Form-frequency correspondence in adjectives: A cross-linguistic corpus approach

DOI:10.30842/alp23065737171458477

Ye Jingting. Form-frequency correspondence in adjectives: A cross-linguistic corpus approach. Acta Linguistica Petropolitana. 2021. 17(1): 458–477.

The adjective has always been a puzzle despite the long-standing discussion in the previous literature, e.g., [Chomsky 1970; Dixon 1982]. Cross-linguistically, a substantial variation can be observed regarding the syntactic behavior of adjectives. Adjectives are more noun-like in some languages, while more verb-like in other languages [Wetzer 1992, 1996]. In some languages, adjectives are marked by a copula when used as predicates, while in other languages adjectives are used as predicates without any further marking. Likewise, adjectives behave diﬀerently across languages when used as modiﬁers.

The aim of this study is twofold. The ﬁrst aim is to explain the cross-linguistic coding pattern of adjectives with reference to the form-frequency correspondence hypothesis [Zipf 1935; Haspelmath 2008; Haspelmath et al. 2014; Haspelmath 2021]. The second aim is to test the hypothesis, using cross-linguistic corpus data from the Universal Dependencies Corpora [Nivre et al. 2017] and the BCC Mandarin Corpus [Xun et al. 2016].

According to the form-frequency correspondence hypothesis, the more frequent forms are less likely to be marked with extra markers. Within the realm of adjectives, the eﬀect of the form-frequency correspondence hypothesis can be understood as follows. Firstly, the relative frequency of the attributive use of adjectives correlates negatively with the probability of their co-occurrence with a relativizer; secondly, the relative frequency of the predicative use of adjectives correlates negatively with the probability of their co-occurrence with a copula. These hypotheses are tested using the logistic regression model on the basis of an 84-language sample from the Universal Dependencies Corpora, which is a suitable database for the purposes of the present study because it has cross-linguistically consistent annotation for parts of speech and their syntactic contexts. In addition, I have also tested the form-frequency correspondence hypothesis based on the data from the BCC Mandarin Chinese Corpus based on the frequency of diﬀerent adjectives. These results have provided positive evidence for the form-frequency correspondence hypothesis.

Keywords

adjective, universal dependencies, frequency, typology, relativizer, copula

About the author

Ye Jingting͏

jingting_ye@eva.mpg.de

References

Backhouse 2004

A. E. Backhouse. Inﬂected and uninﬂected adjectives in Japanese. R. Dixon, A. Aikhenvald (eds.). Adjective Classes: A Cross- Linguistic Typology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. P. 50–73.

Baker 2003

M. Baker.Lexical Categories: Verbs, Nouns and Adjectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.

Bhat 1994

D. Bhat.The Adjectival Category: Criteria for Diﬀerentiation and Identiﬁcation. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing, 1994.

Chomsky 1970

N. Chomsky. Remarks on nominalization. R. Jacobs, P. Rosenbaum (eds.).Readings in English Transformational Grammar. Waltham, MA: Blaisdell, 1970. P. 184–221.

Croft et al. 2017

W. Croft, D. Nordquist, K. Looney, M. Regan. Linguistic typology meets universal dependencies. M. Dickinson, J. Hajič, S. Kübler, A. Przepiórkowski (eds.). Proceedings of the 15th International Workshop on Treebanks and Linguistic Theories (TLT15). CEUR Workshop Proceedings, 2017. P. 63–75.

Dixon 1982

R. M. W. Dixon.Where have all the adjectives gone? R. M. W. Dixon (ed.). Where Have All the Adjectives Gone? And Other Essays in Semantics and Syntax. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. 1982. P. 1–62.

Dixon 2004

R. M. W. Dixon.The Jarawara Language of Southern Amazonia. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.

Greenberg 1966

J. H. Greenberg.Language Universals: With Special Reference to Feature Hierarchies. The Hague: Mouton, 1966.

Haspelmath 2008

M. Haspelmath. Frequency vs. iconicity in explaining grammatical asymmetries.Cognitive Linguistics. 2008. Vol. 19. Pt. 1. P. 1–33.

Haspelmath et al. 2014

M. Haspelmath, A. Calude, M. Spagnol, H. Narrog, E. Bamyaci. Coding causal-noncausal verb alternations: A form-frequency correspondence explanation.Journal of Linguistics. 2014. Vol. 50. Pt. 3. P. 587–625.

Haspelmath 2021

M. Haspelmath. Explaining grammatical coding asymmetries: Form-frequency correspondences and predictability.Journal of Linguistics. 2021. Available at: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-linguistics/article/explaining-grammatical-coding-asymmetries-formfrequency-correspondences-and-predictability/420965EC1CEA49527CCE7276B33A14D0 (accessed on 17.03.2021).

Hawkins 2004

J. A. Hawkins.Eﬃciency and Complexity in Grammars. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.

Heath 1999

J. Heath.A Grammar of Koyra Chiini: The Songhay of Timbuktu. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 1999.

Lehmann 2013

C. Lehmann. The nature of parts of speech.STUF — Language Typology and Universals. 2013. Vol. 66. Pt. 2. P. 141–177.

Levshina 2019.

N. Levshina. Token-based typology and word order entropy: A study based on universal dependencies.Linguistic Typology. 2019. Vol. 23. Pt. 3. P. 533–572.

Liu 2010

H. Liu. Dependency direction as a means of word-order typology: A method based on dependency treebanks.Lingua. 2010. Vol. 120. Pt. 6. P. 1567–1578.

Naranjo, Becker 2018

M. G. Naranjo, L. Becker. Quantitative word order typology with UD. D. Haug, S. Oepen, L. Øvrelid, M. Candito, J. Hajič (eds.).Proceedings of the 17th International Workshop on Treebanks and Linguistic Theories (TLT 2018), December 13–14, 2018, Oslo University, Norway. Linköping: Linköping University Electronic Press, 2018. P. 91–104.

Noonan 1992

M. Noonan.A Grammar of Lango. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, 1992.

Quasthoﬀ et al. 2014

ﬀ et al. 2014 — U. Quasthoﬀ , D. Goldhahn, T. Eckart. Building large resources for text mining: The Leipzig Corpora Collection. C. Biemann, A. Mehler (eds.). Text Mining — From Ontology Leaning to Automated Text Processing Applications. New York: Springer, 2014. P. 3–24.

Wetzer 1992

H. Wetzer. “Nouny” and “verby” adjectivals: A typology of predicative adjectival constructions. M. Kefer, J. van der Auwera (eds.).Meaning and Grammar. Cross-Linguistic Perspectives. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, 1992. P. 223–262.

Wetzer 1996

H. Wetzer.The Typology of Adjectival Predication. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, 1996.

Xun et al. 2016

E. Xun, G. Rao, X. Xiao, J. Zang.The construction of the BCC corpus in the age of big data. Corpus Linguistics. 2016. Vol. 3. P. 93–109.

Zipf 1935

G. K. Zipf.The Psycho-Biology of Language: An Introduction to Dynamic Philology. Boston: Houghton Miﬄin, 1935.

Keywords

adjective, universal dependencies, frequency, typology, relativizer, copula