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Counting trees: A treebank-driven exploration of syntactic variation in speech and writing across languages

Kaja Dobrovoljc · May 28, 2025 · Citations: 0

General Pairwise Preference
Open arXiv Open DOI Find Implementation RSS feed Shortlist (0)

How to use this paper page

Coverage: Stale

Use this page to decide whether the paper is strong enough to influence an eval design. It summarizes the abstract plus available structured metadata. If the signal is thin, use it as background context and compare it against stronger hub pages before making protocol choices.

Best use

Background context only

Metadata: Stale

Trust level

Low

Signals: Stale

What still needs checking

Extraction confidence is 0.45 (below strong-reference threshold).

Signal confidence: 0.45

Abstract

This paper presents a novel treebank-driven approach to comparing syntactic structures in speech and writing using dependency-parsed corpora. Adopting a fully inductive, bottom-up method, we define syntactic structures as delexicalized dependency (sub)trees and extract them from spoken and written Universal Dependencies (UD) treebanks in two syntactically distinct languages, English and Slovenian. For each corpus, we analyze the size, diversity, and distribution of syntactic inventories, their overlap across modalities, and the structures most characteristic of speech. Results show that, across both languages, spoken corpora contain fewer and less diverse syntactic structures than their written counterparts, with consistent cross-linguistic preferences for certain structural types across modalities. Strikingly, the overlap between spoken and written syntactic inventories is very limited: most structures attested in speech do not occur in writing, pointing to modality-specific preferences in syntactic organization that reflect the distinct demands of real-time interaction and elaborated writing. This contrast is further supported by a keyness analysis of the most frequent speech-specific structures, which highlights patterns associated with interactivity, context-grounding, and economy of expression. We argue that this scalable, language-independent framework offers a useful general method for systematically studying syntactic variation across corpora, laying the groundwork for more comprehensive data-driven theories of grammar in use.

Use caution before copying this protocol

Use this page for context, then validate protocol choices against stronger HFEPX references before implementation decisions.

  • Extraction confidence is 0.45 (below strong-reference threshold).
  • No explicit evaluation mode was extracted from available metadata.
  • No benchmark/dataset or metric anchors were extracted.
Human Eval Hub LLM-as-Judge Hub Pairwise Preference Hub

HFEPX Relevance Assessment

This paper is adjacent to HFEPX scope and is best used for background context, not as a primary protocol reference.

Best use

Background context only

Use if you need

Background context only.

Main weakness

Extraction confidence is 0.45 (below strong-reference threshold).

Trust level

Low

Eval-Fit Score

40/100 • Low

Treat as adjacent context, not a core eval-method reference.

Human Feedback Signal

Detected

Evaluation Signal

Weak / implicit signal

HFEPX Fit

Adjacent candidate

Extraction confidence: Low

If you are doing eval pipeline work, start here:

Human Eval Hub LLM-as-Judge Hub Pairwise Preference Hub Tool-Use Eval Hub

What This Page Found In The Paper

Each field below shows whether the signal looked explicit, partial, or missing in the available metadata. Use this to judge what is safe to trust directly and what still needs full-paper validation.

Human Feedback Types

partial

Pairwise Preference

Confidence: Low Direct evidence

Directly usable for protocol triage.

Evidence snippet: This paper presents a novel treebank-driven approach to comparing syntactic structures in speech and writing using dependency-parsed corpora.

Evaluation Modes

missing

None explicit

Confidence: Low Not found

Validate eval design from full paper text.

Evidence snippet: This paper presents a novel treebank-driven approach to comparing syntactic structures in speech and writing using dependency-parsed corpora.

Quality Controls

missing

Not reported

Confidence: Low Not found

No explicit QC controls found.

Evidence snippet: This paper presents a novel treebank-driven approach to comparing syntactic structures in speech and writing using dependency-parsed corpora.

Benchmarks / Datasets

missing

Not extracted

Confidence: Low Not found

No benchmark anchors detected.

Evidence snippet: This paper presents a novel treebank-driven approach to comparing syntactic structures in speech and writing using dependency-parsed corpora.

Reported Metrics

missing

Not extracted

Confidence: Low Not found

No metric anchors detected.

Evidence snippet: This paper presents a novel treebank-driven approach to comparing syntactic structures in speech and writing using dependency-parsed corpora.

Rater Population

missing

Unknown

Confidence: Low Not found

Rater source not explicitly reported.

Evidence snippet: This paper presents a novel treebank-driven approach to comparing syntactic structures in speech and writing using dependency-parsed corpora.

Human Data Lens

  • Uses human feedback: Yes
  • Feedback types: Pairwise Preference
  • Rater population: Unknown
  • Unit of annotation: Unknown
  • Expertise required: General
  • Signal basis: Structured extraction plus abstract evidence.

Evaluation Lens

  • Evaluation modes:
  • Agentic eval: None
  • Quality controls: Not reported
  • Signal confidence: 0.45
  • Known cautions: ambiguous

Protocol And Measurement Signals

Benchmarks / Datasets

No benchmark or dataset names were extracted from the available abstract.

Reported Metrics

No metric terms were extracted from the available abstract.

Research Brief

Metadata summary

This paper presents a novel treebank-driven approach to comparing syntactic structures in speech and writing using dependency-parsed corpora.

Based on abstract + metadata only. Check the source paper before making high-confidence protocol decisions.

Key Takeaways

  • This paper presents a novel treebank-driven approach to comparing syntactic structures in speech and writing using dependency-parsed corpora.
  • Adopting a fully inductive, bottom-up method, we define syntactic structures as delexicalized dependency (sub)trees and extract them from spoken and written Universal Dependencies (UD) treebanks in two syntactically distinct languages, English and Slovenian.
  • For each corpus, we analyze the size, diversity, and distribution of syntactic inventories, their overlap across modalities, and the structures most characteristic of speech.

Researcher Actions

  • Compare this paper against nearby papers in the same arXiv category before using it for protocol decisions.
  • Check the full text for explicit evaluation design choices (raters, protocol, and metrics).
  • Use related-paper links to find stronger protocol-specific references.

Caveats

  • Generated from abstract + metadata only; no PDF parsing.
  • Signals below are heuristic and may miss details reported outside the abstract.

Recommended Queries

Research Summary

Contribution Summary

  • Results show that, across both languages, spoken corpora contain fewer and less diverse syntactic structures than their written counterparts, with consistent cross-linguistic preferences for certain structural types across modalities.
  • Strikingly, the overlap between spoken and written syntactic inventories is very limited: most structures attested in speech do not occur in writing, pointing to modality-specific preferences in syntactic organization that reflect the…

Why It Matters For Eval

  • Results show that, across both languages, spoken corpora contain fewer and less diverse syntactic structures than their written counterparts, with consistent cross-linguistic preferences for certain structural types across modalities.
  • Strikingly, the overlap between spoken and written syntactic inventories is very limited: most structures attested in speech do not occur in writing, pointing to modality-specific preferences in syntactic organization that reflect the…

Researcher Checklist

  • Pass: Human feedback protocol is explicit

    Detected: Pairwise Preference

  • Gap: Evaluation mode is explicit

    No clear evaluation mode extracted.

  • Gap: Quality control reporting appears

    No calibration/adjudication/IAA control explicitly detected.

  • Gap: Benchmark or dataset anchors are present

    No benchmark/dataset anchor extracted from abstract.

  • Gap: Metric reporting is present

    No metric terms extracted.

Related Papers

Papers are ranked by protocol overlap, extraction signal alignment, and semantic proximity.

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