A scale of conceptual orality and literacy: Automatic text categorization in the tradition of "N\"ahe und Distanz"

TL;DR

This paper develops a statistical scale of conceptual orality and literacy based on PCA, enabling automatic text categorization in corpus linguistics, and demonstrates its application on German corpora.

Contribution

It introduces a novel PCA-based scale of conceptual orality and literacy for corpus analysis, bridging theoretical models with empirical linguistic data.

Findings

Features of conceptual orality and literacy must be distinguished for accurate text ranking.

The scale effectively differentiates texts along the orality-literacy continuum.

The approach is suitable for corpus compilation and large-scale linguistic analysis.

Abstract

Koch and Oesterreicher's model of "N\"ahe und Distanz" (N\"ahe = immediacy, conceptual orality; Distanz = distance, conceptual literacy) is constantly used in German linguistics. However, there is no statistical foundation for use in corpus linguistic analyzes, while it is increasingly moving into empirical corpus linguistics. Theoretically, it is stipulated, among other things, that written texts can be rated on a scale of conceptual orality and literacy by linguistic features. This article establishes such a scale based on PCA and combines it with automatic analysis. Two corpora of New High German serve as examples. When evaluating established features, a central finding is that features of conceptual orality and literacy must be distinguished in order to rank texts in a differentiated manner. The scale is also discussed with a view to its use in corpus compilation and as a guide for analyzes in larger corpora. With a theory-driven starting point and as a "tailored" dimension, the approach compared to Biber's Dimension 1 is particularly suitable for these supporting, controlling tasks.