=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-2604/paper17
|storemode=property
|title=Computer Sampling and Quantitative Analysis in Exploring Secondary Functions of Questions in Speech Genres of Intimate Communication
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2604/paper17.pdf
|volume=Vol-2604
|authors=Liubov Stasiuk
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/colins/Stasiuk20
}}
==Computer Sampling and Quantitative Analysis in Exploring Secondary Functions of Questions in Speech Genres of Intimate Communication==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2604/paper17.pdf
Computer Sampling and Quantitative Analysis in
Exploring Secondary Functions of Questions in Speech
Genres of Intimate Communication
Liubov Stasiuk[0000-0003-2893-7201].
Lviv National Polytechnik University, Mytropolyt Andrei str. 5, 79013Lviv, Ukraine
Liubov.S.Stasiuk@lpnu.ua
Abstract. Although the methods of grammatical, lexical, functional and cogni-
tive analysis of its units are widely exploited in linguistic research, in most of
the verification and hypothesis testing processes the quantitative and statistical
methods are involved. The presented research article examines the role of
computer sampling and elements of quantitative analysis in linguistic data sam-
pling and occurrences checks of secondary function questions in speech genres
of intimate communication. The merits of the abovementioned methods in the
early and crucial stages of the research have been outlined. Among a few ad-
vantages to be mentioned are the large scope of sample size and the possibility
to draw inferences from relatively small amount of sample about the general to-
tality.
Keywords: Computer Sampling, Quantitative Analysis, Secondary Function
Questions.
1 Introduction
The advance of new technologies has had its impact on the way we conduct linguistic
analysis of language. The infrastructure has been created to support a large collection
and sharing of high-quality on-line language corpora that provide resources for the
study of conversational interaction (The Linguistic Data Consortium (LDC)) as well
as to conduct a close textual reading of literary texts with computer-based tool sets
existing to facilitate the analysis. The text corpus that is electronically stored and
processed (e.g. The Gutenberg Project texts) is used by linguists for language analysis
and hypothesis testing. The application of computer science, its algorithms to the
analysis of large data sets enables the linguist to operate on a large sample size to
check occurrences, validate linguistic rules within a specific language or discover the
realities of language usage.
Some major developments both in communicative and computational linguistics
have brought me to revive the linguistic interest in questions and linguistic forms by
which they are expressed in conversational interaction, namely:
Copyright © 2020 for this paper by its authors.
Use permitted under Creative Commons License Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
A) the revival of interest in questions and linguistic forms by which they are ex-
pressed in conversational interaction;
B) the increased interest in conversation and its dynamics spurred partly by ad-
vances in speech recognition and natural language processing;
C) the infrastructure that is capable of supporting a large-scale research, includ-
ing the development of online corpora;
In order to investigate and identify stable forms of speech, the conditions for their
use in the communication process, it is important to choose the appropriate research
methodology and methods. The research of questions of secondary function in the
speech genres of intimate communication was based on the principles of complex
application of general and specific scientific methods and techniques: method of
computer sampling, structural method, speech act analysis, pragmatic and discourse
analyzes, methods of cognitive-semantic modeling, elements of quantitative and func-
tional analyzes. In addition, general scientific methods have been used, like inductive
and deductive methods that contributed to the study in the direction from analysis of
specific material to generalizations and conclusions and vice versa; oppositional
method in order to differentiate the value of opposed units; the descriptive method
that involves methods of inventory, segmentation and classification of language units,
a comprehensive presentation of the results obtained and the method of argumentation
that helped to logically compare the views of the precursors on the object under study.
The diversity of the aforementioned theoretical, epistemological and methodologi-
cal approaches employed takes a continuous reformulation and bridge-building across
the subfields of linguistics (Syntax, Semantics, Phraseology), branches (Communica-
tive Linguistics, Computer Linguistics, Quantitative Linguistics, Cognitive Linguis-
tics, Discourse Conversational Analyses) and also across the related fields (Psycholo-
gy, Anthropology, Philosophy and Relationships Studies). The study is conducted in
the terms of Communicative Linguistics, when the processes of communication of
people using living natural language, as well as all the relevant components of com-
munication are examined. Nonetheless, computer sampling has been the main method
used for selecting the actual samples of interrogatives for further linguistic and quan-
titative linguistic analyses.
It is worth mentioning that breadth and depth of such bridge-building is not re-
flected in the very limited number of books and journals devoted to research method-
ologies in Linguistics. In addition, discussions of research methods appear rarely or
briefly in the various forms of dissemination of linguistics research, are often missing
from linguistics university courses or tend to be only discussed as a part of specific
branch of Linguistics.
This research article draws on examples of such bridge-building and opportunities
and challenges involved. The main aim of the article is to bring to the fore and make
accessible what can be seen as an under-discussed and opaque subject. More particu-
larly, the attempt is made to examine the role of the main methods of selection and
verification of data in the study of secondary functions of interrogatives in the speech
genres of intimate communication, namely the method of computer sampling and
elements of quantitative analysis.
Quantitative language analysis and computational statistics have been involved in
question and answer investigations by linguists earlier. In particular, N. I. Holubeva-
Monatkina [1] used the matrix method to test the classification hypothesis (the eval-
uation of 26 criteria as class-forming classification values for questions and answers
in dialogic speech). Due to the matrix length it had to be processed by computer (EC-
1022, EC-1035) for the purpose of applying several mathematical and statistical
methods (the package of applied programs SOMI). The hierarchy of questions, an-
swers and their properties was built based on arithmetic mean calculation and stand-
ard deviation was used to test the abovementioned hypothesis. To build the adequate
classification, the multiple correlation coefficient was calculated to establish the de-
gree of the connection of each criteria of evaluation of every question and answer
with the others in the matrix. Finally, factor analysis and cluster analysis have been
employed to achieve simple and rational classification.
Mathematical methods have been used to evaluate the reliability of the obtained
results when interrogative sentences pragmatic characteristics in their historic dynam-
ics have been researched. The data collected led to the conclusion about the regular
similarities and differences in the development of interrogative sentences in different
historical periods (16-20th c.) and I.Shevchenko [2] calculated mean comparison
using the formula of the measurement of the square deviation of the mean of the two
compared sets.
The presented research article will address the stages of the research of the sec-
ondary functions of interrogatives in the speech genres of intimate communication at
which the computer sampling and elements of quantitative and statistical methods
have been used. The application of methods, data collection procedures, the sampling
strategy and interventions performed will be described and the results presented. Fi-
nally, the relevance of the methods used to scientific knowledge and future research
will be made.
2 Procedure and Results
2.1 Computer Sampling Method
When addressing the problems outlined in my research on secondary functions of
questions in speech genres of intimate communication I aimed at conducting the re-
search in line with modern tendencies in Linguistics to base one’s research on a cor-
pus of data. It was very important to establish my findings through a systematic col-
lection of data or through empirical research. In other words, a special type of corpus
restricted in time, genre and theme was needed. The method of computer sampling
allowed me to accomplish that goal and extract the data that was: 1) representative;
2) homogeneous; 3) containing a listing of what speakers of a language actually pro-
duce or a kind of performance grammar.
Firstly, the preliminary stage of the computer sampling should be described. The
preliminary stage in the sampling process is to clearly define the target data. The data
should meet the requirements of the samples in statistical linguistics, which are repre-
sentativeness and homogeneity.
The method of computer sampling allowed us to satisfy the first criteria of an ade-
quate sample for linguistic analysis. In other words, the application of the method
enabled us to collect the corpus of the study, which comprised 17 704 utterances with
a question mark. It was done via the computer application created in C ++ computer
programming language, that automatically selects the utterances with the question
mark. These utterances are presented in blocks in minimal context with each block
comprising the utterance with the question mark that is preceded and followed by a
certain other utterance. The utterances with question marks were extracted from the
electronic corpus of fiction texts of English and American writers in Project Guten-
berg but not exclusively taken form this source either. The fiction literary texts used
to analyze intimate communication are chronologically, thematically and genre re-
stricted to satisfy the requirement of linguistic homogeneity of the sample. The texts
are focused on intimate relationships (Maugham S. “Of Human Bondage”, Galswor-
thy J. “The Forsyte Saga”, Davidson M. “Fight the Best Fight”). Also, fiction novels
related to the literary genres of 'women's literature' and 'romance novels' were ana-
lyzed. The central themes of romantic novels are courtship and romantic relationships
that develop on the background of a certain mystery (romantic-mysterious novels
(Brontë Сh. “Jane Eyre”, Fowles J. “French lieutenant’s woman”) historical events
(romantic-historical (Townsend E. “In love and war”), modern customs (modern ro-
mantic novels (Napier S. “Price of Passion”, Fielding L. “The Bride’s Baby”). Some-
what different are themes of the genre of ‘women’s literature’ or ‘chick-lit’): the main
character's relationship with her friends, family, the combination of career and moth-
erhood in the modern world, problems of social and marital status (Fielding H. “Brid-
get Jones: the edge of reason”, Bushnell C. “Lipstick Jungle”).
The example of the results of this sampling are given in the screenshot picture be-
low.
Fig. 1. Blocks of utterances with a question mark obtained as a result of computer
sampling
2.2 Quantitative Analysis
At the next stage of the research concerned, 1620 secondary function questions were
selected out of the 7269 to be the most representative for different types of linguistic
analyses (structural, speech act, conversational, discourse analysis) and quantitative
analysis. This selection was made mechanically [3] by selecting from each analyzed
text of fiction the even number of questions with a secondary function. Such sampling
organization ensures the uniform distribution of the unit under study across the select-
ed set of literary texts.
Some elements of the quantitative data processing method, like frequency counts
and determination of percentage correlation, were used to establish the frequency of
the analyzed units, above all syntactic-semantic models of secondary function ques-
tions, the frequency of secondary function questions in speech acts and speech genres.
The quantitative indicators are presented in the form of the following frequency ta-
bles: 1. frequency of functioning of structural-semantic patterns of secondary function
questions; 2. frequency of functioning of communicative-pragmatic types of ques-
tions; 3. frequency of functioning of representative questions; 4. frequency of in-
trasubjective questions; 5. frequency of use of expressive questions; 6. frequency of
functioning of the directive questions; 7. frequency of use of meta-communicative
questions; 8. frequency of use of commissive questions; 9. frequency of secondary
function questions in intimate communication, 10.frequency of secondary function
questions in the speech genres of intimate communication:
Table 1. Frequency of functioning of structural-semantic patterns of secondary function ques-
tions
Structure-semantic patterns Quantity %
pattern
Pattern without interrogative pronouns/adverbs 738 45.6
Patterns with interrogative pronouns/adverbs 469 29
Structurally incomplete patterns 210 13
Patterns with interrogative pronoun and modal verbs 109 6.7
Patterns with tentatives 72 4.4
Patterns with interrogative explicit clichés 7 0.5
Patterns with imputatives 10 0.6
Patterns with infinitive and nexus of deprecation 5 0.2
Total 1620 100
Table 2. Frequency of the functioning of communicative-pragmatic types of questions
Communicative-pragmatic type Quantity %
type
Representative questions 398 24.6
Intrasubjective questions 382 23.6
Expressive questions 352 21.7
Directive questions 186 11.5
Metacommunicative questions 186 11.5
Commissive questions 72 4.4
Polyillocutionary questions 44 2.7
Total 1620 100
Table 3. Frequency of the functioning of representative questions
Communicative-pragmatic Quantity %
subtype
subtype
Question assertives 144 36.2
Negation questions 94 23.6
Reminder questions 32 8.04
Assumption questions 30 7.5
Appraisal question 26 6.5
Challenge question 24 6.03
Descriptive questions 24 6.03
Confirmation questions 14 3.52
Informative questions 8 2
Predictive questions 2 0.5
Total 398 100
Table 4. Frequency of intrasubjective questions functioning
Communicative-pragmatic subtype Quantity %
subtype
Descriptive Question 136 35.6
Perplex questions 40 11
Surprise questions 38 10
Censure questions 32 8.4
Anxiety questions 20 5.2
Self-censure question 20 5.2
Negation questions 8 4.2
Projection questions 14 3.7
Self-justification questions 12 3.1
Indignation questions 10 2.6
Justification questions 10 2.6
Self-warning questions 8 2.1
Remorse questions 6 1.6
Self-reassurance questions 4 1.4
Self-brace-up questions 4 1.04
Sympathizing questions 2 0.5
Reminder questions 2 0.5
Regret questions 2 0.5
Total 382 100
Table 5. Frequency of the use of expressive questions
Communicative-pragmatic subtype Quantity %
subtype
Surprise Questions 88 25
Teasing questions 34 10
.Reproach questions 28 8
Anxiety questions 18 5.1
Indignation questions 18 5.1
Comfort questions 16 4.5
Reprimand questions 16 4.5
Critique questions 14 4
Disappointment questions 13 3.7
Fright questions 10 2.8
Ire questions 8 2.3
Irritation questions 8 2.3
Apology questions 6 1.7
Putdown questions 6 1.7
Blaming questions 5 1.4
Compliment questions 5 1.4
Comical questions 4 1.1
Complaint questions 4 1.1
Catch questions 4 1.1
Pejorative questions 4 1.1
Boast questions 4 1.1
Dread question 4 1.1
Toast questions 4 1.1
Abuse questions 4 1.1
Sympathizing questions 4 1.1
Jovial questions 4 1.1
Expletive questions 4 1.1
Admiration questions 4 1.1
Disbelieve questions 3 1
Contempt questions 3 1
Petulance questions 2 0.6
Jealousy questions 3 1.1
Total 352 100
Table 6. Frequency of functioning of directive questions
Communicative-pragmatic subtype Quantity %
subtype
Question requests 84 45.2
Proposal questions 42 22.6
Mandative questions 28 15
Invitation questions 16 8.6
Advisive questions 10 5.4
Prescriptive question 2 1.1
Prohibitive questions 2 1.1
Implorative questions 2 1.1
Total 186 100
Table 7. Frequency of the use of meta-communicative questions
Communicative-pragmatic subtype Quantity %
subtype
Question appeals 48 26
Question politeness formulas 38 20.4
Reflexive questions 34 18.3
Urging questions 22 11.8
Lead-in question 14 7.5
Intrigue question 12 6.4
Control questions 8 4.3
Activizer questions 8 4.3
Greeting questions 2 1.1
Total 186 100
Table 8. Frequency of use of commissive questions
Communicative-pragmatic Quantity %
subtype
subtype
Offer questions 60 83.3
Declinitive questions 8 11.1
Manace questions 2 2.8
Promissive questions 2 2.8
Total 72 100
Table 9. Frequency of the secondary function questions in intimate communication
Communicative-pragmatic type Quantity %
type
Intrasubjective questions 263 45
Expressive questions 102 17.4
Representative questions 98 16.7
Directive questions 67 11.4
Metacommunicative questions 31 5.3
Polyillocutionary questions 20 3.4
Commisssive questions 6 1
Total 587 100
Fig. 2. Frequency of communicative-pragmatic types of questions in speech genres of intimate
communication
As we can see from the Table 1, the most frequent patterns in secondary function
questions are questions without interrogative pronouns or adverbs, like: Am I my
brother’s keeper?, Are you insane?, Do you want something to drink?, etc. Second
most frequent are patterns with interrogative pronouns, for example: How are you?
Where were we? How should I know? Why not? How about a dance? The least
widespread are secondary function questions having a structure of infinitive and nex-
us of deprecation: Me dance? Never!
Speech act and functional analyses allowed us to distinguish communicative-
pragmatic types of questions. They are: representative questions, intrasubjective ques-
tions, expressive questions, directive questions, commissive questions and meta-
communicative questions. It can be seen from numbers in the tables at what speech
acts question forms mostly specialize in expressing (table 2) and also some tendencies
in questions to developing new non-interrogative meanings within different speech
acts ( see tables 3 – 8 ).The frequency counts point to the fact that secondary function
questions are especially productive in expressing representative speech acts or differ-
ent types of statements and negations and intrasubjective speech acts (see Table 4),
which means that we are often thinking in questions. Summing up the information in
the tables and a chart, a striking and remarkable conclusion could be drawn about
secondary function questions. It is clear that they can express myriads of meanings
encompassing all the speech acts and their subtypes. Tables 9 and Fig.2 contain the
information on the role of communicative-pragmatic types of secondary function
questions in the speech genres of intimate communication. The most productive type
of questions with secondary function in these speech genres in interpersonal intimate
communication are expressive questions, representative questions and surprisingly
directive questions, but only those expressing requests, pieces of advice and promises.
3 Discussion and Conclusions
The minimal context of utterances with question marks, received with the help of
computer sampling, is very important for conducting conversational and speech act
analyzes when the interactions and sequences of the turns with interrogatives are tak-
en into account. It is impossible to analyze questions to determine their function and
communicative-pragmatic meanings without this minimal context, relying on formal
properties only.
The pragmatic role of questions and their classification can only be realized
through the analysis of textual passages that go beyond sentences. Opposition and
comparison methods were used to distinguish between primary and secondary inter-
rogatives (10 435 interrogatives in primary function; 7 269 interrogatives in second-
ary function). The frequency of questions in the secondary function indicates the
prevalence of this property of questions in the corpus selected for analysis. Determin-
ing the frequency of manifestation of interrogatives in the secondary function is one
of the reasons to consider this property essential for the construction of a dichotomous
classification of interrogatives and a detailed analysis of the manifestation of this
property.
Consequently, the analysis of lexical-semantic, syntactic, communicative-
pragmatic features of secondary function interrogatives, as well as modifiers, de-
scriptors, appeals and personal deixis in these utterances was carried out. The results
made it possible to formulate some conclusions regarding the specific functioning of
secondary function interrogatives in intimate communication.
The method of observation and contextual analysis were used to study minimal
speech situations and to identify the relationship of secondary function interrogatives
with contextual features. Thus, the use of computer sampling method helped outline
the main contexts in which the use of secondary function interrogatives is triggered,
namely: reactive use; irrelevance of the response for the addressee; the addressee
knows / assumes that knows the answer, since the answer has only a form of assump-
tion, guesswork; conversion to indirect speech with the help of verbs like tell, ask,
demand, postulate, exclaim etc.
A descriptive method and lexico-grammatical analysis were applied, the essence
of which is a systematic inventory of linguistic units and an explanation of the peculi-
arities of their lexico-grammatical structure (See Table 1) and functioning.
At the later stage of the study, a functional method developed within the frame-
work of a communicative-pragmatic approach, which involves the study of language
in action, in the process of functioning, was used. The study of communicative-
pragmatic peculiarities of secondary function interrogatives in the speech genres of
intimate communication has made it expedient to turn to the functional method by
which the main communicative-pragmatic types of utterances were distinguished,
with the indication of their pragmatic function. The analysis of communicative orien-
tation of questions was made taking into account the illocutionary function of inter-
rogative expression and various parameters of realization of illocutionary force. The
relationships between the communicants, their social roles, the time, the environment,
in which the communication takes place, the relation of speech act to the interests of
the addresser and the addressee and the degree of intensity of the presented illocution-
ary purpose have been taken into account in the study. In order to elucidate the illocu-
tionary force of the fragments of the studied linguistic material and to typologize illo-
cutionary acts expressed by secondary function interrogatives, speech analysis, induc-
tion and deduction techniques were used to create the classification. The quantitative
analysis was used to confirm the conclusions about the peculiarities of the functioning
and classification of the types of secondary function questions. The results of these
counts can be seen in Tables 2 – 8. The frequency tables show what speech act types
and subtypes questions specialize in expressing. The high frequency occurrence of
question forms with some particular meaning (e.g. expressing surprise) means that
they have grown to become specialized forms of expression of this meaning.
In the closing stage, the discourse-analysis method and the elements of conversion-
al analysis have been used to investigate communicative situations of intimate com-
munication in specific language material to reveal their thematic orientation. Intensive
deployment of interrogative utterances takes place in compositionally completed
speech genres. Intimate communication, in which the intimate speech genres function,
is classified as oral, entertaining, informal, interpersonal, intimate-family, intimate-
friendly and intimate-romantic, personality-oriented, mixed, initiative-positive and
active [5]. Such communication is explored in works of fiction, with all the constitu-
ents of the communicative-intentional plan of discourse present. Within the speech
genres, questions are speech acts, that is, the addresser transmits to the addressee a
performative instruction that influences his or her behavior. The quantitative analysis
of frequency occurrences of speech acts of questions in speech genres shows that in
1/3 of the cases of secondary function questions functioning they have appeared to be
the part of larger units of discourse than the speech acts, which are speech genres of
intimate communication (see Table 9). In less than 1/4 of the cases it was interactional
intimate communication (see Table 10).
In conclusion, I would like to encourage linguists to take a wider view of key ap-
proaches along the quantitative-qualitative continuum. It is vital to emphasize the
value of mixed methods research and the need to push boundaries of methodologies to
incorporate cross-disciplinary perspectives.
The results obtained are relevant to scientific knowledge and future research. Espe-
cially important they are to scientists interested in interrogative syntax, language and
interaction, computer scientists, human-computer interface designers, to those who
deal with human-machine dialogues. The corpus of intimate communication texts has
been created based on which a further research into language and intimate interaction
could be conducted.
References
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(16-20 v): Ph.D. dissertation. K., (1999).
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warzystwo semiotyczne, Warszawa, (1993).
4. Oakes, M.: Statistics for Linguistics. Edinburg University Press, (2003).
5. Kit, L.: Secondary functions of questions in speech genres of intimate communica-
tion in Modern English: Ph.D.dissertation.L., (2014).