LINGUIST List 19.1522
Fri May 09 2008
Diss: Comp Ling/Syntax: Spruit: 'Quantitative Perspectives on Synta...'
Editor for this issue: Evelyn Richter
<evelynlinguistlist.org>
1. Marco
Spruit,
Quantitative Perspectives on Syntactic Variation in Dutch Dialects
Message 1: Quantitative Perspectives on Syntactic Variation in Dutch Dialects
Date: 09-May-2008
From: Marco Spruit <spruitcs.uu.nl>
Subject: Quantitative Perspectives on Syntactic Variation in Dutch Dialects
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Institution: University of Amsterdam
Program: Amsterdam Center for Language and Communication
Dissertation Status: Completed
Degree Date: 2008
Author: Marco Rene Spruit
Dissertation Title: Quantitative Perspectives on Syntactic Variation in Dutch Dialects
Dissertation URL: http://people.cs.uu.nl/spruit/phd/pub/mrs2008book.pdf
Linguistic Field(s):
Computational Linguistics
Syntax
Subject Language(s): Dutch (nld)
Dissertation Director:
Hans Bennis
John Nerbonne
Sjef Barbiers
Dissertation Abstract:
This dialectometrical research has investigated three quantitativeperspectives on syntactic variation in Dutch dialects. The firstperspective shows how to quantify syntactic differences between languagevarieties and classifies the Dutch dialect varieties based on a measure ofsyntactic distance. This objective classification is compared with--andhighly resembles--the traditional, perceptual classification based onsubjective judgements. This approach also affirmatively answers thequestion whether syntactic variation patterns are geographically coherent.
The second perspective describes how to quantify the degrees of associationbetween pronunciational, lexical and syntactic differences. This approachreveals that the degrees of association among the linguistic levels ofpronunciation, lexis and syntax are genuine but modest. Also, syntactic andpronunciational differences are not more strongly associated with oneanother than either one is associated with lexical differences.
The third perspective demonstrates how to discover relevant associationsbetween syntactic variables using a data mining technique based ongeographical co-occurrences. This approach contributes to the validation ofexisting typological hypotheses and facilitates the identification andexploration of variable relationships in general.
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