22.625, Qs: Corpora to Compare Spoken and Written Language

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LINGUIST List: Vol-22-625. Mon Feb 07 2011. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 22.625, Qs: Corpora to Compare Spoken and Written Language

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1)
Date: 01-Feb-2011
From: Alain Jambin [alain.jambin at sfr.fr]
Subject: Corpora to Compare Spoken and Written Language
 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Mon, 07 Feb 2011 10:51:03
From: Alain Jambin [alain.jambin at sfr.fr]
Subject: Corpora to Compare Spoken and Written Language

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I would be very thankful for any type of information (research: articles 
or books) connected with the idea of comparing speech formats in 
English with written ones, along possibly with emerging new forms 
standing halfway between spoken and written language (e-mails..). I 
would very thankful too for any mention of websites providing a wide 
range of English language corpora, especially spoken language.

As a (retired) school inspector (modern language adviser) for the 
French Educational System, I have observed that most of the teaching 
(of foreign languages) carried out in high schools is based on the 
assumption that the spoken language is somehow an adulterated form 
of the written one, which accounts for the fact that the English used by 
our students (for those who have some command of it) is usually 
bookish. Few teachers are in fact aware of the way speech has a code 
of its own or rather of the way it works. Of course, a great many 
linguists have proved to the contrary over the last decades. But I have 
the feeling that beyond the specificity of the features of the two codes 
as such, some specific formats/schemas run parallel too as far as 
language acts are concerned. In other words for example, the way you 
confess (orally) to a friend is slightly different from its written 
counterpart in a diary. Again the way you make an oral presentation 
(academic though it may be) is based on language patterns that are 
akin but different from the way you write an article, etc. 

At the same time, I have the feeling that it is possible to establish some 
rules enabling students to bridge the gap between specific written 
schemas and their oral counterparts and the other way round. My 
purpose is then to take advantage of a variety of corpora to analyze 
the links between some speech schemas with what I deem to be 
corresponding written schemas, unless some welcome research is 
already available in this respect. But I have been unable to trace any 
work based on systematic comparisons so far. 

It would of course be worthwhile for language teachers to get a glimpse 
of the ways they can get students to migrate from one type of skill to 
the other and the other way round as a means to help them reconsider 
their practice as well as a means to provide a new incentive for 
students to the study of languages when it tends to erode after a few 
years. 

If I manage to collect the relevant data, I will then try to write a 
methodology book aimed at teachers including (a) a comparison 
between the two types of code, (b) the analysis of the oral and written 
features of the language used for similar or close formats, (3) a series 
of suggestions to convert a genuine written (oral) format into an oral 
(written) one. As you understand my work is not academic as such 
(though it relies on the research previously carried out), but rather 
practical. 

Some examples of corpora I am looking for comparison purposes: 
1.) Written: Tourist guide, set of rules or regulations, directions for use, 
diaries, jokes, tales, advertisements, classified advertisements, news 
items, biographies, entries in encyclopedias, newspaper column, letters 
to the editor, leading articles, film or book reviews, letters, narratives, 
serials, etc.
2.) 'Intermediate': e-mails, SMS, chatting over the Internet 
3.) Oral: guided tour, travel account, news items, jokes, tales, 
presentation, radio or TV advertisement, recorded testimony 
(confession), debate, film or book reviews, political speeches, 
speeches for the defense/the prosecution, phone conversation or 
usual conversation (argument, exchange of information, report of 
events, explanation, persuasion...). 

Of course, ideally the corresponding varieties could address the same 
event or theme.

Thank you very much,
Alain Jambin 

Linguistic Field(s): Discourse Analysis
                     Text/Corpus Linguistics

Subject Language(s): English (eng)




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