Studying negative evidence in Finnish language corpora
Studying negative evidence in Finnish language corpora
复制标题
研究芬兰语语料库中的负面证据
作者：
Alexandre Nikolaev;Neil Bermel
本研究探讨芬兰语屈折范式中低于预期的词形频率与固有差距之间的关系。该研究旨在确定是否有可能从低于预期的词形频率中预测范式间隔。我们研究了芬兰语名词在边缘情况下的屈折变化（指导性的），并假设其中一些名词可能在其屈折变化范式中存在潜在的差距。然而，我们发现这样的差距是偶然的，当填补时不会造成不确定性。我们发现固有间隙和低频之间的相关性是单向的：从低于预期的频率预测固有间隙是有问题的。结果表明，语料库频率暗示的任何范式差距更有可能是偶然的，而不是固有的，并且对特定词形的语义需求越少，即使在大型语料库中，它也越有可能未经证实。该研究强调了在分析词形的语法性时考虑语义轮廓的重要性，并表明像Fisher的精确统计测试不一定是解决语料库研究中负面证据问题的正确方法。
This study explores the relationship between lower-than-expected frequencies of word forms and inherent gaps in Finnish inflectional paradigms. The research aims to determine whether it is possible to predict paradigmatic gaps from lower-than-expected frequencies of word forms. We examined Finnish nouns inflected in a marginal case (the instructive) and hypothesized that some of these nouns may potentially have gaps in their inflectional paradigms. However, we found that such gaps are contingent and do not cause uncertainty when filled. We find that the correlation between inherent gaps and lower frequencies is one-directional: predicting inherent gaps from lower-than-expected frequencies is problematic. The results suggest that any paradigmatic gap suggested by corpus frequency is more likely to be contingent than inherent, and that the less semantic need there is for a particular word form, the more likely it will be unattested even in a large corpus. The research highlights the importance of considering semantic profiles when analyzing the grammaticality of word forms and suggests that statistical tests like Fisher’s exact are not necessarily the right approach to tackle the problem of negative evidence in corpus studies.