Linguistic densification in web-based English : comparing grammatical features of density across registers

Abstract

This dissertation is an investigation of grammatical patterns related to the density of noun phrases in online and offline registers of English. Noun phrase density involves embedding phrasal and clausal modifiers and complements into the structure of the noun phrase, creating informationally dense and complex grammatical structures. Research shows that written registers, and especially registers with information-driven purposes, have higher relative frequencies of density devices, where popular nonfiction and fiction have lower relative frequencies. Features of noun phrase density are attested in offline registers. Whether similar patterns hold for web-based or online registers is unknown. Where the grammatical realisations of discourses are influenced by situational factors, the advancement of technology and the need to produce more information also affect the lexicogrammatical choices users make when constructing language in either the spoken or written form. People have recourse to the same grammatical system in an online, that is, web-based, context as they do in an offline context. Given the online mode, this study therefore investigates the extent to which the choice to create grammatically dense noun phrases is exercised in an online environment compared to offline situations. Five offline (COCA) and five online (CORE) registers were selected to help answer this question. These registers vary in their communicative purpose. A nonwritten spoken component is also included in the analysis. The analysis emphasises three levels of contrasts: spoken versus written language, online versus the offline written form, and pairwise comparisons between registers. The pairwise comparisons are based on a percentage difference (effect size) metric to quantitatively describe the differences between these varying registers. The results suggest that, as a whole, online registers have proportionally more densification than offline registers do. Finer grained differences in frequencies emerge that largely depend on the type of density device. The results of the percentage difference metrics suggest that the spoken component is not that different from some written registers, and that even though online registers have higher proportions, these registers are also similar to offline registers in various respects relating to density.