Choosing between Long and Short Word Forms in Mandarin
Between 80{\%} and 90{\%} of all Chinese words have long and short form such as 老虎/虎 (lao-hu/hu , tiger) (Duanmu:2013). Consequently, the choice between long and short forms is a key problem for lexical choice across NLP and NLG. Following an earlier work on abbreviations in English (Mahowald et al, 2013), we bring a probabilistic perspective to these questions, using both a behavioral and a corpus-based approach. We hypothesized that there is a higher probability of choosing short form in supportive context than in neutral context in Mandarin. Consistent with our prediction, our findings revealed that predictability of contexts makes effect on speakers{'} long and short form choice.
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