<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Collocation analysis can be used to extract meaningful linguistic information from large-scale corpus data. This paper reviews the methodological issues one may encounter when performing collocation analysis for discourse studies on Chinese. We propose four crucial aspects to consider in such analyses: (i) the definition of collocates according to various parameters; (ii) the choice of analysis and association measures; (iii) the definition of the search span; and (iv) the selection of corpora for analysis. To illustrate how these aspects can be addressed when applying a Chinese collocation analysis, we conducted a case study of two Chinese causal connectives: <italic>yushi</italic> ‘that is why’ and <italic>yin’er</italic> ‘as a result’. The distinctive collocation analysis shows how these two connectives differ in volitionality, an important dimension of discourse relations. The study also demonstrates that collocation analysis, as an explorative approach based on large-scale data, can provide valuable converging evidence for corpus-based studies that have been conducted with laborious manual analysis on limited datasets.</p></abstract>

Collocation analysis can be used to extract meaningful linguistic information from large-scale corpus data. This paper reviews the methodological issues one may encounter when performing collocation analysis for discourse studies on Chinese. We propose four crucial aspects to consider in such analyses: (i) the definition of collocates according to various parameters; (ii) the choice of analysis and association measures; (iii) the definition of the search span; and (iv) the selection of corpora for analysis. To illustrate how these aspects can be addressed when applying a Chinese collocation analysis, we conducted a case study of two Chinese causal connectives: yushi ‘that is why’ and yin’er ‘as a result’. The distinctive collocation analysis shows how these two connectives differ in volitionality, an important dimension of discourse relations. The study also demonstrates that collocation analysis, as an explorative approach based on large-scale data, can provide valuable converging evidence for corpus-based studies that have been conducted with laborious manual analysis on limited datasets.

Applying Collocation Analysis to Chinese Discourse: A Case Study of Causal Connectives

Lingua sinica

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Collocation analysis can be used to extract meaningful linguistic information from large-scale corpus data. This paper reviews the methodological issues one...

Applying Collocation Analysis to Chinese Discourse: A Case Study of Causal Connectives

Published Online: Sep 03, 2020

Page range: 1 - 24

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/linguasinica-2020-0004

Keywords
Collocation Analysis, Word Associations, Discourse, Chinese Connectives

© 2020 Yipu Wei et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Applying Collocation Analysis to Chinese Discourse: A Case Study of Causal Connectives

Published Online: Sep 03, 2020

Page range: 1 - 24

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/linguasinica-2020-0004

KeywordsCollocation Analysis, Word Associations, Discourse, Chinese Connectives

© 2020 Yipu Wei et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
Collocation Analysis, Word Associations, Discourse, Chinese Connectives