| PREISHIT? | National Curriculum |
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 #1 (permalink) Tue Apr 01, 2008 7:45 am Too much reliance on native-speaker intuition? |
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Some commentators would argue that native-speaker intuition is not enough, not to be relied on 100%, when looking for descriptions of language use. I would agree with them. The same commentators point out the need to consult other sources, one of which is corpus linguistics (CL) - even though some admit that CL is also not wholly reliable (see below, for example). Again I would agree.
Yet, I do not see much discussion or reference to corpus linguistics on major language fora/forums such as this one. Am I missing the occurence of such discussion and/or referencing, or is it just not taking place? If the latter is the case, why is so?
Background:
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Language variation and corpus linguistics
YAMUNA KACHRU
ABSTRACT: Corpus linguistics deserves serious attention from linguists and applied linguists, since it is of direct relevance to linguistic description, language variation, lexicography, and language education.
Linguists tend to be indifferent to corpora, however, as the predominant paradigm in linguistics is based on introspective data, i.e. native speaker intuition. Research has shown that intuitions are not 100 per cent reliable; the notion of ‘core’ grammar needs to be modified to accommodate the systematic differences across registers at all linguistic levels. Moreover,what linguists perceive as significant principles of linguistic organization may not coincide with their distribution in patterns of use. One goal of applied linguistics is to see what correspondences can be established between the two sets, i.e. the set of underlying principles of linguistic organization and the patterns of use of these principles revealed by analyses of corpora. Regrettably, applied linguists have not embraced corpus linguistics any more enthusiastically than formal linguists. Corpus linguistic analyses have their problems, too. This paper examines a set of data from the lexicon and grammar of world Englishes to suggest that a complete reliance on patterns of use may not solve all the problems of language description, study of variation, language instruction, translation, and lexicography. Furthermore, whereas analyses of corpora are effective in revealing dialect variation, they are not of great use in accounting for diatypic variation, i.e. the permanent characteristics of users of language and recurrent features of their language use, which are crucial for understanding human linguistic behavior. |
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Molly
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| #2 (permalink) Wed Apr 02, 2008 5:26 am Too much reliance on native-speaker intuition? |
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| Searched deeper into this forum, but still can't find discussions on corpus linguistics or the shakiness of native-speaker intuition. Any links to such on this site welcome. |
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Molly
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| #3 (permalink) Wed Apr 02, 2008 6:39 am Too much reliance on native-speaker intuition? |
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| Molly wrote: |
| Searched deeper into this forum, but still can't find discussions on corpus linguistics or the shakiness of native-speaker intuition. Any links to such on this site welcome. |
This forum alike many other ESL forums mainly attends to the case of non-native speaker shakiness. We're here to help you.
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 Ralf
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| #4 (permalink) Wed Apr 02, 2008 7:11 am Too much reliance on native-speaker intuition? |
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Beyond the "mainly" interests me. Does it interest you? Does it interest you to ask if you might be doing your best to help us?
And this part of the forum is called "What do you want to talk about?", isn't it? |
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Molly
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Jamie (K)
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| #6 (permalink) Sun May 11, 2008 23:56 pm Too much reliance on native-speaker intuition? |
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| Molly wrote: |
the shakiness of native-speaker intuition
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There's something a little odd about that concept. But I can't quite put my finger on it.
MrP |
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MrPedantic
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| #7 (permalink) Mon May 12, 2008 8:30 am Too much reliance on native-speaker intuition? |
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| Late arriving, Mr P, but thanks for coming. When you have your finger placed, let us know. |
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Molly
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| #8 (permalink) Mon May 12, 2008 12:39 pm Too much reliance on native-speaker intuition? |
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I thoroughly enjoyed MrP's comment. 
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Yankee
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| #9 (permalink) Mon May 12, 2008 13:59 pm Too much reliance on native-speaker intuition? |
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| Nice to know Mr P gives you pleasure. |
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Molly
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| #10 (permalink) Tue Jul 01, 2008 3:46 am Too much reliance on native-speaker intuition? |
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Interesting question Molly.
I guess that in a way, native intuition is based upon a colloquation. When the computerised colloquation analysis system uses a bigger database and performs better analyses, then like the chess programs that can beat chess masters, the colloquation will beat native intuition. But that may take a while since understanding meaning is perhaps the most complex thing we do, and computers can still not beat humans at Go.
For the time being colloquations can be pretty useful when you don't have a native on hand, or when a native is not too sure of her intuition. I use Google as a colloquation when I am not sure. |
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Timtak
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