Coding grammatical errors in language samples

Fri Sep 6 13:46:58 UTC 2002

In English Today, 14.3 July 1998, there's a short and entertaining article
by Pam Peters, 'Differing on Agreement', about concord in contemporary
International English usage. This is a report from the English Today/
Cambridge University Press 'Langscape' project which used computer corpora
and elicited data to track changes in usage. The project and the whole
periodical are interesting sources of information about such changes.

George

htagerf at bu.edu writes:
>This message is in MIME format. Since your mail reader does not understand
>this format, some or all of this message may not be legible.
>
>------_=_NextPart_001_01C2541F.EA91FAB0
>Content-Type: text/plain;
>	charset="iso-8859-1"
>
>We are currently coding language samples and are interested in the
>presence
>of grammatical errors.  One concern is how to distinguish between
>'vernacular use' and genuine errors.  Here are examples that we don't know
>what to do with:  - regarding the use of "there are"- I am finding many
>subjects using it as a contraction in the singular when the plural form is
>called for- i.e. "there's more people here then expected" or "there's 100
>people attending the service Also using "good" instead of "well"- "He ran
>really good at the race"? The other issue was dropping "ly" from adverbs-
>"he drew nice" or various combinations of both "she plays real good"
>
>
>
>Any ideas on this?  rules to follow?
>
>thanks in advance for advice,
>
>Helen Tager-Flusberg
>
>
>------_=_NextPart_001_01C2541F.EA91FAB0
>Content-Type: text/html;
>	charset="iso-8859-1"
>
><!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
><HTML><HEAD>
><META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
>
>
><META content="MSHTML 5.00.2920.0" name=GENERATOR></HEAD>
><BODY>
><DIV>
><P><FONT size=2><SPAN class=951322714-04092002>We are currently coding
>language
>samples and are int</SPAN><SPAN class=951322714-04092002>erested in the
></SPAN>presence of grammatical errors. <SPAN
>class=951322714-04092002> One
>concern is how to distinguish between 'vernacular use' and ge</SPAN><SPAN
>class=951322714-04092002>nuine errors.  Here are examples that we
>don't
>know what to do with</SPAN><SPAN class=951322714-04092002>: 
></SPAN>- regarding the use of "there are"- I am<SPAN
>class=951322714-04092002> </SPAN>finding many subjects using it as a
>contraction
>in the singular when the<SPAN class=951322714-04092002> </SPAN>plural
>form is
>called for- i.e. "there's more people here then expected" or<SPAN
>class=951322714-04092002> </SPAN>"there's 100 people attending the
>service<SPAN
>class=951322714-04092002> </SPAN>Also using "good"<SPAN
>class=951322714-04092002> </SPAN>instead of "well"- "He ran really good
>at the
>race"? The other issue was<SPAN class=951322714-04092002> </SPAN>dropping
>"ly"
>from adverbs- "he drew nice" or various combinations of both<SPAN
>class=951322714-04092002> </SPAN></FONT><FONT size=2>"she plays real
>good"</FONT></P>
><P> </P>
><P><FONT size=2><SPAN class=951322714-04092002>Any ideas on this? 
>rules to
>follow?</SPAN></FONT></P>
><P><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=951322714-04092002>thanks in
>advance for
>advice,</SPAN></FONT></P>
><P><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=951322714-04092002>Helen
>Tager-Flusberg</SPAN></FONT></P></DIV></BODY></HTML>
>
>------_=_NextPart_001_01C2541F.EA91FAB0--
>

George Hunt
Department of Educational Studies
University of Edinburgh
Moray House Institute
Holyrood Road
Edinburgh EH8 8AQ
UK

0131-651-6600
george.hunt at education.ed.ac.uk