Bei der vorliegenden Arbeit handelt es sich um einen linguistischen Report, den ich während meines Auslandsaufenthaltes an der Birmingham City University verfasst habe. Dabei wurden grundlegende linguistische Phänomene anhand eines Wortes ("sound") wie bspw. Morphologie oder Syntax untersucht. Der erste Teil der Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit der Wortherkunft (Etymologie) sowie den verschiedenen Bedeutungen und Flexiven. Aufbauend auf diese grundlegenden Informationen untersucht der zweite Teil die unterschiedliche Flexive im Bezug auf ihre benachbarten Wörter (Kollokationen). Mit Hilfe des British National Corpus werden sowohl mehrere Beispiele herausgestellt als auch Diagramme und Tabellen verwendet, um die Ergebnisse hervorzuheben. Das kurze Fazit stellt noch einmal die wichtigsten Punkte zusammen.
Nachfolgend die Einleitung aus der Arbeit:
The following report is dedicated to investigate the word “sound” (/saʊnd/) with regards to some of the main linguistic features: meaning, morphology, syntax, collocation. First of all, this brief introduction will look at the word in its common meaning as well as its etymology. If one hears the word sound, one will automatically associate it with noise. According to the Oxford Dictionary of English sound relating to noise has its origin in two other languages: Anglo-Norman French and Latin. The former includes the noun soun and the verb suner, the latter the noun sonus. The word entered the English language for the first time in the Middle English period. At that time it was written soun like the Anglo-Norman French version and the -d was added in the Early Modern English period (Oxforddictionaries.com, 2014).
The next section will present other main senses of the word as well as their etymology (meaning). Afterwards, the section on morphology will focus on the word classes and inflec- tions of the word “sound” (morphology). Based on these introductory sections, the analysis of this report will be examined with the help of the British National Corpus in the last two sec- tions. Therefore, it will be outlined how the word operates in English syntax as well as the regular lexical phrases it enters. Ultimately, the conclusion will discuss the results that have been discovered in the analysis.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Meaning
3. Morphology
4. Syntax
5. Collocation – Sound as a Noun
5.1 Collocation – Sound as a Verb
5.2 Collocation – Sound as an Adjective
6. Conclusion
Objectives & Core Themes
This report aims to conduct a comprehensive linguistic analysis of the word "sound" by examining its etymology, morphological inflections, syntactic functions, and collocational patterns using data from the British National Corpus.
- Etymological development from Middle English to present day.
- Morphological categorization and inflectional patterns.
- Syntactic operational functions within English sentences.
- Statistical analysis of collocations using frequency and Mutual Information (MI).
- Comparative study of "sound" across different word classes (noun, verb, adjective).
Excerpt from the Book
5. Collocation – Sound as a Noun
Collocation means that two or more words often go together and that this combination is more often than would be expected by chance. The first part of this analysis will take a closer look at sound as a noun (singular) and its collocations. The range of collocations in this report focuses on those three words that either precede or follow the investigated word. The left chart below illustrates the top five words (as measured by frequency) that occur with the word sound in the abovementioned range. The past tense “heard” is the outstanding word with 251. Surprisingly, if one analyses the strength of these collocations (MI), none of the top five words can maintain its position. This can be seen in the right chart, which presents the five strongest collocations (the higher the MI, the stronger the collocation) among the twenty most frequent words.
Summary of Chapters
1. Introduction: Provides an overview of the report's purpose and a brief look at the etymology of the word "sound".
2. Meaning: Outlines the various senses of "sound" as defined by the Oxford Dictionary of English, including its use as an adjective and in geological contexts.
3. Morphology: Lists the inflectional morphemes and word classes associated with "sound" within the English language.
4. Syntax: Examines the syntactic functions of "sound" and highlights common errors in constructions involving "sound of".
5. Collocation – Sound as a Noun: Analyzes the frequency and strength of words occurring alongside "sound" when used as a noun.
5.1 Collocation – Sound as a Verb: Investigates the collocational patterns of "sound" when functioning as a verb, noting its tendency to precede "like".
5.2 Collocation – Sound as an Adjective: Explores the collocates of "sound" as an adjective and discusses differences between singular and plural noun pairings.
6. Conclusion: Summarizes the findings and discusses the limitations of using the British National Corpus for this specific linguistic analysis.
Keywords
Sound, Linguistics, Morphology, Syntax, Collocation, British National Corpus, Etymology, Inflection, Word Classes, Mutual Information, Frequency, Corpus Analysis, Adjective, Verb, Noun.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the primary focus of this report?
The report provides a detailed linguistic investigation of the word "sound," analyzing its multifaceted nature through various grammatical and statistical lenses.
Which linguistic features are explored?
The study covers the etymology, morphology, syntax, and collocation patterns of the word "sound".
What is the research goal?
The objective is to understand how the word "sound" operates in modern English across different word classes and contexts.
What methodology is employed?
The author uses a corpus-based approach, utilizing the British National Corpus (BNC) to extract frequency data and measure collocations via Mutual Information (MI).
What is discussed in the main analysis?
The main sections focus on the syntactic function of "sound," its inflections, and specific collocational pairings when used as a noun, verb, or adjective.
Which keywords characterize this paper?
Key terms include Sound, Linguistics, Morphology, Syntax, Collocation, Corpus Analysis, and Inflection.
Why does the author differentiate between "sound" and "sounds"?
The analysis reveals significant differences in collocational behavior between the singular and plural forms, despite the core meaning remaining consistent.
What does the study suggest about frequent vs. strong collocations?
A major finding is that the most frequently occurring collocations are not necessarily the strongest ones when analyzed through the lens of Mutual Information (MI).
What limitation is noted regarding the data source?
The author notes that the BNC data used (from the 1980s to 1993) is dated, which may limit the significance of the findings in relation to contemporary language use.
- Quote paper
- Tim Ballschmiede (Author), 2015, Report on the Word "Sound", Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/288976
