Compiling an oral corpus of child language (G.S.C.C)

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Compiling an oral corpus of childlanguage
(G.S.C.C)

• Gavriilidou Zoe (Democritus University of Thrace)
• Elina Chadjipapa (FLEXSEM, Autonomous University
  of Barcelona )
• Anna Giannakopoulou (FLEXSEM, Autonomous
  University of Barcelona)

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PLAN

• Purposes
• Definition of a corpus
• Characteristics
• Application fields
• Construction
• Description
• Research based on G.S.C.C.
• Perspectives

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Purpose

• CONSTRUCTION OF A REPRSENTATIVE ORAL CORPUS OF
  CHILDREN IN PRE-SCHOOL AGE
• ITS USE IN FURTHER APPLICATIONS/RESEARCHES

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WHAT A CORPUS IS

• A corpus is a collection of pieces of language
  text in electronic form, selected according to
  external criteria to represent, as far as
  possible, a language or language variety as a
  source of data for linguistic research (Intuition
  and annotation - the discussion continues.
  Sinclair J. 2004 ).
• The concept of carrying out research on written
  or spoken texts is not restricted to corpus
  linguistics. ("Corpus Linguistics Tony McEnery
  Andrew Wilson).

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Corpora can either be(Borodal, 2002)

• Tagged where all words have been marked in some
  way e.g. evaluation test
• Untagged that is not processed at all
  (spontaneous)

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CHARACTERISTICS OF A CORPUS

• Representative sample of a language
• Quantitive and Qualitive analysis of the sample

• Direct and quick enrichment of the sample
• Electronic availability

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APPLICATION FIELDS

• Teaching
• Literature
• Lexicography

• Linguistics
• Sociolinguistics
• Psycholinguistics
• Computational Linguistics

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CONSTRUCTING THE

• GREEK SPEAKING CHILDREN CORPUS (G.S.C.C)

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BASED ON THE CONSTRUCTION RULES

• Size of the Sample
• Authenticity of the Corpus
• Range of the Sample

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SIZE OF THE G.S.C.C

• 151.380 WORDS
• 45 approximately hours of speech
• Available in http//utopia.duth.gr/zgabriil

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DESCRIPTION OF THE G.S.C.C

• Interviews of 60 children 3-6 years old
• 35 females
• 25 males

• 10 children 3-4 years
• 35 children 4-5 years
• 15 children 5-6 years

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De-recording and Transcription of the interviews

• 35 Greek speaking children (Standard Greek)
• 15 Cypriot dialect speaking children
• Phonetic Transcription of the Interviews (IPA)

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CONTENTS (DATA) OF THE INTERVIEWS

• Children with speech problems
• Greek speaking resident (bilingual)
• Words and phrases used from children 3-6 years
  old (vocabulary)
• Idioms from many Greek regions

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CORPUSS COLLECTION REGIONS

• Greece
• Orestiada
• Aleksandroupolis
• Kavala
• Thessalonica
• Edessa
• Athens
• Cyprus

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Applications

• Within the frame of Linguistic research
• Difficulties encountered from children 3-6 years
• Level of the communication language.
• Amount of words and level of frozen phrases
• Basic Vocabulary

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Research based on G.S.C.C.

• Phonological and Phonetic analysis of cases of
  G.S.C.C.
• 23 subjects, 15 females and 8 males
• SPSS was used for the statistical analysis

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AIMS

• Frequency of phonological errors
• Frequency of distorted phonemes
• Comparison between sexes
• Language acquisition among age groups
• Context (environment) of the distorted phonemes
• Accented/not accented syllables in the word

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FUTURE WORK

• Enlarge the G.S.C.C
• Raise the speaking hours
• Add more dialects
• Add non native Greek Speaking children

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PERSPECTIVES

• Use of the G.S.C.C in
• Further linguistic analysis, such as syntax,
  grammar, vocabulary and morphology.
• As a tool in Corrective Phonetics for the Greek
  linguistic system.
• For further application in other fields of
  Linguistics (Psycholinguistic, Computational
  Linguistic, Sociolinguistics, etc.)

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THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION