Author:
Yu-Ling Una Hsu, Jing-Shin Chang and Keh-Yih Su

Abstract:
This paper presents several useful computational tools and available resources to facilitate linguistic studies. For each computational tool, we demonstrate why it is useful and how can it be used for research. In addition, linguistic examples are given for illustration. First, a very useful searching engine, Key Word in Context (KWIC), is introduced. This tool can automatically extract linguistically significant patterns from large corpora and help linguists discover syntagmatic generalizations. Second, Dynamic Clustering and Hierarchical Clustering are introduced for identifying natural clusters of words or phrases in distribution. Third, statistical measures which could be used to measure the degree of cohesion and correlation among linguistic units are presented. These tools can help linguists identify the boundaries of lexical units. Fourth, alignment tools for aligning parallel texts at the word, sentence and structure levels are presented for linguists who do comparative studies of different languages. Fifth, we introduce Sequential Forward Selection (SFS) and Classification and Regression Tree (CART) for automatic rule ordering. Finally, some available electronic Chinese resources are described to provide reference purposes for those who are interested.

Keyword:
extraction, clustering, cohesion, alignment, Chinese corpora, electronic dictionary

Author:
Chin-Chuan Cheng

Abstract:
This paper is a synthesis of the past studies in measurements of dialect relationships. The phonological data of 17 Chinese dialects that were computerized in the late 1960s have been utilized for measurements of dialect distance. In addition, a file of over 6,400 lexical variants in 18 dialects was also used to quantify dialect affinity. This writing first explains the nature, the organization, and the coding of these files. A series of steps illustrate how the phonological file was processed to derive the needed information for calculation of correlation coefficients. The coefficients are considered as indices of dialect affinity. The dialects are then grouped by the average linking method of cluster analysis of the coefficients. The appropriateness of the correlation method to the data is then discussed. Recent work on calculation of dialect mutual intelligibility is presented to indicate the future direction of research.

Keyword:
Chinese dialects, measurements of affinity, measurements of mutual intelligibility, comparative dialectology

Author:
Hsiao-Chuan Wang

Abstract:
A cooperative project, called Polyphone, was initiated by the Coordinating Committee on Speech Databases and Speech I/O Systems Assessment (COCOSDA) in 1992. Accordingly, a project to collect Mandarin speech data across Taiwan (MAT) was conducted by a group of researchers from several universities and research organizations in Taiwan. The purpose was to generate a speech corpus for the development of Mandarin-based speech technology and products. The speech data were collected at eight recording stations through telephone networks. The speakers were chosen so as to reflect the population of the gender, the dialect, the educational level, and the residence in Taiwan. A preliminary Mandarin speech database of 800 speakers has been produced. The final goal is to generate a speech database of at least 5000 speakers.

Keyword:
Mandarin speech, Speech database, Speech I/O systems assessment, Telephone network

Author:
Benjamin K. T'sou, Hing-Lung Lin, Godfrey Liu, Terence Chan, Jerome Hu, Ching-hai Chew, and John K.P. Tse

Abstract:
Similar to other languages such as English, Spanish and Arabic, Chinese is used by a large number of speakers in distinct speech communities which, despite sharing the unity of language, vary in interesting ways, and a systematic study of such linguistic variation is invaluable to appreciate the diversity and richness of the underlying cultures. This paper describes Project LIVAC (Linguistic Variation in Chinese Communities), which focuses on the development of a Chinese corpus, based on data taken concurrently at regular intervals from multiple Chinese speech communities. The resulting database and computerized concordance from the approximately 20 million word corpus with uniform time reference points extending across two years enable linguists and social scientists to undertake meaningful qualitative and quantitative comparative analysis of the development of linguistic and cultural variation. To facilitate these studies, a framework for integrating the corpus with specific corpus analysis applications is proposed. Based on this framework, a prototype retrieval system, which supports longitudinal studies on word and concept distribution, as well as lexical and other linguistic variation, is designed and implemented.