International Journal of Corpus Linguistics - Online First

As large-scale learner corpora become increasingly available, it is vital that natural language processing (NLP) technology is developed to provide rich linguistic annotations necessary for second language (L2) research. We present a system for automatically analyzing subcategorization frames (SCFs) for learner English. SCFs link lexis with morphosyntax, shedding light on the interplay between lexical and structural information in learner language. Meanwhile, SCFs are crucial to the study of a wide range of phenomena including individual verbs, verb classes and varying syntactic structures. To illustrate the usefulness of our system for learner corpus research and second language acquisition (SLA), we investigate how L2 learners diversify their use of SCFs in text and how this diversity changes with L2 proficiency.

This paper presents the first entirely linguistic typology of contemporary American television, derived from a multi-dimensional (MD) analysis of the USTV corpus. The USTV corpus comprises 930 texts from 191 different TV programs, classified into 31 different registers (including nine telecinematic ones: drama series, miniseries, movies, sitcoms, soap operas, general animation, children’s animation, short-feature animation, and children’s and teens’ shows). The linguistic typology we present in this study is based on the linguistic characteristics present in the individual programs, with no a priori textual categorizations. A cluster analysis grouped the individual programs into clusters that shared similar dimensional profiles. The resulting typology comprises nine different text types – namely Presentation of information, Opinion and discussion, Analysis and debate, Description, Interactive recount, Engaging demonstration, Playful discourse, Simplified interaction, and Simulated conversation. The paper discusses and illustrates each text type and considers how telecinematic discourse relates to each of them.

Analyzing variation in language features in literature and telecinematic discourse provides valuable insights into society’s shifting values and perspectives. In this study, we carry out a keyword analysis on the language of three series of Star Trek television dialogues, broadcast in the 1960s, 1980s, and 1990s, from two perspectives: (i) keywords across the three series highlighting words that are unique to one series in contrast to the other two, providing insights about changes of foci across time; (ii) keywords in relation to gender depicting potential differences in gender roles and how these may change through time across the series.