美國專利書「獨立項數」之搭配詞初探: 以LexisNexis 法律資料庫為例 (Collocation Features of Independent Claim in U.S. Patent Documents: Information Retrieval from LexisNexis)

The present study examines English patent documents extracted from LexisNexis. We compiled a reference corpus of independent claim texts and lay the focus specifically on their collocation features. The findings suggest the functional development of independent claim involves verb-noun collocation and semantic prosody. Verb-noun collocations happen to function as semantic trigger affected by semantic prosody. In particular, clausal nominalization ([13]) is observed in that of verbal clauses. Based on discourse thematic referentiality ([2]), independent claim entails how clausal-specific units constructed the patent setting. The result is significant because discourse thematic referentiality which addresses how lexical units build up modern patent language providing empirical evidence for the overall characterization of independent claim. Besides, rhetorical structure and lexical meaning of independent claim can be derived from components of clausal types as they occur collocationally, referentially and dependently. Mutual information is attainable with the help of selectional collocation features that specific clausal types represented in natural language processing of modern patent language. It is suggested that the development of independent claim as a primer for Patent English.