Sofisticación y Diversidad como Medidas de Complejidad Léxica para Determinar el Perfil Colocacional de Textos Académicos en Español

  1. Eleonora Guzzi 1
  2. Margarita Alonso Ramos 1
  1. 1 Universidade da Coruña
    info

    Universidade da Coruña

    La Coruña, España

    ROR https://ror.org/01qckj285

Journal:
Revista signos: estudios de lingüística

ISSN: 0035-0451,  0718-0934

Year of publication: 2023

Volume: 56

Issue: 112

Pages: 282-305

Type: Article

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More publications in: Revista signos: estudios de lingüística

Abstract

In this study the parameters of sophistication and diversity, normally restricted to single lexical units, are proposed in the field of collocations. For this purpose, a methodology REVISTA SIGNOS.ESTUDIOS DE LINGÜÍSTICA 2023,56(112)283that measures these two parameters in Spanish academic texts is presented. The aim is to test its effectiveness in determining the collocational profile of academic texts, in line with the well-known ‘Lexical Profile’ (Laufer & Nation, 1995). ‘Sophistication’ is understood as the property of collocations that are contrastively less frequent in general language and more prototypical in academic discourse. To classify collocations into different levels of sophistication, two methods are implemented: the first based on frequency criteria and the second on the Mutual Information (MI). On the other hand, ‘diversity’ refers to the number of repeated collocations in a text and is calculated using an adaptation of the TTR measure (Guiraud, 1954). To test the effectiveness of these methods, collocations extracted from 48 texts of an academic expert corpus and a novice corpus are analyzed. Results show that novices are not characterized by using fewer sophisticated collocations of academic discourse, but by a greater inclusion of low sophistication collocations in their texts (more typical of the general language), as well as by a lower value of collocational diversity.

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