 2013

2 Outline Research question Theoretical background Texts Methodology Results Conclusion References 2

3 Research question With regard to theme-rheme structure, how different are texts from analogue sources compared to texts which were born digitally? 3

4 Theoretical background Chapter 3 Clause as message in Halliday 1994 Theme and Rheme structure converted to an annotation scheme for computer-assisted manual annotation with the UAM Corpus Tool (O Donnell 2008) Learn more at the workshop on Wednesday morning (3 July 2013 at Coventry University) 4

5 Texts 2,000 words from each register Written dialogue Written-as-if-spoken monologue Written-as-if-spoken dialogue Spoken dialogue Analogue Fiction Conversation Digital Newsgroup texts Chat

6 Fiction: Lewis Carroll s Alice in Wonderland (and Frank L. Baum s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz) `Have some wine,' the March Hare said in an encouraging tone. Alice looked all round the table, but there was nothing on it but tea. `I don't see any wine,' she remarked. `There isn't any,' said the March Hare. `Then it wasn't very civil of you to offer it,' said Alice angrily. `It wasn't very civil of you to sit down without being invited,' said the March Hare. `I didn't know it was YOUR table,' said Alice; `it's laid for a great many more than three.' 6

7 Newsgroup: EDNA corpus (Schulz & Teich 2012) Can someone spark a light to my question, please? My husband of 5 years does not (never has) like to hold hands in public! I am ok with that as I am used to it, but now and again I wonder why? And sometimes I really feel rejected. I don t reach out for his hand anymore as I don t want this direct rejection. He has told me that people know we are together, no need to show it. What is he trying to say? 7

8 Chat: Facebook and WhatsApp chat between two good friends (data by courtesy of Cederik Schwarz, with permission from the participants) I have my last fina final this will be my 7th!!!! final jesus that's insane, good luck! I am going a bit (REALLY CRAZY) hahaha i bet my mind has turned into jello almost done! ok well hope the UK is ok hahaha in Paris now but thanks, going home tomorrow are you coming home at all? no not for a while oh sad sad yeah i'm chillin in duluth then colorado for a while peac nice well enjoy see ya 8

9 Conversation: 2008 London Teenage Talk part of the Saarbrücken Corpus of Spoken English (SCoSE) how's Hanna? she's- yeah she's fine. what about uhm Nicolas and Sophie and this weekend? we're going out to- [she-] [oh yeah you had ()], oh yeah, (). is- is Nicolas gonna be there? yeah she said that uhm.h, we're going out to (name of a pub), and then, she- she texted me back- no I was texting, saying that uhm, uh do you wanna come out, something like that, then she texted all the people, and she was like [ ] 9

10 Methodology Computer-assisted manual annotation with the UAM Corpus Tool (O Donnell 2008) For each of the six features, the four registers are ranked. The register on highest rank scores 4, the one on the lowest rank scores 1, those in between score 3 and 2. Scores are added up to show how far apart the registers are on a continuum. 10

11 Lexical density (ratio of lexical and grammatical words) Lexical: N, VL, ADJ, ADV Grammatical: PN, PRP, CJ, DT, VM, VP, Num, ITJ Register Lexical density Score Chat 52% 4 Conversation 48% 3 Fiction 44% 2 Newsgroup 43% 1 11

12 Clauses (Rhemes) per 1,000 words Conv: I ll probably get an A. Fict: [ ], and here the conversation dropped, and the party sat silent for a minute, [ ] Register Clauses per 1,000 words Score Chat Conversation Fiction Newsgroup

13 Minor clauses (formulas, phrases without finite verb) Chat: Same to you NG: Thanks in advance Register Minor clauses Score Chat 14% 4 Newsgroup 5% 3 Conversation 2.15% 2 Fiction 1.85% 1 13

14 Interpersonal themes (vocatives and modal adjuncts) in all clauses (rhemes) Chat: unfortunately i can t bring her home NG: [ ] that maybe I wouldn t do this Register Interpersonal themes Score Chat 12%, F = 40, 30 mod adj, 10 vocatives 4 Conversation 5.6%, F = 18, 18 modal adjuncts 3 Fiction 3.1%, F = 10, 10 modal adjuncts 2 Newsgroup 2.6%, F = 8, 8 modal adjuncts 1 14

15 Topical theme in a clause (ellipsis of Subject, basically) Fict: Then she noticed Dorothy's Golden Cap, and * said, Why don't you use the charm of the Cap, and * call the Winged Monkeys to you? Register Rheme complete Score with topical theme Chat 78% 4 Fiction 91% 3 Newsgroup 92% 2 Conversation 93% 1 15

16 Unmarked topical theme (unmarked, marked, unmarked structural) Chat, unmarked: They re all super nice Chat, marked: so for my birthdayyyyy plane tickets Chat, unmarked structural: anyone [who wants to study in Costa Rica] must be awesome Register Unmarked topical theme Score Chat 95% 4 Conversation 92% 3 Newsgroup 86% 2 Fiction 70% 1 16

17 Total score Register Total score out of six features Chat 24 Conversation 15 Fiction 11 Newsgroup 10 17

18 On a continuum NG Fict Conv Chat Thank you for a helpful comment, Jonathan Fine 18

19 Caution We have two variables written / spoken digital / analogue (and also monologue / dialogue) The sample size is really small, with only 2,000 words per register The choice and arrangement of features is biased. Thank you for a helpful comment, Mick O Donnell 19

20 Conclusion The fact that the text was born digitally does not seem to result in a characteristic theme-rheme structure Rather, spoken texts and written texts show more distinctive theme-rheme structure This exploratory study does not give reason to assume that digitality has blurred the fundamental opposition between speech and writing 20

21 References Baum, Frank L. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. In Michael Patrick Hearn (ed.) The annotated Wizard of Oz. Norton: New York. Carroll, Lewis Alice in Wonderland. Norton: New York. Halliday, M.A.K An Introduction to Functional Grammar. 2nd ed. London: Arnold. O'Donnell, Michael "The UAM CorpusTool: Software for corpus annotation and exploration". In Bretones Callejas, Carmen M. et al. (eds). Applied Linguistics Now: Understanding Language and Mind / La Lingüística Aplicada Hoy: Comprendiendo el Lenguaje y la Mente. Almería: Universidad de Almería, Saarbrücken Corpus of Spoken English (SCoSE). fak4/norrick/scose.htm ( ) Schulz, Anke & Elke Teich The secret life of the negative: An investigation of polarity and modality in a corpus of newsgroup texts. In Rayson, Paul & Sebastian Hoffmann & Geoffrey Leech (eds.). English Corpus Linguistics: Looking back, Moving forward. Papers from the 30th International Conference on English Language Research on Computerized Corpora (ICAME30). Lancaster, UK, May Amsterdam; New York: Rodopi, Acknowledgement: The chat data from Facebook and Whats App were collected by Cederik Schwarz, University of Bremen, with permission by the participants 21