Jarle Ebeling

• Čermáková, Anna; Ebeling, Signe Oksefjell & Ebeling, Jarle (2023). ‘Be’ Verbs in a Contrastive Perspective: The Case of BÝT, BE and VÆRE. Nordic Journal of English Studies (NJES). ISSN 1502-7694. 22(2), p. 27–58. doi: 10.35360/njes.729. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This paper reports on a cross-linguistic study of ‘be’ verbs in Czech, English and Norwegian, viz. být, be and være, drawing on data from the fiction part of the International Comparable Corpus (Čermáková et al. 2021). The study identifies two main uses of ‘be’ verbs: auxiliary and linking, plus an ‘other’ category which includes minor (often) language-specific uses. The study reveals marked proportional differences in how the three languages exploit the grammatical and functional potential of their respective ‘be’ verbs, notably there is a marked preference for linking uses in English and Norwegian and a more even distribution between auxiliary and linking uses in Czech. In a case study of the linking use, the languages are shown to behave similarly, but with some minor differences regarding choice of adjective to describe fictional subjects. The methodology highlights the importance of a carefully crafted tertium comparationis at several levels, not only in relation to datasets and linguistic phenomena investigated, but also as regards terminology and grammatical traditions of description for the languages compared.

• Ebeling, Signe Oksefjell & Ebeling, Jarle (2020). Contrastive Analysis, Tertium Comparationis and Corpora. Nordic Journal of English Studies (NJES). ISSN 1502-7694. 19, p. 97–117. doi: 10.35360/njes.514. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This paper highlights the importance of a common ground, or tertium comparationis, in order to establish unbiased cross-linguistic equivalence in contrastive studies. Following an outline of the two main types of corpora used in contrastive analysis—comparable and parallel bidirectional—a discussion of how they relate to different tertia comparationis is presented. This is further illustrated in a case study where the same phenomenon is investigated based on the two types of corpora. It is concluded that a bidirectional parallel corpus, relying on both comparable monolingual and bidirectional translation data, may yield more robust insights into cross-linguistic matters than either of the two on their own.

• Ebeling, Signe Oksefjell & Ebeling, Jarle (2020). Dialogue vs. Narrative in fiction: A cross-linguistic comparison. Languages in Contrast: International Journal for Contrastive Linguistics. ISSN 1387-6759. 20(2), p. 288–313. doi: 10.1075/lic.00019.oks. Full text in Research Archive
• Ebeling, Jarle & Ebeling, Signe Oksefjell (2018). Comparing n-gram-based functional categories in original versus translated texts. Corpora. ISSN 1749-5032. 13(3), p. 347–370. doi: 10.3366/cor.2018.0153. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This study outlines and tests a method for comparing the use of functional categories consisting of high-frequency 3-grams in original and translated texts. The 3-grams are extracted from a corpus of contemporary English fiction texts (EO) and a comparable corpus of fiction texts translated into English from Norwegian (ET). The two varieties contain the same number of texts, thirty-nine, and about the same number of words, 1.3 to 1.4 million. Several different baselines against which to normalise the 3-gram frequencies are tested and a way of evening out the initial differences between the token counts of EO and ET is proposed. These last two points have an impact on the extent to which some of the categories differ statistically. On the basis of the comparison of the token counts of the 3-grams extracted for the study, it seems that most differences are a matter of degree, rather than being systemic at the level of the functions investigated.

• Ebeling, Signe Oksefjell & Ebeling, Jarle (2017). A functional comparison of recurrent word-combinations in English original vs. translated texts. ICAME Journal. ISSN 0801-5775. 41, p. 31–52. doi: 10.1515/icame-2017-0002. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The study explores the potential of quantitative methods to shed light on how texts originally written in English (EO) and texts translated into English (ET) from Norwegian cluster in terms of functional classes. The object of study are sequences of three words (3-grams), classified into 15 functional categories. The investigation establishes that EO and ET do not differ significantly in half of the categories. As for the categories that do differ, two (Comparison and Spatial) are investigated in more detail, uncovering that the more frequent use of Comparison and Spatial 3-grams in ET is most likely a result of source language shining through. The findings are important in the context of both descriptive translation studies and translation-based contrastive studies. With regard to the former, the current study shows that, in many cases, ET does not seem to constitute a ‘third code’ at the level of 3-gram functions, since the same functions are equally attested in EO. As far as contrastive studies are concerned, the investigation reveals few, if any, lexico-grammatical differences between EO and ET that overturn the belief that translations are a good tertium comparationis when comparing and contrasting language systems.

• Ebeling, Signe Oksefjell & Ebeling, Jarle (2017). A Cross-linguistic Comparison of Recurrent Word Combinations in a Comparable Corpus of English and Norwegian Fiction. In Janebová, Marketá; Lapshinova-Koltunski, Ekaterina & Martinková, Michaela (Ed.), Contrasting English and Other Languages through Corpora. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. ISSN 9781443896016. p. 2–31. doi: 10.1515/icame-2017-0002. Full text in Research Archive
• Ebeling, Jarle & Ebeling, Signe Oksefjell (2015). An English-Norwegian contrastive analysis of downtoners, more or less. Nordic Journal of English Studies (NJES). ISSN 1502-7694. 14(1), p. 62–89. doi: 10.35360/njes.340. Full text in Research Archive
• Ebeling, Signe Oksefjell & Ebeling, Jarle (2014). For Pete's sake!: A corpus-based contrastive study of the English/Norwegian patterns "for * sake" /" for * skyld". Languages in Contrast: International Journal for Contrastive Linguistics. ISSN 1387-6759. 14(2), p. 191–213. doi: 10.1075/lic.14.2.02ebe. Full text in Research Archive
• Ebeling, Jarle & Ebeling, Signe Oksefjell (2013). "To find oneself a partner" vs. "to find a partner": A contrastive analysis of the patterns V REFL NPindef and V NPindef in English and Norwegian. Languages in Contrast: International Journal for Contrastive Linguistics. ISSN 1387-6759. 13(2), p. 212–237. Full text in Research Archive
• Hasselgård, Hilde; Ebeling, Jarle & Ebeling, Signe Oksefjell (2013). Introduction. In Hasselgård, Hilde; Ebeling, Jarle & Ebeling, Signe Oksefjell (Ed.), Corpus Perspectives on Patterns of Lexis. John Benjamins Publishing Company. ISSN 9789027203632. p. 1–9. Full text in Research Archive
• Ebeling, Signe Oksefjell & Ebeling, Jarle (2013). From Babylon to Bergen: On the usefulness of aligned texts. Bergen Language and Linguistics Studies (BeLLS). 3(1), p. 23–42. doi: 10.15845/bells.v3i1.359. Full text in Research Archive
• Ebeling, Jarle; Ebeling, Signe Oksefjell & Hasselgård, Hilde (2013). Using recurrent word-combinations to explore cross-linguistic differences. In Aijmer, Karin & Altenberg, Bengt (Ed.), Advances in Corpus-based Contrastive Linguistics: Studies in honour of Stig Johansson. John Benjamins Publishing Company. ISSN 9789027203595. p. 177–199. doi: 10.1075/scl.54.11ebe. Full text in Research Archive
• Ebeling, Signe Oksefjell; Ebeling, Jarle & Hasselgård, Hilde (2012). Aspects of corpus linguistics: compilation, annotation, analysis - Introduction. Studies in Variation, Contacts and Change in English. 12. Full text in Research Archive

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• Ebeling, Jarle (2024). 120 years of reporting clauses. Stability or change? John Benjamins Publishing Company. ISBN 9789027215949. 24 p. doi: 10.1075/scl.119.05ebe. Full text in Research Archive
• Ebeling, Jarle & Ebeling, Signe Oksefjell (2013). Patterns in Contrast. John Benjamins Publishing Company. ISBN 9789027203649. 257 p. Full text in Research Archive
• Hasselgård, Hilde; Ebeling, Jarle & Ebeling, Signe Oksefjell (2013). Corpus Perspectives on Patterns of Lexis. John Benjamins Publishing Company. ISBN 9789027203632. 291 p. Full text in Research Archive

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• Ebeling, Jarle & Ebeling, Signe Oksefjell (2025). From star (N) to star (V): A contrastive study of cognate noun/verb pairs in English and Norwegian. Full text in Research Archive
• Kupietz, Marc; Barbaresi, Adrien; Čermáková, Anna; Czachor, Małgorzata; Diewald, Nils & Ebeling, Jarle [Show all 19 contributors for this article] (2023). News from the International Comparable Corpus: First launch of ICC written. Full text in Research Archive
• Čermáková, Anna; Ebeling, Jarle & Ebeling, Signe Oksefjell (2021). BE verbs in a contrastive perspective: The case of BÝT, BE and VÆRE. Full text in Research Archive
• Ebeling, Signe Oksefjell & Ebeling, Jarle (2019). Contrastive Analysis, Tertium comparationis, and Corpora. Full text in Research Archive
• Kirk, John M.; Čermáková, Anna; Ebeling, Signe Oksefjell; Ebeling, Jarle; Křen, Michal & Aijmer, Karin [Show all 14 contributors for this article] (2018). Introducing the International Comparable Corpus. Full text in Research Archive
• Ebeling, Signe Oksefjell & Ebeling, Jarle (2018). Dialogue vs. narrative in fiction: A cross-linguistic comparison. Full text in Research Archive
• Ebeling, Signe Oksefjell & Ebeling, Jarle (2018). Corpora for contrastive research. Full text in Research Archive
• Ebeling, Jarle & Ebeling, Signe Oksefjell (2018). What can a diachronic corpus of modern British fiction tell us about changes in (British) society? Full text in Research Archive
• Ebeling, Jarle (2016). Contrastive linguistics in a new key. Nordic Journal of English Studies (NJES). ISSN 1502-7694. 15(3), p. 7–14. Full text in Research Archive
• Ebeling, Signe Oksefjell & Ebeling, Jarle (2016). A functional comparison of recurrent word-combinations in English original vs. translated texts. Full text in Research Archive
• Ebeling, Signe Oksefjell & Ebeling, Jarle (2013). "For Pete's sake!" A corpus-based contrastive study of the English/Norwegian patterns "for * sake/skyld". Full text in Research Archive
• Ebeling, Signe Oksefjell & Ebeling, Jarle (2012). Why did she build herself a house when she could simply have built a house? - A contrastive analysis of the patterns V REFL NPindef and V NPindef in English vs. Norwegian. Full text in Research Archive
• Ebeling, Signe Oksefjell & Ebeling, Jarle (2012). Patterns in contrast. Full text in Research Archive
• Ebeling, Jarle; Ebeling, Signe Oksefjell & Hasselgård, Hilde (2011). Using recurrent word-combinations to explore cross-linguistic differences. Full text in Research Archive

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