An analysis of register variances between China and the US in international communications

Figures & data

Table 1. Names of dimensions.

Dimension
Dimension 1: Involved versus informational production
Dimension 2: Narrative versus non-narrative concerns
Dimension 3: Explicit versus situation-dependent reference
Dimension 4: Overt expression of persuasion
Dimension 5: Abstract versus non-abstract information
Dimension 6: Online informational elaboration
Dimension 7: Academic hedging

Table 2. Composition of corpora.

Name	Language	Size	Number of texts	Content source
CIICC	English	92,640	30	China Government Network
COICC	Chinese	134,320	30	China Government Network
CWHPC	English	147,483	50	White House Official Website

Table 3. t-Test for dimensional differences between CIICC and CWHPC.

Dimension	CIICC	CWHOC	t	df	Sig	MAD
Dimension 1: involved versus. informational production	−18.56	1.49	−1.053	78	0.000	1.995
Dimension 2: narrative versus non-narrative concerns	−2.99	−2.25	−1.930	78	0.057	0.381
Dimension 3: explicit versus situation dependent reference	13.43	2.64	14.070	78	0.000	0.766
Dimension 4: overt expression of persuasion	2.98	1.07	3.246	78	0.002	0.586
Dimension 5: abstract versus non-abstract information	−0.48	−0.88	1.130	78	0.262	0.359
Dimension 6: online information elaboration organization at the moment	−1.56	0.32	−6.434	78	0.000	0.292

Table 4. Linguistic features with significant differences in dimension 1.

Individual features	Code	CIICC	CWHPC	Sig	MAD
Independent clause coordination	ANDC	−0.559	−0.275	0.000	0.284
Average word length	AWL	2.109	0.354	0.000	1.755
Be as main verb	BEMA	−1.951	−1.279	0.000	0.672
Contraction	CONT	−0.701	0.312	0.000	1.014
Demonstrative pronouns	DEMP	−0.441	0.883	0.000	1.324
Discourse particles	DPAR	−0.484	−0.019	0.000	0.465
Emphatics	EMPH	−0.407	0.633	0.000	1.040
First person pronouns	FPP1	0.017	0.710	0.000	0.693
Attributive adjectives	JJ	2.645	−0.246	0.000	2.891
Possibility modals	POMD	−1.030	−0.469	0.000	0.561
Private verb	PRIV	−1.019	−0.239	0.000	0.780
Pro-verb do	PROD	−0.684	−0.128	0.000	0.556
Second person pronouns	SPP2	−0.545	0.369	0.000	0.914
Stranded preposition	STPR	−0.652	−0.232	0.000	0.420
Subordinator that deletion	THATD	−0.616	−0.110	0.000	0.506
Type-token ratio	TTR	0.812	−.097	0.000	0.909
Present tense	VPRT	−1.103	−0.370	0.000	0.733
WH-clauses	WHCL	−0.540	0.304	0.000	0.844
Analytic negation	XX0	−1.059	−0.530	0.000	0.529
Causative adverbial subordinators	CAUS	−0.561	0.291	0.001	0.852
Pronoun it	PIT	−0.611	−0.032	0.001	0.580
Present participial WHIZ deletion relatives	WZPRES	0.592	−0.004	0.001	0.596
Total prepositional phrases	PIN	−0.131	−0.491	0.002	0.360

Table 5. Linguistic features with significant differences in dimension 3.

Individual features	Code	CIICC	CWHPC	Sig	MAD
Phrasal coordination	PHC	8.368	1.985	0.000	6.383
Nominalization	NOMZ	3.246	0.830	0.000	2.416
Total adverbs	RB	−2.447	−1.683	0.000	0.764
Time adverbials	TIME	−0.923	0.440	0.000	1.363
WH relative clauses on subject position	WHSUB	−0.868	−0.384	0.000	0.484
Place adverbials	PLACE	−0.128	0.302	0.001	0.430
WH relative clauses on object position	WHOBJ	−0.814	−0.726	0.011	0.089

Table 6. Linguistic features with significant differences in dimension 4.

Individual features	Code	CIICC	CWHPC	Sig	MAD
Necessity modals	NEMD	1.765	−0.460	0.000	2.225
Conditional adverbial subordinators	COND	−0.964	−0.379	0.000	0.585
Infinitives	TO	1.375	2.117	0.005	0.742
Split auxiliaries	SPAU	−0.453	−0.860	0.013	0.407
Predictive modals	PRMD	1.166	0.534	0.028	0.633

Table 7. Linguistic features with significant differences in dimension 6.

Individual features	Code	CIICC	CWHPC	Sig	MAD
Demonstratives	DEMO	−0.977	0.592	0.000	1.569
That relative clauses on object position	TOBJ	−0.380	1.087	0.000	1.467
That relative clauses on subject position	TSUB	0.567	2.551	0.000	1.983
That verb complements	THVC	−0.581	−0.270	0.028	0.311

Figure 1. Corpus dimension scores.

Figure 2. Comparison of the proportion of four individual linguistic features.

Table 8. Kruskal–Wallis test for four individual features.

Individual features	Mean	SD	F	Sig
Adjective	8.024	2.724	H = 82.194	0.000
Preposition	8.269	3.291	H = 69.633	0.000
First person pronoun	3.223	1.812	H = 66.757	0.000
Second person pronoun	0.759	0.954	H = 65.346	0.000

Table 9. Mann–Whitney U test for four individual linguistic features.

Individual Features	Corpus	Mean rank	Z	Sig
Adjective	COICC vs. CIICC	20.42 vs.40.57	−4.465	0.000
	CIICC vs. CWHPC	65.50 vs.25.50	−7.454	0.000
	COICC vs. CWHPC	63.60 vs.26.64	−6.887	0.000
Preposition	COICC vs. CIICC	15.50 vs.45.50	−6.653	0.000
	CIICC vs. CWHPC	50.55 vs.34.47	−2.997	0.003
	COICC vs. CWHPC	15.50 vs.55.50	−7.454	0.000
First person Pronoun	COICC vs. CIICC	18.48 vs.42.52	−5.204	0.000
	CIICC vs. CWHPC	22.67 vs.51.20	−5.527	0.000
	COICC vs. CWHPC	17.33 vs.54.40	−6.907	0.000
Second person Pronoun	COICC vs. CIICC	18.77 vs.42.23	−5.432	0.000
	CIICC vs. CWHPC	21.97 vs.51.62	−5.341	0.000
	COICC vs. CWHPC	18.43 vs.53.74	−6.659	0.000