Dependency Structures from Syntax to Discourse

Download or read book Dependency Structures from Syntax to Discourse written by Hongxin ZHANG and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-09-28 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on the large corpora of journalistic English, this title examines dependency relations and related properties at both syntactic and discourse levels, seeking to unravel the language patterns of real-life usage. With a focus on rank-frequency distribution, the author investigates the distribution of linguistic properties/units from the perspectives of properties, motifs and sequencings. At the syntactic level, the book analyses the following three dimensions: various combinations of a complete dependency structure, valency and dependency distance. At the discourse level, it proves that the elements can also form dependency relations by exploring (1) the rank-frequency distribution of Rhetorical Structure Theory relations, their motifs, discourse valency and discourse dependency distance; (2) whether there is top-down organisation or an inverted pyramid structure at all the three discourse levels; and (3) whether discourse dependency distances and valencies are lawfully distributed, following the same distribution patterns as those at the syntactic level. This book will be of great value for scholars and students of quantitative linguistics and computational linguistics and its practical insights will also benefit professionals of language teaching and journalistic writing.