Brigham Young University BYU ScholarsArchive Theses and Dissertations 2007-12-11 A Corpus-based Approach to Determining Standard American English Delys Ann Waite Snyder Brigham Young University - Provo Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd Part of the Educational Psychology Commons BYU ScholarsArchive Citation Snyder, Delys Ann Waite, "A Corpus-based Approach to Determining Standard American English" (2007). Theses and Dissertations. 1269. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/1269 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. A CORPUS-BASED APPROACH TO DETERMINING STANDARD WRITTEN AMERICAN USAGE by Delys Waite Snyder A dissertation submitted to the faculty of Brigham Young University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Instructional Psychology and Technology Brigham Young University December 2007 Copyright © 2007 Delys Waite Snyder All Rights Reserved BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY GRADUATE COMMITTEE APPROVAL of a dissertation submitted by Delys Waite Snyder This dissertation has been read by each member of the following graduate committee and by majority vote has been found to be satisfactory. _______________________________ _________________________________ Date David D. Williams, Chair _________________________________ _________________________________ Date Mark E. Davies _________________________________ _________________________________ Date Deborah Dean ________________________________ _________________________________ Date Kristine Hansen ________________________________ _______________________________ Date Richard R. Sudweeks BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY As chair of the candidate‟s graduate committee, I have read the dissertation of Delys Waite Snyder in its final form and have found that (1) its format, citations, and bibliographical style are consistent and acceptable and fulfill university and department style requirements; (2) its illustrative materials including figures, tables, and charts are in place; and (3) the final manuscript is satisfactory to the graduate committee and is ready for submission to the university library. _______________________________ ________________________________ Date David D. Williams Chair, Graduate Committee Accepted for the Department ________________________________ _________________________________ Date Andy Gibbons Department Chair, Instructional Psychology and Technology Accepted for the College _______________________________ ________________________________ Date K. Richard Young Dean, David O. McKay School of Education ABSTRACT A CORPUS-BASED APPROACH TO DETERMINING STANDARD WRITTEN AMERICAN USAGE Delys Waite Snyder Department of Instructional Psychology and Technology Doctor of Philosophy Many teachers, test designers, textbook writers, and instructional designers turn to books written by usage experts to determine what is correct standard written American English. Unfortunately, though, experts often disagree about what is correct and what is incorrect, and this disagreement can create problems with validity when people create and assess instruction about usage. One way to discover the rules of standard English usage is to describe what writers actually do in printed, edited English. Researchers can access large collections of standard English through digital text archives, which can be searched electronically. The text archives for this study were taken from EBSCO and ProQuest digital libraries and divided into three different registers: (a) newspapers, (b) magazines, and (c) scholarly journals. This study examines 30 representative items of controversial usage; such as a lot or alot, between you and I or between you and me, had proved or had proven; to determine the actual occurrence in these three registers of standard written American English. The results list the percentage of use in each register, as well as the total averaged percentage of use in all three registers. Items showing 90% to 100% usage in the total averaged percentages are considered standard English, but items showing 90% to 95% usage are borderline cases that should be monitored for future use. If a variant form is used more than 10% of the time, then it should be considered a possible alternative usage in dictionaries, in text books, and in tests. This study shows the results of using corpus linguistics to answer questions about usage in standard American English. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thanks to my dissertation chair, David Williams, for his help and encouragement through my projects and this dissertation. Thanks to my committee members for their thoughtful critiques: Mark Davies, Deborah Dean, Kristine Hansen, and Richard Sudweeks. Thanks to Patti Collings for statistical consultations. Thanks to Dr. Joyce Adams, who inspires me with her optimism, her endurance through trials, and her friendship. Thanks to Julene Bassett for her encouragement to present at conferences, her passion for education, and her penchant for long lunches and much needed laughter. Thanks to Debbie Harrison for her enthusiasm, expertise, and pep talks. Thanks to Merwin and June Waite, my parents, who raised me to believe I could do and become anything I chose, then supported me when I chose challenging paths. Thanks to my children and step-children, and their spouses, Kate and Alex, Cristie and Steven, Travis and Heidi, Kathryn, Rob and Erin, Steven, Jack, and Marissa, for loving me and cheering for me even while my studies consumed much of my time. Thank you to my grandsons, Sam, Ben, Luke, and William, for not really noticing that Grandma was in the middle of demanding graduate school. Most of all I thank my husband, Phil Snyder, for encouraging me throughout this Ph.D. and for filling my life with love, joy, light, purpose, poetry, and godly service. viii Table of Contents LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................................ XI LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................................. XIII CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................ 1 STANDARD WRITTEN AMERICAN ENGLISH ......................................................................................... 2 RESEARCH QUESTIONS ........................................................................................................................ 9 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................................... 11 RESEARCH PHILOSOPHY .................................................................................................................... 12 PRESCRIPTIVISM, DESCRIPTIVISM, AND STANDARDIZATION ............................................................. 14 USAGE ............................................................................................................................................... 18 Usage Books by Publishing Houses ............................................................................................. 18 Usage Books by Individuals ......................................................................................................... 26 Conclusions about Usage Books .................................................................................................. 34 Style Guides ................................................................................................................................. 35 USAGE TEACHING ............................................................................................................................. 38 CORPUS LINGUISTICS ........................................................................................................................ 50 Creation and Use of Linguistic Corpora ..................................................................................... 50 Examples of Existing Linguistic Corpora .................................................................................... 53 TESTING AND CONTENT VALIDITY .................................................................................................... 57 CHAPTER 3: METHOD ....................................................................................................................... 61 RESEARCH PROCESS .......................................................................................................................... 61 USAGE ITEMS TO STUDY ................................................................................................................... 66 Spelling ........................................................................................................................................ 67 ix Inflected Endings ......................................................................................................................... 68 Preposition Use ........................................................................................................................... 69 Verb Forms .................................................................................................................................. 70 Subject-Verb Agreement .............................................................................................................