Word Class Ratios and Genres in Written Japanese: Revisiting the Modifier Verb Ratio

Abstract

This paper explores the variability of genres in the Balanced Corpus of Contemporary Written Japanese using the modifier-verb ratio proposed by Kabashima and Jukaku (1965). Using bagplots to quantifying the relation between noun and modifier-verb ratios, as well as some summary statistics obtain from them, we attempt to classify genres according to Kabashima and Jugaku (1965). Our initial analysis confirms previous research results, while at the same time uncovering some contradictions in the ratios of the genre of magazines.

Keywords

• BCCWJ
• MVR
• bagplot
• genre
• Long Unit Words