Филологические науки/ 7. Язык, речь, речевая коммуникация

Cand. Sci. (Philology) G.F. Dyachenko, Z.I.Kashirina, S.L.Mykhailiuk

Odesa National Polytechnic University

DESCRIPTION OF WORD CLASSES LIST OF THE TEXT CORPUS "ACOUSTICS AND ULTRASONIC TECHNOLOGY (А&UТ)"

The current paper gives description of the research performed in the tideway of one of the most productive trends of linguistics - corpus linguistics and its theoretical aspect, in particular.

At present, many scientists consider that the exceptional theme of corpus linguistics is to compile text corpus and store them. However, modern corpus linguistics is not limited only to creating corpus - it supposes fundamental scientific researches of languages on the basis of corpus - towards corpus research of grammar and vocabulary [5].

Any grammar analysis usually begins with research object definition. One or another part of speech (or class of words) fixed in the text corpus of different functional styles becomes an object. Therefore, the paper is devoted to dividing all vocabulary of text corpus into groups - parts of speech or classes of words. The classes of words were analyzed not only from the grammatical point of view but also in terms of their lexical features.

The text corpus of one of the sublanguages of scientific communication "Acoustics and ultrasonic technology" (А&UT) served as a starting point for the material. It is based on the articles taken from the scientific magazines of the USA and the UK : IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing; The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America; Acoustics Letters; Journal of the Audio Engineering Society; Acustica.

Distribution of lexical units into classes of words (parts of speech) gives the real picture of correlation of classes of words in the sublanguage investigated.

Taking into account the experience of researchers engaging in classification words by parts of speech, words distribution [7], frequency (F) of word occurrence in certain positions, and also orienting on texts of this subject domain, lexical units of А&UТ text corpus fell into the classes of words (see the table).

Distribution of lexical units in the text corpus "Acoustic and Ultrasonic Technology" into the classes of words

№№	Classes of words	Number of word usages	Number of words	Percentage of texts, %
1.	Nouns	46 561	876	23,28
2.	Verbs	34 685	465	17,34
3.	Prepositions	23 555	30	11,78
4.	Articles	23 110	2	11,56
5.	Adjectives	19 534	413	9,77
6.	Adverbs	11 438	171	5,72
7.	Conjunctions	9 208	17	4,6
8.	Pronouns	7 009	20	3,5
9.	Particles	2 352	2	1,8
10.	Numerals	549	4	0,27

Total 178 001 2000 89

From the table it follows that 10 parts of speech are functioning in the "Acoustics and Ultrasonic Technology" text corpus.

The greatest coverage of the designed texts is illustrated by nouns, they constitute the most considerable number of word forms used and different words. While selecting the nouns into their separate class, its main feature was taken into account in the separate class of words - to designate an object (substance) in wide sense of word including the names of separate objects : array (F=1082), paper (F=559), system (F=410), antenna (F=384), transducer (F=348), plate (F=342), etc.; to denote abstract concepts : frequency (F1102), signal (F=899), response (F=489), noise (F=428, function (F=421), source (F341) etc; and also the names of different substances: aluminum (F=35), lead (F=31), air (F=26), carbon (F=20), epoxide (F=13, rubber (F=12) etc.

Verbs which cover 17,34% of all word forms of the designed texts occupy the second place in the number of word forms (34 685 units) and in the number of different words (465 units). The common feature of all verbs is process designation (actions or states).

In A&UT sublanguage, 30 prepositions were registered: of (F=8088), in (F=2934), for (F=2275), to (F=1786), by (F=1652), at (F=1207), with (F=1195), from (F=1164), on (F=946), over (F=924), between (F - 272), above (F=110) etc. Due to a number of word forms, the prepositions fill the third place in the table (23 555 units) and cover the designated texts up to 11,78 %. “Prepositons” distinguished by a feature which expresses attitude toward a noun or substantive pronoun. Mainly, these are prepositions of place and direction : in, to, at, from, on, between, within, out, under etc.; prepositions relating to grammatical connections in the sentences of the text : of, by, with, for.

The data from the table prove that the “articles” occupy the considerably high portion of the designed text in A&UT specialty - 11, 56 %, although according to the number of different words, there are two units only. The sizes of absolute frequencies show the following: the (F=16 883), a/an (F=6 227). The “articles” were grouped into a separate class as special words-determinants used before nouns and substantive word-combinations.

The next class of words under investigation appeared class of the adjectives occupying the fifth place according to the frequency of their use. In the A&UT text corpus, there were 413 units with a portion of texts coverage of this domain area - 9, 77%. We will give some examples of semantic groups in which units of this part of speech are incorporated : size - large (F=233), high (F=203), low (F=195), mean (F - 127), average (F=67) etc; specifies the material the objects are made from : polynomial (F46), synthetic (F=39), ceramic (F=32), piezoceramic (F=12); a location in space: near (F=69), upper (F=62), far (F=40), inside (F=40), internal (F=31); properties of objects and phenomena : acoustic (F=420), plane (F=170), experimental (F - 161), complex (F=106), constant (F=98), general (F=84) etc. .

In the designed (sampled) texts, adjectives by the structure can be: simple units, for example, large, high, low, great, single, bright, etc.; derivatives, for example, subjective, electronic, hydrostatic, representative, temporal etc.; compounds, for example, one - dimensional, right - hand, time - dependent, light - weight, two – component, etc. .

In adverbs sampling, the feature of action or circumstances at which an action takes place was taken into account The adverbs class is presented by 171 units which cover 5, 72% of all A&UT investigated texts. Adverbs are another class of words which were grouped by lexical values, as they depend upon the verbs that are combined with them. Thus, the following groups of adverbs were selected: of time, for example, then (F=279), further (F=109), now (F=74), before (F=44) etc.; of directions, for example, outside (F=530, directly (F=50); of places, for example, there (F=173), here (F=87), closely (F=45), elsewhere (F=19) etc.; of character of action, for example, respectively (F=90), approximately (F=61), readily (F=48), relatively (F=42), accordingly (F=32) etc.; of frequency, for example, often (F=29), never (F=18), sometimes (F=18) etc. of degrees, for example, significantly (F=38), considerably (F=23), entirely (F=23), greatly (F=22) etc.

Conjunctions were grouped in accordance with that function which they perform in a sentence. Their number makes up only 17 units, for example, and (F=4695), as (F=1264), or (F=730), that (F=569), than (F=488), if (F=299) etc. It is known that conjunctions do not perform the independent function in sentences but serve to express relations between words, combinations of words and sentences. Therefore, according to the character of the relations expressed, they are divided into two heterogeneous types - coordinating conjunctions and subordinate ones. Out of 17 conjunctions functioning in the A&UT text corpus, three are coordinating conjunctions: and, or, while that serve to connect homogeneous grammatically equal parts having one and the same function. Other fourteen conjunctions connect subordinate clauses and conjuntional turns : as, that than, if, since, very, however, because, then, although, what, whether, though, whenever. Conjunctions cover up to 4,6% of the designed text corpus.

Pronouns in the investigated texts are the original class of words including units with abstract meanings, for example, this (F1482), that (F - 1245), which (F=985), it (F=930), each (F=376), we (F=267) etc. .

In our frequency list, the pronouns are presented by 20 units whose portion in A&UT texts makes up 3,5%. Pronouns were selected by their functions: personal - each, we, they; possessive - its; indicatory - this, that, same, those; attributive - each, all, both, either, another, every; indefinite - any, some, somewhat; relative - which, whose.

Two particles were fixed in sampling – “to” (F=1642), indicative of an infinitive, and negative “not” (F - 710). They cover up to 1.18% of the designed text.

The lowest coverage of the designed text corpus is given by numerals in the word writing – it constitutes 0,27 % only. They are presented by four words. According to their features, all numerals refer to the quantitative numerals, for example, two (F=387), three (F=96), four (F=52), hundred (F=14).

Thus, the paper is not only a description of classes of words you come across in the A&UT text corpus but also their percent distribution , i.e. it enables to trace the portion every class has in the analyzed text corpus.

Data described in the current research paper is of undoubted linguistic interest. They were used in many researches devoted to the comparative analysis of different parts of speech functioning in many text corpus of scientific communication [1-4; 8-11;]. Quantitative information about parts of speech also allowed to offer new methods in teaching English in the non-linguistic (technical) high schools [6].

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