[Corpora-List] Common connectors

[Xiao, Zhonghua]

Hi Wallace,
I think there is no established statistical norm for what should be considered as "common". Maybe we can take account of the two factors underlying Mike Scott's idea of "key keyword": frequency and dispersion. If an item is frequent and it also occurs in a large number of genres and/or texts in your corpus, it can be considered as "common". The cut-off points for frequency and coverage, of course, depend upon how many connectors you want to include in your study.
Best,
Richard


________________________________

From: owner-corpora at lists.uib.no on behalf of Wallace Chen
Sent: Fri 22/04/2005 23:09
To: CORPORA at UIB.NO
Subject: [Corpora-List] Common connectors


Dear Corpora colleagues, 
 
I am currently doing a research on Chinese connectors, which have around 270 types and broadly include conjunctions and sentence adverbs. These are derived from a five-million-word corpus of contemporary Chinese. My question is how to determine which ones are "common"? Are there statistical criteria (e.g. cut-off point) to determine "common connectors" from such a list? Do I look at their frequencies or rankings? I appreciate anyone who can help me answer the questions or direct me to relevant resources. Thanks in advance for all your help!
 
Wallace Chen