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Document Details : Title: A Corpus-based Validation Study of the Universal Processing Hypothesis in English Relative Clause Formation Author(s): ITO, Akihiro , YAMASHITA, Junko Journal: ITL - International Journal of Applied Linguistics Volume: 150 Date: 2005 Pages: 77-92 DOI: 10.2143/ITL.150.0.2004373 Abstract : The present study focuses on spoken and written data in the British National Corpus (BNC). Based on a review of recent studies on English relative clauses, we formulated a Universal Processing Hypothesis (OS>OO>SS>SO) as target hypothesis to be validated using a corpus data approach. A computer program was designed to calculate the frequency of appearance of the four types of relative clauses (OS, OO, SS, and SO). The results indicated this hypothesis to be a valid predictor of frequency of appearance of relative clauses in the domain for written corpus texts. However, it is not supported in context-governed spoken material. Limitations of the present investigation and the direction of future research are also discussed. |
