Article published In: ITL - International Journal of Applied Linguistics
Vol. 149/150 (2005) ► pp.77–91
A corpus-based validation study of the universal processing hypothesis in English relative clause formation
Published online: 1 January 2005
https://doi.org/10.2143/ITL.150.0.2004373
https://doi.org/10.2143/ITL.150.0.2004373
The present study focuses on spoken and written data in the British National Corpus (BNC). Based on a review of recent studies on English relative clauses, we formulated a Universal Processing Hypothesis (OS >OO>SS> SO) as target hypothesis to be validated using a corpus data approach. A computer program was designed to calculate the frequency of appearance of the four types of relative clauses (OS, OO, SS, and SO). The results indicated this hypothesis to be a valid predictor of frequency of appearance of relative clauses in the domain for written corpus texts. However, it is not supported in context-governed spoken material. Limitations of the present investigation and the direction of future research are also discussed.
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