Topic marking in a Shanghainese corpus: From observation to prediction

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dc.contributor.authorArppe, Antti
dc.contributor.authorNewman, John
dc.contributor.authorHan, Weifang
dc.date.accessioned2025-05-01T20:55:59Z
dc.date.available2025-05-01T20:55:59Z
dc.date.issued2013
dc.descriptionShanghainese is an extremely topic-prominent language with many topic markers in competition with one another, often without any obvious basis for the selection of one topic marker over another. We explore the influence of five variables on the five most frequent topic markers in a corpus of (spoken) Shanghainese: topic length, syntactic category of the topic, function of the topic, comment type, and genre. We carry out a multivariate statistical analysis of the data, relying on a polytomous logistic regression model. Our approach leads to a satisfying quantification of the role of each factor, as well as an estimate of the probabilities of combinations of factors, in influencing the choice of topic marker. This study serves simultaneously as an introduction to the polytomous package (Arppe 2013) in the statistical software package R.
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.7939/R3FF3M347
dc.language.isoen
dc.relation.isversionofHan, W., A. Arppe, & J. Newman. 2013. Topic marking in a Shanghainese corpus: From observation to prediction. Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory.1-29.
dc.rights© 2013 Antti Arppe, Weifang Han & John Newman. This version of this article is open access and can be downloaded and shared. The original author(s) and source must be cited.
dc.subjectPolytomous logistic regression
dc.subjectStatistical analysis
dc.subjectChinese dialect
dc.subjectShanghainese
dc.subjectTopic marking
dc.subjectProbabilities
dc.titleTopic marking in a Shanghainese corpus: From observation to prediction
dc.typehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501 http://purl.org/coar/version/c_970fb48d4fbd8a85
ual.jupiterAccesshttp://terms.library.ualberta.ca/public

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