using key-word analysis to create lsp materials: identifying lexical layers mike nelson 20.3.2012...
TRANSCRIPT
Using key-word analysis to create LSP materials:
identifying lexical layers
Mike Nelson 20.3.2012
IATEFL 20.3.2012
IATEFL 20.3.2012
What language do we teach our LSP students?
• What language?
• How do we know?
• What criteria do we use?
IATEFL 20.3.2012
One option is to use key word analysis
What I will talk about today
• Background: register analysis and the layers of ESP
• Some definitions and the methodology:– key and key-key words– corpus creation and analysis
• Lexical layering in Grey’s Anatomy• In the classroom: materials from research
results• Ideas for doing the same yourself
IATEFL 20.3.2012
Register analysis and the layers of ESP
• Early ESP and register analysis
• Layers: – Close (1965): 3 layers of scientific English– Cowan (1974): 4 categories / sub-technical– Inman (1978): 3 categories
IATEFL 20.3.2012
Key word analysis
IATEFL 20.3.2012
Creating the ’MAC’
• Medical Anatomy Corpus
• Gray’s Anatomy
• Time taken: 2.5 hours
• Permission to use for research purposes
• 556, 479 words
IATEFL 20.3.2012
IATEFL 20.3.2012
Key words
• Key words are those whose frequency is unusually high in comparison with some norm.
IATEFL 20.3.2012
Scott (2007): WordSmith Tools 5 Manual
Key words
• Key-words provide a useful way to characterise a text or a genre. Potential applications include language teaching, forensic linguistics, stylistics, content analysis, text retrieval.
IATEFL 20.3.2012
Scott (2007): WordSmith Tools 5 Manual
Key words
• The program/s compare two pre-existing word-lists.
• One of these is a large word-list which will act as a reference file. The other is the word-list based on one text which you want to study.
• The aim is to find out which words characterise your text.
IATEFL 20.3.2012
Scott (2007): WordSmith Tools 5 Manual
Referencecorpus
My text/s
Various statistical methods can be used to compare therelative frequency of the words in each ’corpus’
Gray’s AnatomyBNC SAMPLER
IATEFL 20.3.2012
Key and key key-words
• Words ’key’ in several texts
• These were then analysed and categorised
N KW Texts %
Overall Freq.
1 ANTERIOR 14 100 2096
2 BACKWARD 14 100 551
3 ENLARGED 14 100 1104
4 LATERAL 14 100 1950
5 LOWER 14 100 1344
6 MEDIAL 14 100 1245
7 MEMBRANE 14 100 870
8 PORTION 14 100 820
9 POSTERIOR 14 100 2082
10 SITUATED 14 100 485
11 SURFACE 14 100 1910
12 TISSUE 14 100 678
13 TRANSVERSE 14 100 751
14 UPPER 14 100 1365
15 ARTERIES 13 92 589
16 ARTERY 13 92 1519
17 BETWEEN 13 92 1726
18 EXTREMITY 13 92 234
19 FORM 13 92 1064
20 FORMED 13 92 473IATEFL 20.3.2012
The layers
• Words of location
• Common anatomical terms many of which can that used in several contexts– some terms that change meaning in a medical context
• Sub-technical terms: words that are not medical, but often appear in a medical context
• Core words, combining forms, prefixes and suffixes (core latin/Greek terminology)
IATEFL 20.3.2012
Top 500 key key-words
Top 500 key key-words categorisation
0
50
100
150
200
250
location multi-area sub-technical core
Categories
Nu
mb
er
of
wo
rds
Series1
IATEFL 20.3.2012
Words of location and movement
• Latinate
• Normal
• Movement
IATEFL 20.3.2012
Multi-area words
1. Lexis related to either an elevation or depression of some kind, ridge, eminence, elevation and crest, in contrast to groove, notch, furrow, depression and fissure.
2. Lexis related to an opening of some kind: opening, aperture, passage, foramen, and orifice.
3. Three dimensional structures that may or may not be able to hold a liquid: duct, canal, capsule, bulb, lobe, vessel and sac.
4. Structures that give support to others: column, wall, and arch.
IATEFL 20.3.2012
Sub-technicalNouns Verbs Adjectives Adverbs Noun/verbs
PORTION/S SITUATED CORRESPONDING OCCASION-LLY FORM
BODY FORMED NUMEROUS CHIEFLY PART/S
SUBSTANCE SEPARATED SMALL VIZ FORMS
SIDE CONSIST/S CONTINUOUS EITHER ANGLE
SIZE TERMED DEEP PARTLY LIES
ATTACHMENT CONNECTED LATTER SOMEWHAT PRESENTS
ORIGIN DERIVED LARGER IMMEDIAT-LY BASE
DIAMETER DIRECTED THIN PASS
END DIVIDES TRIANGULAR COLOR
REGION ENDS CONVEX LINE
STRUCTURES EXTENDS GREATER CONTACT
IATEFL 20.3.2012
Sub-technical
• 1. Interrelationships between parts of the body: connected, divides, ends, attached, separates, joins.
• 2. Description of body parts: shaped, imbedded, enclosed, meshes.
IATEFL 20.3.2012
Sub-technical: Distribution plot for ‘situated’
N File Words Hits r 1,000 persion Plot
1 osteology.txt 85 510 765 8,95 0,782
2 respiratory.txt 12 786 78 6,10 0,744
3 digestive.txt 47 606 255 5,36 0,845
4 joints.txt 39 069 173 4,43 0,849
5 senseorgans.txt 35 986 150 4,17 0,839
6 muscles.txt 66 900 259 3,87 0,831
7 ctlessglands.txt 8 195 31 3,78 0,496
8 urogenital.txt 30 647 115 3,75 0,853
9 lymphatic.txt 14 358 48 3,34 0,681
10 nerves.txt 113 329 327 2,89 0,795
11 angiology.txt 21 056 41 1,95 0,664
12 arteries.txt 48 054 77 1,60 0,850
13 embryology.txt 11 820 18 1,52 0,679
14 veins.txt 16 661 25 1,50 0,715
IATEFL 20.3.2012
Overview• The majority of words are nouns referring to parts of the body (membrane,
tissue, arteries).
• The positioning of these words is then identified according to a very limited and predefined set of words of Latinate and Anglo-Saxon origin (proximal, dorsal, median).
• Readers are then given a further description of the core anatomical lexis according to its appearance or structure (sac, sulcus, foramen)
• Finally, the sub-technical terms act as linguistic cement to bind all these sections together (connect, separate, enter, divide).
• Layers not separate, but interlocking and mutually supportive
• Dispersion of words tied to specific parts of the body
IATEFL 20.3.2012
IATEFL 20.3.2012
DIY: the Web or WordSmith Tools
• Access texts
• Save as a text file
• Use the web
• http://www.lextutor.ca/keywords/
• … or use WordSmith Tools
IATEFL 20.3.2012
Take-home message
• LSP vocabulary can be seen to consist of clearly distinct layers
• Layers can help students create order out of chaos
• You can try it yourself online, quickly and for free
IATEFL 20.3.2012
Thank youKiitos
IATEFL 20.3.2012