(Luận văn) linguistic features in english reviews of the latest high end cameras

This study aims at investigating 2731 samples of lexical features and 399 samples of semantic functions in English reviews for the latest high-end cameras, under five videos of professio

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HÀ BẢO TOÀN

LINGUISTIC FEATURES IN ENGLISH REVIEWS

OF THE LATEST HIGH-END CAMERAS

FIELD: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS

CODE: 8.22.02.01

Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr NGUYỄN QUANG NGOẠN

luan van tot nghiep download luanvanfull moi nhat z z @gmail.com Luan van thac si

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Người hướng dẫn: PGS.TS NGUYỄN QUANG NGOẠN

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submitted as a requirement of a degree or diploma at any institution This thesis

also does not contain any material which has been written or published by other

another person except the reference is made in the text This work is completely

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people I would like to express the deepest respect and appreciation to those who provide me advice and assistance when I participated in this course, especially the time when I carried out this research

First and foremost, I am deeply gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc Prof

Dr Nguyen Quang Ngoan, who has kindly given me advice, useful references and constant encouragement in this study Without his guidance and help, this thesis would not have been complete

I would like to express my thanks to Mr Dang Trinh Truong Giang, an

MA student of English Language from the previous course, for his advice and reference during the time I participated in this course

I also would love to express my gratefulness to all the lecturers of the Department of Foreign Languages of Quy Nhon Univesity who have provided

me with precious knowledge in the field of English language

Last but not least, my love is sent to my parents and my big thanks to my friends who have back me up through many difficulties during this period so that I can focus on the thesis and finish it in line

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online reviews are quickly becoming a research trend for linguists to understand

their characteristics This study aims at investigating 2731 samples of lexical

features and 399 samples of semantic functions in English reviews for the latest

high-end cameras, under five videos of professional reviewers on Youtube

Both quantitative and qualitative approaches with descriptive, analytic, and

synthetic methods are employed to achieve the targets Based on the theory of

lexicology of Quirk and Greenbaum (1973) as well as sematic functions of

Lyons (1977) and Leech (1981), the theoretical framework suggests the criteria

for collecting and analyzing the samples The analysis reveals interesting results

concerning the five word classes (nouns, lexical verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and

modal auxiliaries) contributing the lexicology of English reviews, as well as the

five semantic functions (informing, praising, denoting disappointment,

suggesting, and others) in English camera reviews To be more specific, nouns,

lexical verbs, and adjectives take a large contribution in review lexicology while

informing, praising, and denoting disappointment are the superior distributions

in semantic functions of English camera reviews The findings drawn out from

the study make some significant contribution to the teaching and learning of

descriptive language, as well as the people in the field of reviewing product

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS II ABSTRACT III TABLE OF CONTENTS IV LIST OF TABLES VIII LIST OF GRAPHS IX LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND CONVENTIONS X

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 RATIONALE 1

1.2 AIM AND OBJECTIVES 2

1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 2

1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY 3

1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY 3

1.6 DEFINITION OF TERMS 4

1.7 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY 4

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 6

2.1 PARTS OF SPEECH 6

2.2 LANGUAGE FUNCTIONS 8

2.2.1 Semantic field 8

2.2.2 Language functions 10

2.3 LANGUAGE FOR REVIEW 13

2.4 REVIEW OF PREVIOUS STUDIES 14

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3.1 RESEARCH DESIGN 18

3.2 RESEARCH METHODS 18

3.3 DATA COLLECTION 19

3.4 DATA ANALYSIS 21

3.4.1 Analytical frameworks 21

3.4.2 Analytical methods 24

3.5 RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY 24

CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 26

4.1 LEXICAL FEATURES OF ENGLISH IN CAMERA REVIEWS 26

4.1.1 Nouns 28

4.1.1.1 Nouns denoting physical features 28

4.1.1.2 Nouns denoting non-physical features 29

4.1.1.2.1 Nouns describing specifications and softwares 30

4.1.1.2.2 Nouns describing camera‟s functions 31

4.1.1.3 Nouns denoting judgments 31

4.1.2 Lexical Verbs 32

4.1.2.1 Lexical verbs denoting actions 33

4.1.2.2 Lexical verbs denoting emotions 34

4.1.2.3 Stative verbs 35

4.1.3 Modal Verbs 36

4.1.3.1 Modals denoting possibility and ability 36

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4.1.3.2 Modals denoting necessity 37

4.1.3.3 Modals denoting prediction and volition 37

4.1.4 Adjectives 38

4.1.4.1 Adjectives describing physical quality 39

4.1.4.2 Adjectives describing performance quality 40

4.1.4.3 Adjectives describing characteristic and judgment 41

4.1.5 Adverbs 42

4.1.5.1 Adverbs of manner 43

4.1.5.2 Adverbs of degree 44

4.1.5.3 Adverbs of frequency 44

4.2 SEMANTIC FUNCTIONS OF ENGLISH IN CAMERA REVIEWS 45

4.2.1 Informing 47

4.2.2 Praising 49

4.2.3 Denoting disappointment 50

4.2.4 Suggesting 51

4.2.4.1 Hearer oriented suggesting 52

4.2.4.2 Company oriented suggesting 53

4.2.5 Other functions 54

4.2.5.1 Predicting 55

4.2.5.2 Warning 56

4.2.5.3 Attracting 57

4.2.5.4 Questioning 58

4.2.5.5 Mixed functions 59

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4.3 SUMMARY 60

CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS 61

5.1 CONCLUSIONS 61

5.1.1 Lexical features in English reviews of the latest high-end camera 62

5.2.2 Semantic functions in English reviews of the latest high-end camera 63

5.2 IMPLICATIONS 64

5.3 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY 65

5.4 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY 66

REFERENCES 67

DATA SOURCES 70

APPENDIX 1

Camera Review 1 – Canon EOS R 1

Camera Review 2 – Nikon Z6 6

Camera Review 3 – Sony A7R4 mark IV 13

Camera Review 4 – Fujifilm X-H1 20

Camera Review 5 – Panasonic S1R 28

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3.2 The Linguistic Category Model proposed by Semin and

Fiedler (1991) in the study of Krishnamoorthy (2015)

4.1 Distribution of lexicology in camera reviews 26

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LIST OF GRAPHS

4.1 Percentages of lexicology in English camera reviews 27

4.2 Percentages of sub-nouns in lexicology of English camera

4.6 Distribution of semantic functions in English camera reviews 47

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND CONVENTIONS

(1): The first example [CR1.15]: Source in appendix: camera review 1, data no.15th DSLR: Digital Single-lens reflex cameras

MR: Mirrorless cameras

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CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 RATIONALE

Online reviews for products are becoming a distinction of this era of digital age due to the combination of the modern technology and the art of language in use The reviews contain the information that can provide the necessary and probably the deeper technical information about the subject The approaches to the online reviews are not only fast, but also easier than ever before All of that gives the consumer a wider understanding on a product and also helps them to take a careful decision on buying a product or not in their circumstances

Online reviews can be recognized by 2 major types, in written and spoken reviews The spoken reviews are the main focus point of this study due to its versatile combination between the visual videos as evidences and the presentation of the reviewers to the audiences

The language of reviews has many linguistic features that have interested the linguist to explore how effective it is in persuading people to make decisions Online-review helpfulness is the major aim of many linguists (Markus et al., 2015; Laurie et al., 2017; Goele et al., 2017; Hijbul et el., 2016; Sohail et al., 2016) To achieve that aim, they use the sentimental analysis on the written language of online reviews collected from many ordinary reviewers and customers on several famous selling websites Some linguists are interested in semantic analysis in online product reviews to enable helpfulness prediction (Yang et al, 2015) but still mainly focus on the written type

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Due to the gap in the reviews of English spoken language, this study focuses on the linguistic features, including the lexical features and semantic functions, of English in reviews for the latest high-end cameras The conducting of this work, hopefully to some extent, can cover some of the linguistic features of the spoken English reviews

1.2 AIM AND OBJECTIVES

The aim of my research is to study the lexical features and semantic functions in English that are used in online reviews, especially for the latest high-end cameras

In order to achieve the aim of the research, the researcher follows the objectives:

- To identify and analyze the lexical features in English reviews of the latest high-end cameras

- To identify and analyze the semantic functions in English reviews of the latest high-end cameras

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1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

This thesis only focuses on the lexical features and the semantic functions of English in product reviews, specifically the online reviews of the latest high-end cameras In the lexical features, the researcher attempts to study the open class words, in the word level only, for investigating what kinds of nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs that participate into the English reviews of the camera In the sematic field, the researcher attempts to recognize the functions of the lexical features that are used in the reviews of the latest high-end cameras

The researcher performs an investigation in the latest high-end digital cameras because they are one of the electronic products that own a huge community and the reviews of the latest high-end cameras can have a huge influence on the consumer‟s decision The samples of reviews for the latest high-end cameras are taken from the high reputation reviewers and in different camera brands which can give the most diversity of language in reviews

1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This research can provide a significant contribution to the knowledge

of lexical features and the semantic function in English reviews It helps clarifying the features of lexicology as well as some essential semantic functions which are embedded in professional English camera reviews The findings of the study can help the people in teaching description language and provide the learner a wider range of vocabulary in the field of electronic products reviews in general, especially in camera reviews Plus, English users can be better of identifying the intentions or indications within the context of the reports or reviews

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1.6 DEFINITION OF TERMS

Camera: a device for taking photographs and/or videos

Camera review: a report from a reviewer toward the camera features

such as: Photographs and description of camera, detailed specifications, description of function and operation, timings and performance measures, image quality measures, competitive camera comparisons, conclusion and suggestion based on test results and experience with the camera, etc

High-end camera: The cameras that are on top of the line; referring to

the most sophisticated, and typically the most expensive, product in a line

1.7 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY

The study is organized in five chapters as follows:

Chapter 1, Introduction, gives the rationale, aim and objectives, the

scope, research questions, the definition of term, and the organization of the study

Chapter 2, Literature Review and Theoretical background, provides

some of previous studies in the field and the basic concepts, and theoretical background related to the study

Chapter 3, Research Methodology, deals with the research methods,

procedures, description of data, data collection, data analysis, and reliability and validity

Chapter 4, Findings and Discussion, draws out the results of the

research with the researcher‟s comments

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Chapter 5, Conclusions and Implications, presents the summary of the

findings and conclusions within the limitation of the study and some suggestions for further study

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CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW AND

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

This chapter concerns the theoretical background and previous studies that are related to the language of description and semantic functions in English reviews of the latest high-end cameras

2.1 PARTS OF SPEECH

Parts of speech are the basic of grammar and they are the most important units for starting to understand the language Quirk and Greenbaum (1973) argue that parts of English speech are units that, when combined, make

up the constituent elements of a sentence They divide parts of speech into the system of open-closed classes They define the closed class items “that they cannot normally be extended by the creation of additional members” (p.19) which contain words like: articles, demonstratives, pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections The open class items comprise nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs and the definition according to Quirk and Greenbaum

“is indefinitely extendable New items are constantly being created and no one could make an inventory of all the nouns in English (for example) and be confident that it was complete” (p 19)

However, Quirk and Greenbaum (1973) claim that parts of speech are sometimes not really clearly distinguished into the open-closed system, like in the verbs class (lexical verbs and auxiliaries) and adverbs class (adverbs denoting manner and intensifier adverbs):

Although they have deceptively specific labels, the parts of speech tend in fact to be rather heterogeneous The adverb and the verb are perhaps especially mixed classes, each having small and fairly well-defined groups of closed-system items alongside the indefinitely large open-class items So far as the verb is concerned,

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the closed-system subgroup is known by the well-established term „auxiliary‟ With

the adverb, one may draw the distinction broadly between those in –ly that correspond to adjectives (complete-ly) and those that do not (now, there, forward,

very, for example) (Quirk & Greenbaum, 1973, p 20).

Greenbaum in 1996, consolidate the system of open-closed classes by adding the numeral and auxiliary into the closed class words

Quirk et al (1985) claim that modal verbs can be divided into two types

of modality meaning:

(a) Those such as 'permission', 'obligation', and 'volition' which involve some kind

of intrinsic human control over events, and (b) Those such as 'possibility', 'necessity', and 'prediction', which do not primarily involve human control of events, but do typically involve human judgment of what is or is not likely to happen

These two kinds, between which there is a gradient, may be termed INTRINSIC and EXTRINSIC modality respectively One important observation about the modals is that each one of them has both intrinsic and extrinsic uses: for example,

may has the meaning of permission (intrinsic) and the meaning of possibility

(extrinsic); will has the meaning of volition (intrinsic) and the meaning of

prediction (extrinsic) (Quirk et al, 1985, p 219)

Quirk et al (1985) also notice that “there are areas of overlap and neutrality between the intrinsic and extrinsic sense of a modal” and “the modals themselves tend to have overlapping meanings, such that in some circumstances, they can be more or less interchangeable” (pp 219-220)

This thesis only focuses on is the open classes items (known as the lexical words or content words) rather than the closed class items (grammatical words) due to the fact that the open class words can be expanded by compounding words and thus used to describe However, the modal auxiliaries and the intensifier adverbs (intensify for degree, frequency), belong to the closed class words, but contain characteristics of describing mood and information intensity, so they are noticed in the analysis process

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2.2 LANGUAGE FUNCTIONS

2.2.1 Semantic field

The study of semantic theory has been synthesized and developed by

many famous linguists, especially Lyons, with the influence of Semantics:

Volume I and II Lyons (1977) believes that the theory of semantic field is

initially introduced by various German and Swiss scholars in 1920s and 1930s, but he also claims its historical root “can be traced back at least to the middle of the nineteenth century and, in a more general way, to the ideas of Humboldt (1836) and Herder (1772)” (Lyons, 1977, p 250)

Gao and Xu (2013) synthesize many linguists‟s definitions of semantic

field:

“semantic fields”, that is, groups of words of which meanings are closely interrelated Originally, “field” is a concept applied in physics which describes the layout condition of a certain object, such as electric field, magnetic field and gravitational field, which separately shows the layout principles of electricity, magnesium and gravity in a certain space This concept was later applied into linguistics to describe the inter-relationship between different words Gradually, it turned into a new linguistic approach called semantic field theory (Gao and Xu,

2013, p.2030)

Brinton and Brinton (2010) summarize Lyons's recognition of three

major types of semantic field (synonymy, hyponymy, and oppositeness) in her book of the linguistic structure of modern English for more concise and

accessible to the reader

The concept of synonymy follows Brinton and Brinton (2010), in short,

is “well-known and intuitively obvious; it denotes sameness in meaning, or sense” (Brinton, 2010, p 150) Some examples of synonymy in words can be: unhappy/sad; huge/enormous; correct/right; etc Synonymy is context-dependent as two words can share the same meaning in some specific

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situation, but not exactly in other cases Pale/light is a pair of word which are synonymy in “The shirt is pale/light in color” but in “the book is light (pale is

incompatible) in weight” Synonymy ignores the connotations of words and

recognizes only their denotations as in horse/steed/nag Synonyms may also differ in degree or intensity, as in rain/showers/sprinkles/downpour Brinton

also regards the aspects of stylistic ignores in synonymy in several terms like social or geographic dialect distribution, etc such as cookie (in U.S) and biscuit (in U.K)

Brinton and Brinton (2010) describe Lyons‟s (1977) hyponymy “is a relation of inclusion or entailment” There are two terms in the relation of hyponymy: the superordinate term include the hyponyms (or cohyponmys in Lyon‟s term) The meaning of hyponyms (such as: sparrow, eagle, hawk, etc) entails the meaning of the superordinate (like: bird, animal); however, this

only occurs in one way, I bought a sparrow means I bought a bird or I bought

an animal, but I bought a bird or I bought an animal does not entail I bought

a sparrow The mentioned examples also illustrates a hierarchy of animal hyponyms, which sparrow entails bird, bird entails animal

In the relationships of oppositeness introduced by Lyons (1977), Brinton and Brinton (2010) categorizes in three relations: complementarity, antonymy, and converseness They define the complementarity “is a relation

of contradiction, in which the denial of one term is the assertion of its complementary term X is not Y and Y is not X” (Brinton and Brinton, 2010,

p 152) Some typical pairs of complementarity are: dead/alive, pass/fail,

raw-cooked, legal/illegal, etc The antonymy, however, points to the gradable

values, which may be compared in an obviously or obscurely way Some can

be name: fat/fit/thin, hot/warm/cool/cold/freeze, small/average/big/large, etc

The converseness refers to a terms of words that can be reversal For example,

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Susan bought the car from Tim entails and is entailed by Tim sold the car to Susan A special kind of converseness that Brinton mentions to is called

symmetry, which it is possible when said in both ways: Helen is married to

David and David is married to Helen

The theory of semantic field shows that words belong to the same semantic field are abundant They can share the same idea of the speaker, using either their denotations or connotation Thus, identifying the semantic meaning of words is an essential step for a full knowledge of the relevant field

as well as a stepping stone for understanding the deliver‟s intentions

2.2.2 Language functions

Language is used to convey meaning of the speaker; identifying the meaning of the language can help the listener to perceive and respond correctly Every time making an utterance, we all carry out a purpose It could use to express feelings, to ask for help, to give advice, etc In short, they carry

a message or an emotion All these purposes of language which we could use fall into five language functions of Leech‟s realization (1981): informational function, expressive function, directive function, aesthetic function, and phatic function

The informational function is “neutral” and “most important” (Leech,

1981, p.40) This function concentrates on the message since it helps people

to deliver message, to describe things, to provide new information to other people

Expressive function “can be used to express its originator‟s feelings and attitudes – swear words and exclamations are the most obvious instances

of this” (Leech, 1981, p.40) Indifferent with the informational function, the expressive does not deliver any particular information toward the hearer but it

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aims to express the speaker‟s attitude or feelings that could be positive or negative The usage of the expressive function of language can provide the speaker‟s personality, thus enable a strategy to be responded to the hearer An

example of expressive function is when we said “The cat is adorable”, we do

not give the listener any particular information about the cat, but our feelings about it

The directive function of language is used to trigger certain actions or reactions toward the hearer This function expresses the meaning of social control and interpersonal interaction Commanding and requesting are the two prominent features of this function as they influence the hearer‟s behavior or attitudes rather than the speaker‟s thought since the hearer‟s reaction determines whether the commanding or requesting achieves the target or not

Aesthetic function is the fourth function of language which is “the use

of language for the sake of the linguistic artifact itself, and for no purpose This aesthetic function can have at least as much to do with conceptual as with affective meaning” (Leech, 1981, p.41) The function of aesthetic does not contain any particular purpose, neither perform as a request nor a message, except a tool of poetic art As such, the beauty or the artistic of words and phrase are more important than the precise of the information

The fifth function of language is the phatic function Leech (1981) defines it as a function to maintain social relationship:

The function of keeping communication lines open, and keeping social relationships in good repair (in British culture, talking about the weather is a well- known example of this) The phatic function is at the furthest remove from the aesthetic function, in that here the communicative work done by language is at its lightest: it is not so much what one says, but the fact that one says it at all, that matters” (Leech, 1981, p 41)

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As such, the phatic function is used to begin or continue the conversation The example of Leech about the British‟s culture of talking about the weather that shows this kind of talk does not provide any value and necessary information but to open a conversation The conversation serves only for helping people to interact to others In some cases, such conversations may contain some highlight information, but it is not the primary concern or necessary

Although the five functions of the language are proposed by Leech (1981), he also claims that those functions are not an ideal classification In fact, in reality, a number of different functions can be found in a sentence and

„rarely is a piece of language purely informative, purely expressive, etc” (Leech, 1981, p.41) A remark such as “I feel like a cup of tea”, in some circumstances, it can have multiple functions such as: an informational function which could provide the status of the speaker, an expressive function which could express his feeling, a directive functions which could indirectly asking another for a cup of tea

In order to identify the language functions, Leech also mentions the five essential features in communicative situations, namely: subject-matter, originator (speaker or writer), receiver (hear or reader), the channel of communication between them, and the linguistic message itself The five essential features in communicative situations, in some extent, are similar to the term “context” and “co-text” which Yule (1997) suggests Yule (1997) argues that context is the physical environment that contains participants, locations, times, and other physical aspects; while co-text is the linguistic material concerning the linguistic patterns that introducing and/or succeeding

an analyzed utterance

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As mentioned above, analyzing semantic functions in a specific context must take into account the speaker‟s situation to clarify his meanings; in that case, a language function is no longer the solo semantic function, but a pragmatic function of some kind

2.3 LANGUAGE FOR REVIEW

With the development of multimedia, especially the internet, it is not difficult for everyone to approach a review of goods, products, or equipment Understanding high-end products is a matter of concern to consumers in these days as knowledge of product plays a role in determining consumer spending Product reviews therefore serve as a bridge between consumers and purchasing decisions However, a review must perform well with honesty, impartiality in product strengths and weaknesses, in order to attract viewers and empower reviewers Language for review, in some way, tends to share some common terms with the language of criticism which Casey (1966) points out to the extent that there is a relation between description and evaluation in terms of values

Language for description is widely introduced by some linguists, Kane (2000, p.352) defines that “description is about sensory experience how something looks, sounds, tastes Mostly is about visual experience, but description also deals with other kinds of perception” The social function of descriptive language is to describe a particular person, place or thing Gerot and Wignell (1994, p.208) propose the generic structure of descriptive language to cover: first, “identification which identifies phenomenon that will

be described” and second, “the description which describe parts, qualities, or characteristics of something or someone in detail” In addition, Knapp and

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Watkins (2005) present several grammatical features of descriptive language for expanding further in descriptive writing

When it comes to evaluation, reviewers base on their time and experience toward the product to make an assessment; that is, the language used in reviews can be described as the language of felt and experience Downes (2000) separates three types of felt experience: emotions, evaluation, and intuitions He defines further that “evaluations are construals of experiences in context on binary scales between positive and negative: good (plus value) vs bad (minus value), desirable vs undesirable, important vs not important, lovely vs hideous, etc” (Downes, 2000, p.102)

The purpose of the product review is to be a valuable reference to better understand the product and avoid biased information from manufacturers' advertising Therefore, reviews must have rigorous arguments, through descriptive things, and visualize assessments so that audiences can make their own right decisions of purchasing

2.4 REVIEW OF PREVIOUS STUDIES

In the recent years, the study of online reviews has interested many linguists all around the world Their contributions are found in a lot of articles

in which English online reviews are the central The major aim of the linguists

in this field is to investigate the characteristics of language in online reviews and how the language used can take a great influence on the consumer

The study of helpfulness of online reviews is one of the topics that many linguists are interested in online reviews Investigating high-ranking reviews, researchers can identify the features that make a review helpful, thus enabling readers to predict whether other reviews contain helpfulness or not

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Mudambi and Schuff (2010) conducted a study of extremity of negative and positive in star-rating, a depth review, and product types that affect the perceived helpfulness of the review Pan and Zhang (2011) claimed that the two determinant features are valence and length that have possible effects on predicting review helpfulness, but different product types can have different effects In Park‟s (2018) research, the rating, word count, and analytical thinking in online reviews are the three determinant factors affecting the review helpfulness prediction, while others factor such as: positive/negative emotions, comparative expression, cognitive process words, and perceptual process are the less influencer

There are many linguists who have been involved in the process of studying methods and models that help predict the usefulness of the review Kim, Pantel, Chklovski, and Pennachiotti (2006) carried out a study automatically assessing helpfulness and ranking reviews rather manually assess by the method of support vector machine regression system Zhang and Tran (2010) proposed a linear model to predict the helpfulness of online product reviews Krishnamoorthy (2015) conducted a study on features that enable the predicting of review helpfulness He used the Linguistic Category Model (LCM) of adjectives, state verbs, and action verbs proposed by Semin and Fiedler (1991) as a conceptual framework to predicting review helpfulness as well as build a new prediction model Park (2018) also assessed the four widely used data mining methods (linear regression, support vector regression, M5P, and random forest) to predict review helpfulness across five different types of product; however, the support vector regression still exhibited as the highest reliable method

In addition to studying the linguistic features included in the reviews that are considered useful, some studies approached from the sentimental

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analysis (also known as semantic perspective) to estimate and predict the helpfulness in the online reviews Wang, Yin, Zheng, and Liu (2014) proposed the sentence-based language model to classify the sentiment in online reviews Their results demonstrate the effectiveness of the model in obtaining a more accurate result of sentiment classification across different reviews Yang, Yan, Qiu, and Bao (2015) determined to use purely review text and employ two interpretable semantic features to compare with other researcher‟s method of using out layer task (non-text like the system of star-rating) in order to predict review helpfulness In 2016, Hijbul, Woo-Jong, and SangKeun introduced a model of joint multi-gran topic sentiment for online reviews in the aspect of semantic

Besides, some research focused on analyzing the factors included in the review (such as emotions, numbers, etc.) that can influence the decision of the viewer and make them assess the review as helpful This issue was

investigated in several studies, such as “How do expressed emotions affect the

helpfulness of a product review? Evidence from reviews using latent semantic analysis” by Ahmad and Laroche (2015), “How online consumer reviews are influenced by the language and valence of prior reviews: A construal level perspective” by Goele, Tim, and Verlegh (2017), and “The impact of language style on consumers′ reactions to online reviews” by Laurie, Han,

Alei, and Anna (2017)

The study of product reviews or online reviews which are from the simple to the in-depth, has been a trend of linguists for the past two decades Although researchers have studied the linguistic features and semantic analysis in English reviews for a while, they mostly aim to identify and predict the usefulness of the reviews However, those studies use data from consumer feedback, through their writing short comments, a star rating

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system, etc to conduct the research The author found that the study of lexical features and semantic functions in camera reviews from the professional perspective has not yet been mentioned probably Therefore, he had decided

to carry out the investigation of those features in English reviews of the latest high-end cameras and he hoped this study, to some extent, can contribute some knowledge to the wider field of online reviews

2.5 SUMMARY

Up to this point, the author has reviewed some relevant studies of online product reviews, review helpfulness predicting, and guiding theoretical aspects concerning lexical features (e.g: open-close class words) and semantic functions (language functions in relation with semantic and pragmatic function) in English reviews In the following chapter, the research methodology is discussed

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CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter targets at describing the data of the study, from its collection to analysis The chapter starts with the method introduction of the research approaches and some methods employed in the study Next, data collections are introduced with the sources, samples and the data-gathering process Then, data analysis is presented with the theoretical framework of the study Finally, reliability and validity are presented

3.1 RESEARCH DESIGN

The study is aimed at exposing the linguistic features in English camera reviews of the latest high-end cameras to find out their lexical features and

semantic functions To achieve the goals, the quantitative and qualitative

approaches were used in the research

The qualitative approach helped the work to figure out what kinds of

lexical features and semantic functions are employed in English camera reviews

The quantitative approach gave statistics of the components in lexical

features and semantic functions in order to summarize the frequency in each feature and function

3.2 RESEARCH METHODS

In attempting to reach the goal of the study, several methods such as

the descriptive, analytic, and synthetic method were combined:

- The analytic method was used to classify and justify certain lexical

features and semantic functions in English camera reviews

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- The descriptive method was used in the investigation of data to

describe the characteristics of the lexical features and semantic functions in English camera reviews

- The synthetic method was adopted to synthesize the findings and draw

out conclusions in the end of study process

3.3 DATA COLLECTION

The work focuses on the English reviews of the latest high-end cameras The data samples were the videos taken from Youtube to have the high value videos of latest camera reviews The reason for choosing this platform was that it was the largest online video sharing community at the time being It also was one of the biggest platform involving a huge of English speaking community

Due to the extremely huge scale and various approaches from many reviewers, the researcher had to limit the number of reviews to conduct the study to typical reviews In remaining the accuracy and reliability of the data, some criteria were proposed:

- Products: The reviews had to be the camera released from 2018 The product came from the top best-selling companies and took a place at the top

of the line, as the high-end level Canon, Nikon, Sony, Fujifilm, and Panasonic have been the group of 5 biggest leading manufactures in the camera market over the years

- The reviewers: could be one person or a team that had not been sponsored by any manufactures so that they would not give the inequality information or biased opinions They also had the positive reputation of reviewing cameras, and experience in camera testing, being a professional in the field

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- Video length: The length of the video varied from 5 to 15 minutes, so that the sample could be concise and avoid unnecessary details; in addition, the views number had to be higher than 100.000 to prove the highest reliability of the camera review

With the criteria mentioned above, the data was collected in December

2019 and summarized in Table 3.1 to present an overview of the data collection

Table 3.1: Data overview of English reviews for the latest high-end cameras on

Youtube Cameras

Bands

Canon EOS

Sony A7R4

Fujifilm X-H1

Panasonic S1R

Official Camera date release

Video date upload 16/09/2019 15/12/2018 04/10/2019 02/06/2018 07/06/2019

Reviewers Jared Polin DPReview Engadget

Tony &

Chelsea Northrup

Henry's Camera

Sample of Semantic functions

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Table 3.1 shows the overview of the collected data that fit the criteria

of the study The data sources were collected in spoken type and presented with the American-English and Canadian-English The collected data consisted of 2731 samples of lexical features and 399 samples of semantic functions

The data collection can be summary as the following procedures First,

5 videos of English reviews for the latest high-end cameras in 2019 were taken from Youtube in term of the professional reviewer‟s perspective The videos were transcribed into written form for the raw data preparation From the raw data, the author separated the open and closed class words, taking all words that related to describing camera as the lexical feature samples; while

in sematic features, all the utterance are treated as the samples Next, 2731 samples of lexical features and 399 samples of semantic functions were analyzed under the analytical frameworks to gain the frequency appearance as well as the prominent linguistic characteristic in English reviews of the latest high-end camera Acquired from the data analysis results, the author evinced the study report with findings and discussion

3.4 DATA ANALYSIS

3.4.1 Analytical frameworks

Based on the theoretical frameworks mentioned in Chapter 2, the author has synthesized and proposed the analytical frameworks for data analysis as follows:

The first analytical framework in the study was based on the

open-closed class system of Quirk and Greenbaum (1973) in analyzing the lexical

features of English camera reviews for the latest high-end cameras To focus

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on the lexical features, the study only concentrated on the open-class words,

which consisted of nouns, lexical verbs, adjectives, and adverbs, and leaving

the closed-class word uncheck Quirk and Greenbaum (1973) notice that some

of verbs and adverbs are the mixed between open-closed system which can be recognized as auxiliaries and adverbs of time, place, degree, and frequency However, the modal auxiliaries are used to describe the mood while the

adverbs of degree and frequency are used to denote the intensity of what

being said As such, the analytical framework presented the system of

open-class words with the extension of some special closed-open-class words, namely

the modal auxiliaries, and adverbs of degree and frequency

The Linguistic Category Model (LCM) originated by Semin and Fiedler (1991) is proposed as a conceptual framework of model psychological properties of the language by Krishnamoorthy (2015) The LCM model uses adjective, state verbs, and action verbs as the three broad linguistic categories which were also referred to constructing the analytical framework of this study Table 3.2 presents a description of LCM

Table 3.2: The Linguistic Category Model proposed by Semin and Fiedler

(1991) in the study of Krishnamoorthy (2015) Category Description

positive or negative connotation JAV (Interpretive Action

Verbs)

Presents multitude of actions that have the same meaning; have a positive or negative connotation DAV (Descriptive Action

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Table 3.3: Framework for analysis of lexical features in English camera reviews Word Types Specification Abbreviations

Nouns

functions as well as the primary goal of English camera reviews; therefore, they

were not included in the study The left-three language functions: informational,

expressive, directive were broken down into several functions and sub-functions

The modified analytical framework of semantic functions in English camera reviews in the current study is presented in Table 3.4

Table 3.4: Framework for analysis of semantic functions in English camera reviews Functions Sub-functions Meanings

Denoting Disappointment

Giving disappointment

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Functions Sub-functions Meanings

Others

3.4.2 Analytical methods

Methods including descriptive, analytic, and synthetic were used in combination for data analysis The descriptive was employed to describe the

prominent features of lexical and semantics functions of English camera

reviews, the analytic was applied to clarify and justify several types of lexical features and semantic functions of camera reviews; and the synthetic was

employed for helping the researcher to synthesize the results and present the conclusion of the study

3.5 RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY

In this work, the reliability and validity were stabilized from the stage

of the data collecting, through the theoretical reviewing, to the methodology approaching

As mentioned above, the study had proposed several strict criteria to collect the data The data was collected from Youtube, a well-known worldwide sharing video platform which can be uploaded by everyone; however, only high-end camera reviews which produced by professional reviewers and achieved a great number of views that were taken as the data for the study

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The study examines the basic English linguistic theories of famous linguists such as Quirk and Greenbaum (1973) in lexicology theory of open-closed system, and Leech (1983) in semantic theory of language functions In addition, previous studies related to product reviews were consulted to learn about the approaches and to apply to analyzing English camera reviews

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CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter presents the research findings with the elucidation and discussion toward the lexical features and semantic functions contained in English camera reviews for the latest high-end cameras The chapter contains two separate parts, with the first part dealing with the lexical features and the second concerning with the semantic functions They are both analyzed in detail with the support of tables and charts, along with the interpretations

4.1 LEXICAL FEATURES OF ENGLISH IN CAMERA REVIEWS

Based on the analytical framework for categorizing lexicology in the previous chapter, the result of the investigation in five camera reviews are realized and classified in five main groups, namely, nouns, lexical verbs, modal verbs, adjectives, and adverbs Each main group contains some components, each of which has its own function of describing or referring to things The overview of lexicology and its components in numbers and percentages contributing to camera reviews are presented in Table 4.1

Table 4.1: Distribution of lexicology in camera reviews

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Words Category Numb Per Numb Per

Adjectives

449 16.44%

Describing Characteristics and

Nouns 29.44%

Lexical Verbs 40.75%

Modal Verbs 5.13%

Adjectives 16.44%

Adverbs 8.24%

Graph 4.1: Percentages of lexicology in English camera reviews

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4.1.1 Nouns

In camera reviews, nouns are the most useful word group in making camera descriptions and comments Nouns of camera description can be identified through words that denoting the physical descriptions, non-physical descriptions, and judgments Graph 4.2 gives the percentages of three sub-nouns used in the English camera reviews

As shown in Graph 4.2, the noun group took 29.14% of all lexicology

in camera reviews and contain sub-nouns for denoting physical features, denoting nonphysical features, and denoting judgment Ranked in the first contribution of nouns is the group of nonphysical features with 14.54%, following up is physical feature nouns with 13.22%, and the last is judgment with 1.68%

4.1.1.1 Nouns denoting physical features

The nouns describing physical features in camera reviews are used for listing, naming, and describing the physical properties of the camera,

Physical Feature 13.22%

Nonphysical feature 14.54%

Judgment 1.68%

Others 70.56%

Graph 4.2: Percentage of sub-nouns in lexicology of English

camera reviews

Tiêu đề	Linguistic Features in English Reviews of the Latest High-End Cameras
Tác giả	Hà Bảo Toàn
Người hướng dẫn	Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyễn Quang Ngoản
Trường học	Quy Nhơn University
Chuyên ngành	English Linguistics
Thể loại	Thesis
Năm xuất bản	2020
Thành phố	Quy Nhơn

Định dạng
Số trang	118
Dung lượng	0,98 MB