Writing Academic English - Coursework Example

 Summary Using two 300 word extracts – one from a linguistic journal and the other from a transcribed interview – a comparison is made for empirical findings. The properties under consideration are the number and average length of sentences, the number and type of dependent clauses and the number of contractions. Four hypotheses are proposed and results concur with Hypothesis 1 that proposed the interview corpus would contain more and thus shorter sentences on average; results do not match Hypothesis 2 however, that proposed there would be less dependent clauses within the interview corpus. Hypothesis 3 predicted that both corpora would provide more dependent noun clauses than other types of dependent clauses and is confirmed within the interview corpus but not within the linguistic corpus, which contained an even number of adverbial, noun and relative clauses. Hypothesis 4 predicted that the extract taken from a transcribed interview would contain more contractions than the linguistic extract, and is borne out by the results. 1.0 Introduction This study compares two small corpora, each comprising 300 words, taken from a linguistic journal and a transcribed interview. The texts are therefore diverse in terms of content, style, register and their proposed audience, and are compared and contrasted in terms of the linguistic properties pertaining to the number and length of sentences, the number and type of dependent clauses, and the use of contractions. The focus on sentence constructions begins by ascertaining the number of sentences within each corpus. The purpose of this is that the number of sentences will provide insight as to the length of the sentences, which is measured in terms of the number of words within a punctuated sentence. The higher the number of sentences found within a 300 word corpus, then the shorter the sentences would have to be. The fewer the number of sentences therefore, would realise longer, compound and complex sentences and thus would be expected to render more dependent clauses. The second property to be measured in this study is the number and type of dependent clauses used within each text. A dependent clause does not convey a complete idea and therefore is unable to stand by itself; in other words a dependent clause relies on an independent clause for meaning. Tallerman (2005) refers to dependent clauses as subordinate clauses and the independent clause, which must contain a finite verb, as the matrix clause. She also tells us that subordinate clauses are often considered as embedded clauses because they are embedded within another clause and are “syntactically dependent on the matrix clause” (p.77). A dependent clause, or subordinate clause, is introduced with a subordinator (Oshima & Hogue, 1999) which can take the function of an adverb, adjective or noun; Tallerman (2005) refers to these words as ‘complementizers’ (p.81). If introduced with an adverbial subordinator, such as because, so, if, when and while, the dependent clause is called an adverbial clause because it works like an adverb and modifies the verb in the independent clause (Oshima & Hogue, 1999); for example, (1) I workout regularly at the gym so that I can be fit and healthy. In example (1) the dependent adverbial clause ‘so that I can be fit and healthy’ modifies the verb ‘workout’ in the independent clause, which in this case provides the reason why I workout. Adverbial clauses may provide reference to place, time, frequency, distance, reason, result, contrast, concession (results that are not expected), purpose and manner (Oshima & Hogue, 1999), some of which are illustrated below: (2) Everywhere I go, I bump into somebody I know. (place) (3) After I read the instructions, I understood how to use the machine correctly. (time) (4) I go to the gym as often as I can. (frequency) (5) I like to run the treadmill as far as I can. (distance) A dependent clause introduced with a relative adverb such as when or where, or a relative pronoun such as which, who, that or whose, is called a relative clause and works as an adjective, meaning that it modifies or supports a noun or a pronoun (Oshima & Hogue, 1999); for example, (6) Many aerobic classes, which are scheduled in the evenings, are too crowded. Example (6) illustrates how the dependent relative clause ‘which are scheduled in the evenings’ modifies the noun phrase in the independent clause ‘many aerobic classes’; this independent clause is known as the antecedent and the verb in the relative clause agrees with the antecedent (Oshima & Hogue, 1999). Relative pronouns can function as either the subject of its own dependent clause, as in (7) Aerobics, which is very popular around the word, is good for all ages. or as the object of its own dependent clause, as in (8) She likes dancing exercises, which I hate. Although relative clauses are dependent they may not always be necessary but merely add extra information; if introduced by an adverb they refer to either time or place (Oshima & Hogue, 1999). A dependent clause introduced with if, whether, that or a wh-question word, is called a noun phrase and works as a noun (Oshima & Hogue, 1999); for example, (9) My girlfriend cannot decide whether to join the gym with me. In example (9) the dependent noun clause ‘whether to join the gym with me’ is being used as the object of the independent clause ‘my girlfriend cannot decide’ but a noun clause can also be used as a subject of the independent clause. It is important to note that within most complex sentences there is usually only one independent/matrix clause but there could be “infinite subordinate” (Tallerman, 2005, p.79) or dependent clauses added. The third and last property to be measured within this study is contractions; more specifically the number of contractions used within each corpus. A contraction occurs when two word are shortened by omitting letters as in ‘I will’ – ‘I’ll’, ‘do not’ – ‘don’t’, ‘they are’ – ‘they’re’, and ‘can not’ – ‘can’t’. They are not usually considered appropriate in formal writing but are more associated with the spoken word and informal writing. The most common contractions include the word ‘not’ and some form of the verb ‘to be’, such as wouldn’t (would not) or isn’t (is not), or mixtures of auxiliary verbs and pronoun, such as it’s (it is), I’d (I would/should) and necessitate an apostrophe to replace the missing letter/s. There are some exceptions such as ‘won’t’ (will not) and the reason for this is because of historical use, which in old English was ‘wynnot’ then ‘wonnot’ and now ‘won’t’ (Wise Geek, 2010). In summary, the sentence construction of two texts – an extract from a linguistic journal and an extract from a transcribed interview – are examined in relation to five variables. The first variable for measurement is the number of sentences found within each text, determined by punctuation; the second is the average length of each sentence, determined by the number of words. The third variable for examination is the number of dependent clauses provided within each 300 word corpus; once the number is ascertained then the fourth variable will be measured, which is the type of each dependent clause, whether each is a relative, noun or adverbial clause. The fifth and final variable to be measured is the number of contractions, shortened combinations of words, found within each corpus. 2.0 Methodology 2.1 Data The first corpus was extracted from a linguistic article entitled ‘The acoustic characteristics of /hVd/vowels in the speech of some Australian teenagers’, written by Felicity Cox and published in the Australian Journal of Linguistics (2006). The article pertained to a study that examined the frequency and length of stressed monophthongs and diphthongs within the context of hVd, provided by 120 (60 female and 60 male) Sydney teenagers (Cox, 2006). The extract was taken from page 148 in relation to vowels. This text therefore is aimed at an audience of academics, students or those interested in linguistics. The second corpus is an extract taken from a transcribed 1991 interview between Oprah Winfrey and a reporter of, and published on line by, the Academy of Achievement. The audience for this text is therefore far wider than the first and does not necessitate any prior knowledge or expertise in any area. 2.2 Analysis and coding of linguistic variables The total number of sentences in each text was determined; a sentence is defined with a period (full stop) or question mark at the end. One notable point within the word count pertains to contractions such as ‘won’t’ these were each counted as one word even though in reality they are two because by their very definition, contractions become a single entity; the same was established for hyphenated words. The word count of 300 was then divided by the number of sentences in each text to ascertain the average sentence length. Each text was then examined for the number of contractions used in each, and the number was recorded. Finally, the number of dependent clauses was tallied within each text and a list of each type (relative, adverbial or noun clauses) was extracted. 2.3 Research Hypotheses The following hypotheses are proposed in relation to the variables examined within the two corpora taken from a linguistic journal article and a transcribed interview with a famous TV personality. Hypothesis 1. The transcribed interview corpus will provide more sentences than the linguistic journal corpus and thus shorter sentences on average. Hypothesis 2. The transcribed interview corpus will provide less dependent clauses than the linguistic journal corpus. Hypothesis 3. The transcribed interview corpus and the linguistic journal corpus will provide more dependent noun clauses than relative or adverbial clauses. Hypothesis 4. The transcribed interview corpus will provide more contractions than the linguistic journal corpus. 3.0 Results and Discussion Variable Linguistic corpus Interview corpus Number of sentences 10 29 Average length of sentences 30 words 10.3 words Number of dependent clauses 3 7 Type of dependent clauses 1 noun clause 1 relative clause 1 adverbial clause 4 noun clauses 2 relative clauses 1 adverbial clause Number of contractions 0 14 Results indicate that only two of the four hypotheses are fully supported. A large variance in the number of sentences within each corpus is evident, with the interview extract providing almost 3 times as many as the linguistic extract. Such findings therefore provide a wide disparity between the two corpora in terms of average sentence length. The average length of sentences within the linguistic extract is 30 words, whereas in the interview extract it is only 10.3 words, amounting to almost a third the number found in the linguistic corpus. Many of the sentences within the interview corpus in fact, are simple sentences containing only three or four words, such as “I really do”, “I just couldn’t.” and “He killed eighty people.”. The longest sentence in the interview corpus is 29 words: “I was in the middle of a show with some white supremacists, skinheads, Ku Klux Klan members and in the middle of that show I just had a flash.” but there are no dependent clauses evident within this longest sentence. The shortest sentence within the linguistic corpus is “Such vowel spaces, with axes F1 and F2, rely on the concept of the vowel target.” and contains 16 words, while the longest is 70 words and contains only one dependent clause – an adverbial clause – wherein the dependent clause is modifying the verb ‘ensure’: The relationships between the first formant (F1) and the auditory quality of height, and the second formant (F2) and the auditory impression of the front, back dimension, (or, more accurately, degree of constriction and point of maximal constriction) ensures that when the first two formants of a set of vowel targets are plotted on axes with appropriate directional and scaling characteristics, the result closely resembles the traditional auditory vowel map Hypothesis 2 predicted that there would be more dependent clauses found in the linguistic corpus because of the expectation of longer sentences. This hypothesis however, is proved incorrect because findings indicate that the interview corpus provides more than double the number of dependent clauses found in the linguistic corpus at a ratio of 7:3. The types of dependent clauses found within the interview corpus supports Hypothesis 3 because it provides 4 noun clauses, 2 relative clauses and 1 adverbial clause; thus illustrating more dependent noun clauses than relative and adverbial clauses. The linguistic corpus however, provides a different result. Rather than having more dependent noun clauses it provides only one of each of the three types, so in fact does not support Hypotheses 3. Hypothesis 4 proposed the speech corpus would provide more contractions; the linguistic corpus in fact does not contain any contractions, while the interview corpus contains fourteen. This is not surprising because spoken text is more spontaneous and apt to contain more contractions in an effort to speed things up and simplify the communication between the speaker and listener. 4.0 Conclusion This study compared two differing corpora, each 300 words in length, for four different linguistic variables; the corpora were extracted from a linguistic journal and a transcribed interview and the linguistic variables were number of sentences, average length of sentences, number and type of dependent clauses and number of contractions. Results supported Hypotheses 1 and 4, wherein more and shorter sentences and more contractions were found in the transcribed interview corpus than in the linguistic journal extract. The findings disproved Hypothesis 2 because even though the linguistic extract provided less and longer sentences it was the interview extract that provided more dependent clauses within the 300 words. Hypothesis 3 was only partly supported because the linguistic journal corpus did not provide evidence of more dependent noun clauses than other types of dependent clauses. References Academy of Achievement (1991). Interview with Oprah Winfrey, Entertainment Executive, February 21. Chicago, Illinois. Retrieved 3 November from http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/printmember/win0int-1 Cox, F. (2006). The Acoustic characteristics of /hVd/ vowels in the speech of some Australian Teenagers. Australian Journal of Linguistics, vol. 26, 147-179. Oshima, A. & Hogue, A. (1999). Writing academic English, 3rd edition. New York: Longman. Tallerman, M. (2005). Understannding syntax. London: Hodder Arnold. Wise Geek, (2010). What is a contraction? Retrieved 4 November from http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-contraction.htm Appendix Corpus 1: Article from linguistic journal Vowels are frequently described with reference to their formant structure, which provides an indication of vocal tract resonance and therefore articulatory shape (Fant, 1960). The relationships between the first formant (F1) and the auditory quality of height, and the second formant (F2) and the auditory impression of the front, back dimension, (or, more accurately, degree of constriction and point of maximal constriction) ensures that when the first two formants of a set of vowel targets are plotted on axes with appropriate directional and scaling characteristics, the result closely resembles the traditional auditory vowel map. Such vowel spaces with axes F1 and F2, rely on the concept of the vowel target. The target is the vowel component least influenced by its surrounding phonetic context and is considered to be either a point in the time course of the vowel or else a section of time during which the vowel position remains stable. A single point is often used to provide a representation of the target position, and for most vowels this can be assumed to be approximately mid way though the nucleus. There has been an ongoing debate in the literature with regard to target versus dynamic theories of vowel specification (for instance, Fox, 1998; Harrington and Cassidy, 1994; Hillenbrand and Gayvert, 1993). Speech sounds are considered inherently dynamic gestures comprising a constellation of articulatory activity (Browman and Goldstein, 1991). The target theory is based on the traditional view that each vowel contains a relatively steady articulatory, and hence acoustic component providing the principle cue to identification. In contrast to this, the dynamic theory considers spectral change to provide essential information for vowel identification. In this paper we will make use of the concept of the target as a descriptive tool but we acknowledge the inherently dynamic nature of vowel gestures. (300 words) Corpus: Transcribed interview I feel that my show is a ministry. We just don't take up a collection. And I feel that it is a teaching tool, without preaching to people about it. I really do. That is my intent. I couldn't do the kinds of shows that I see some other people do. I just couldn't. I've reached a level of maturity in this work myself. There was a time though, when I first started out, I would say I was far more exploitative. You just put a person on for the purpose of having them. I wouldn't do that anymore. I was in the middle of a show with some white supremacists, skinheads, Ku Klux Klan members and in the middle of that show I just had a flash. I thought, "This is doing nobody any good, nobody." And I had rationalized the show by saying, "Oh, people need to know that these kinds of people are out here." I won't do it anymore. I just won't do it. There are certain things I won't do - Satanism of any kind, any kind of Satan worship. I no longer want to give a platform to racists. I just don't because I think no good can come of it. So if you don't know that it exists, I'm sorry. You won't hear it here. But that's growth for me. I taped a show last year with a guy who was a mass murderer. He killed eighty people. I did the whole interview, and I had the families of some of the people he killed. In the middle of it, flash. I thought, "I shouldn't be doing this. This is not going to help anybody. It's a voyeuristic look at a serial killer, but what good is it going to do anybody?" (300 words) Read More