Communicative verbs and constructions as markers of

text Media genre

Lidia Pivovarova, Elena Yagunova Saint-Petersburg State University

Edward KlyshinskyKeldysh IAM of Russia Academy of Science

Introduction

• Ongoing research of different text genres:– Media texts, scientific papers, fiction…

• Our approach:– Different genres means different corpora -

special corpus for each genre– Formal markers of a corpus are keywords,

collocations, constructions, POS co-occurrences – found by different statistics

Media texts

• Different (sub)genres, subtypes:– news, articles, analytical review, etc.

• Sources are heterogeneous:– newspaper, news feed, etc.

• Trade-off between between informative and persuasive functions of language

• Communicative verbs and constructions may help to study this trade-off

Constructions in media texts

• Media text are stereotyped – Especially texts with high informative function

• Long word sequences (up to 7 words) may be repeated in every text of a corpus

• These word sequences are mostly constructions

• The most frequent constructions are introduction of information source:– According to RIA News…, Our reporter says

with reference to…

Communicative verbs and constructions

• Reuters reported with reference to Ministry of Internal Affair …

vs. • Ministry of Internal Affair informs citizens...

• The Prime Minister stated that…

vs.• Our president said that…

Materials• Lenta.ru

– a news feed with short information messages;– 2005-2010, ~60 mln tokens (words and punctuation mark)

• Nezavisimaya gazeta – a traditional newspaper with articles, interviews and analytics;– 1999-2009, ~60 mln tokens

• Compulenta– a news portal specializing in IT matters; – 2009, ~1,5 mln tokens

• Russian Information Agency– one of the most authoritative news sources in Russia;– 2009-2010, ~60 mln tokens

• RosBusinessConsulting news– a news portal specializing in economical and political information

for business. – 2009, ~20 mln. Tokens

• etc.

Materials

• style and format opposition:– traditional newspaper – news feed

• subject opposition: – general news – IT news – business news

Communicative verbs• RussNet Project

– Russian WordNet project, Saint-Petersburg State University, group of I.V. Azarova

• Only a list of verbs (instead of their full descriptions)

• Broke up into three groups: communicative, mental and imagination verbs – Rather contradictional: He thinks… often

means He said…

Specificity of news (newspaper) texts

• Word frequencies are different from frequencies in language at the whole

• COOБЩАТЬ (to inform, to report) – more frequent

• ПИСАТЬ (to write), ГОВОРИТЬ (to say) – less frequent

Lenta.ru: most frequent verbsБЫТЬ 72993 to beСООБЩАТЬ 27498 to report, to informСТАТЬ 12614 to becomeЗАЯВИТЬ 10861 to announceМОЧЬ 10341 to be ableПОЛУЧАТЬ 7924 to receiveЯВЛЯТЬСЯ 7590 to be, to comeСООБЩАТЬСЯ 6670 to report (reflexive voice)ОТМЕТИТЬ 5806 to mark, to mentionПИСАТЬ 5462 to writeНАХОДИТЬ 5221 to find, to considerНАПОМНИТЬ 5209 to remindНАХОДИТЬСЯ 5120 to be situatedНАЧАТЬ 4907 to beginСООБЩИТЬ 4832 to report (perfective aspect)

Lenta.ru: RussNet communicative verbsСООБЩАТЬ 27498 to reportЗАЯВИТЬ 10861 to announceСООБЩАТЬСЯ 6670 to report (reflexive voice)ПИСАТЬ 5462 to writeСООБЩИТЬ 4832 to report (perfective aspect)СКАЗАТЬ 2281 to say (perfective aspect)ГОВОРИТЬСЯ 1765 to say (reflexive voice)ПОДЧЕРКНУТЬ 1637 to underlineЗАЯВЛЯТЬ 1165 to announce (imperfective) ГОВОРИТЬ 1104 to sayПОЯСНИТЬ 880 to elucidateНАПИСАТЬ 841 to write (perfective)ВЫЯСНИТЬСЯ 803 to find out (reflexive voice)ВЫЯСНИТЬ 662 to find out ПОДЧЕРКИВАТЬ 646 to underlineЗАПИСАТЬ 248 to write down

RosBusinessConsultingБЫТЬ 270391 to beНАПОМНИТЬ 65126 to remindОТМЕТИТЬ 47770 to mark, to mentionМОЧЬ 46877 to be ableСООБЩИТЬ 41867 to report (perfective aspect)СОСТАВИТЬ 40057 to make, to formСТАТЬ 35792 to becomeЗАЯВИТЬ 34767 to announceСООБЩАТЬ 26744 to report, to informЯВЛЯТЬСЯ 24216 to be, to comeСЧИТАТЬ 21808 to considerПЕРЕДАВАТЬ 20676 to broadcastНАЧАТЬ 19805 to beginНАХОДИТЬ 19309 to find, to considerПОЛУЧИТЬ 19284 to receiveСКАЗАТЬ 19123 to say (perfective aspect)ВЫРАСТИ 19034 to increaseНАХОДИТЬСЯ 18996 to be situatedПРОИЗОЙТИ 17505 to happenПОДЧЕРКНУТЬ 15129 to underline

RosBusinessConsultingСООБЩИТЬ 41867 to report (perfective aspect)ЗАЯВИТЬ 34747 to announceСООБЩАТЬ 26744 to reportСКАЗАТЬ 19123 to say (perfective aspect)ПОДЧЕРКНУТЬ 15129 to underline ГОВОРИТЬ 10788 to sayГОВОРИТЬСЯ 8314 to say (reflexive voice)СООБЩАТЬСЯ 7873 to report (reflexive voice)ЗАЯВЛЯТЬ 5092 to announce (imperfect)ПОЯСНИТЬ 3487 to elucidateВЫСКАЗАТЬ 3167 to state, to expressПОДЧЕРКИВАТЬ 2157 to underline (imperfect)ПИСАТЬ 1966 to writeВЫЯСНИТЬСЯ 1657 to find out (reflexive voice)ВЫСКАЗАТЬСЯ 1390 to state, to express (reflexive)ВЫЯСНИТЬ 1189 to find out ВЫЯСНЯТЬСЯ 622 to find out (reflexive, imperfect)НАПИСАТЬ 565 to write (perfective aspect)

Nezavisimaya gazetaБЫТЬ 1550085 to beМОЧЬ 239754 to be ableСТАТЬ 157307 to becomeСКАЗАТЬ 101534 to say (perfective aspect)ГОВОРИТЬ 92014 to say СЧИТАТЬ 86323 to considerИМЕТЬ 75300 to haveЗАЯВИТЬ 69021 to announceЯВЛЯТЬСЯ 68759 to be, to comeНАЧАТЬ 62696 to beginИДТИ 61977 to go, to go onПОЛУЧИТЬ 54966 to receiveОКАЗАТЬСЯ 49748 to turn out, to find outЗНАТЬ 49413 to knowХОТЕТЬ 48822 to wantНАХОДИТЬ 46363 to find, to considerСДЕЛАТЬ 45003 to doРАБОТАТЬ 44392 to workСООБЩИТЬ 42477 to report, to inform

Nezavisimaya gazetaСКАЗАТЬ 101534 to say (perfective aspect)ГОВОРИТЬ 92014 to sayЗАЯВИТЬ 69021 to announceСООБЩИТЬ 42447 to report (perfective aspect)ПИСАТЬ 31785 to writeСООБЩАТЬ 14988 to reportГОВОРИТЬСЯ 13116 to say (reflexive voice)НАПИСАТЬ 11315 to write (perfective)ЗАЯВЛЯТЬ 9763 to announceПОЯСНИТЬ 8790 to elucidateВЫЯСНИТЬСЯ 6325 to find out (reflexive voice)ВЫСКАЗАТЬ 4711 to state, to expressВЫСКАЗАТЬСЯ 4604 to state, to express (reflexive)СООБЩАТЬСЯ 3895 to report (reflexive)ПОВТОРЯТЬ 3190 to repeatПОВТОРИТЬ 2704 to repeat (perfective)ВЫСКАЗЫВАТЬСЯ 2612 to express (reflexive, imperfect)ВЫСКАЗЫВАТЬ 2194 to express (imperfective)

• “Nezavisimaya gazeta” is quite different from other sources

• Communicative verbs help to identify the style and format opposition (traditional newspaper – news feed) but not the subject oppositions (all news – IT news – business news).

Discussion

Combinatorial databases

• A complete set of words combination extracted from different corpora – separate database for each corpus

• Combinations are sorted by grammar patterns: V+N, V+P+N, etc.

• It is possible fix V and find out all the combinations included it

• We use communication verbs to create a corpora “passport” – not complete description, but important information of

style and genre (not subject)

RosBusinessConsulting: V+P+NГОВОРИТЬСЯ В СООБЩЕНИЕ 6509 message says

СООБЩИТЬ В ПРЕССЛУЖБА 5665 according to the press service

ГОВОРИТЬСЯ В ЗАЯВЛЕНИЕ 4493 announce says

СООБЩИТЬ В УПРАВЛЕНИЕ 1865 according to the administration

ЗАЯВИТЬ О НАМЕРЕНИЕ 1337 to declare the intention

ОБЪЯВИТЬ О НАМЕРЕНИЕ 1053 to announce the intention

СООБЩИТЬ НА ПРЕСС-КОНФЕРЕНЦИЯ 985 announce at a press conference

ЗАЯВИТЬ В ИНТЕРВЬЮ 937 say in an interview

ЗАЯВИТЬ О ГОТОВНОСТЬ 913 declare determination

ГОВОРИТЬСЯ В ДОКЛАД 789 report says

ГОВОРИТЬСЯ В МАТЕРИАЛ 745 material says

ЗАЯВИТЬ О НЕОБХОДИМОСТЬ 733 declare necessity

ГОВОРИТЬСЯ В ОТЧЕТ 693 report says

ВЫСКАЗАТЬ В ЭФИР 693 to state on the air

ГОВОРИТЬСЯ В ПРЕСС-РЕЛИЗ 661 press release says

ЗАЯВИТЬ В ЭФИР 637 to declare on the air

RosBusinessConsulting: V+NВЫСКАЗАТЬ МНЕНИЕ 3913 express an opinion

ЗАЯВИТЬ ГЛАВА 3465 the head announced

ЗАЯВИТЬ ПРЕЗИДЕНТ 3233 the president announced

СООБЩИТЬ ПРЕДСТАВИТЕЛЬ 3069 the spokesman informed

ЗАЯВИТЬ ПРЕДСТАВИТЕЛЬ 2869 the spokesman announced

СООБЩИТЬ ПРЕСС-СЛУЖБА 2813 the press service informed

ЗАЯВИТЬ МИНИСТР 2313 the minister announced

СООБЩИТЬ ГЛАВА 2309 the head informed

СКАЗАТЬ ГЛАВА 2301 the head said

СКАЗАТЬ ПРЕЗИДЕНТ 1981 the president said

СКАЗАТЬ МИНИСТР 1861 the minister said

СООБЩИТЬ МИНИСТР 1785 the minister informed

ПОДЧЕРКНУТЬ ГЛАВА 1705 the head underlined

ПОДЧЕРКНУТЬ ПРЕЗИДЕНТ 1485 the president underlined

СООБЩИТЬ ИСТОЧНИК 1485 the source reported

СООБЩИТЬ ЗАМЕСТИТЕЛЬ 1321 the deputy reported

СКАЗАТЬ ПРЕДСТАВИТЕЛЬ 1101 the spokesman said

СООБЩИТЬ ПРЕЗИДЕНТ 993 the president

Conclusion

• It is possible to classify communicative verbs as (mostly) informative or (mostly) persuasive

• However, it is not our goal: we are focused on corpora, not words

• We try to find as many formal markers as it is possible- collocations, keywords, POS distribution…

• Communicative verbs are rather informative markers for Media text genres