Re: Working with codes
bar...@zas.gwz-berlin.de
This is only to thank you for your detailed answer. A proper reply will
follow.
Best
s--
Brian MacWhinney schrieb:
> Dear Susanna,
>
> Sorry about the delay in replying. I have been traveling. Let
> me try to answer some of these questions below.
>
> --Brian MacWhinney
>
> On Jun 19, 2008, at 7:43 AM, bar...@zas.gwz-berlin.de wrote:
>
>> Dear all,
>>
>> For a study on anaphora, we are coding referring expressions in
>> children's narratives and I have some questions concerning the coding
>> line (we use %cod), as well as subsequent CLAN analyses.
>>
>> First, is such a %cod line legal?
>> *CHI: der hund beisst sie in den schwanz.
>> %cod: der hund|S-DA:N-BL-V1:3-AS-DIR-hundC sie|O-PRO:PP-BL-V3:1-AS-
>> DIS-
>> katzeC den schwanz|NSO-DA:N-UBL-NV-IND-schwanzC
>>
>
> For the dependent tier lines like %cod, pretty much everything is
> legal, since the programs
> don't presume any particularly structure on this line. For these
> lines, the main issue is a practical one relating to composing the +s
> switch when you need to do searching. Just make sure that you can
> find the things you want to find by testing out some FREQ or KWAL
> commands in advance.
>
>> We use the minus symbol - for separating 7 levels of coding of each
>> referring expression, e.g., syntactic position, lexical realisation,
>> in/animacy, referent introduction vs. reference maintenance, etc. The
>> symbol : is used for separating sub-levels within each of the 7
>> superordinated levels.
>
> This is fine. You will have to have search strings like +s"*-*-*-*-BL-
> *" and such. Personally, I would find this confusing and prone to
> error, but if you are good at asterisk counting, this will work.
>>
>> Secondly, is there any possibility to link each referring expression
>> on the *CHI line with its coding on the %cod line? Provisionally, we
>> opted for typing the referring expression before the coding string,
>> e.g., 'die katze'.
>
> Ah, herein lies the rub (somewhere in Shakespeare). You are basically
> trying to construct something like the %mor line with its 1-to-1 match
> to the main line. This is a great idea. However, the CLAN software
> is not yet really ready for this. We are currently right in the
> middle of implementing strict 1-to-1 matching between the %mor and the
> main tier within the XML version of CLAN. Once this is finished then
> "match" searches will work with the %mor line. At that point, it
> would be relatively easy to extend this to a tier called %mat for a
> user-defined matching tier. However, none of this will be ready until
> later this year.
>>
>> Thidly and most importantly, we want to conduct analyses concerning
>> the cooccurrence of elements within each coding string. For instance,
>> we want to investigate differences in children's realisation of
>> referents as a function of referent introduction vs. anaphorical
>> expression (reference maintenance). For that, we want to find a range
>> of cooccurrences as the following:
>>
>> DA:N and NV and IND
>> (where DA:N means definite article + noun, NV means referent
>> introduction, and IND means indirect anaphor)
>
> I am not sure what you mean by "range" in your phrase "a range of
> cooccurrences". However, finding *-DA:N-*^*^*-NV-* should be possible.
>
>> I have tried COMB, but either I don't understand the principle for the
>> syntax of the command line or I miss some important switch or, well, I
>> don't know what.
>
> You probably just have to play around to learn how to use COMBO.
>
>>
>> Two things are in such searching procedures very important for us:
>> - The search must be limited to each of the coding strings and not be
>> based on the whole %cod line. For instanance, when looking for the
>> cooccurrence DA:N and DIS, CLAN would be supposed not to find it in
>> the example above, since it doesn't occur in any of the 3 coding
>> strings. That is, for this concrete example, how can we proceed for
>> ensuring that CLAN ignores the cooccurrence of DA:N for 'the hund' and
>> DIS for 'sie'?
>
> That should be easy enough. In COMBO lines, it is the ^ that searches
> across word boundaries. Just make sure that your search strings don't
> include the ^. So, you want
> *-DA:N-*-DIS-*
>
>> - How can we proceed to get quantitative results of such searches? I
>> mean, in addition to the concrete hits showed in the output window,
>> it'd be very important to have the number of cooccurrences found in
>> each chat file, as well as in all chat files in which the cooccurrence
>> was looked for.
>>
>> I apologize if the answers for my questions are obvious or easy to be
>> found in the CLAN manual. I have read the manual very carefully
>> before sending this query, but I don't seem to be able to find the
>> needed answers therein.
>
> I don't think you can really learn this stuff by reading the manual.
> You just have
> to devote an hour or two to playing around with COMBO. Think of it as
> a Bach
> theme with variations.
>
> --Brian MacWhinney
>
>>
>> Many, many thanks in advance for any hint.
>>
>> Kind regards,
>> Susanna
>>
>> *****************************************************************
>> Susanna Bartsch
>> https://www.zas.gwz-berlin.de/mitarb/homepage/bartsch/
>> bar...@zas.gwz-berlin.de
>> Zentrum fuer Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft (ZAS)
>> Centre for General Linguistics
>> Schuetzenstr. 18
>> 10117 Berlin
>> Germany
>> Tel. +49 (0)30 20 192 503
>> Fax +49 (0)30 20 192 402
>> *****************************************************************
>>
>
>
> >
*****************************************************************
Susanna Bartsch
bar...@zas.gwz-berlin.de
Zentrum fuer Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft (ZAS)
Centre for General Linguistics
Schuetzenstr. 18
10117 Berlin
Germany
Tel. +49 (0)30 20 192 503
Fax +49 (0)30 20 192 402
*****************************************************************