Masterclass 1

Stratford Grammar School for GirlsJuly 6th, 2010

A Brief Introduction to

Corpus Linguistics

Corpus Linguistics - definition• the study of language use in a collection or ‘corpus’ of texts which is stored and accessed electronically• written text or spoken language in transcription• purpose is to study naturally occurring language produced by one or many writers or speakers• more informative than consulting one’s own intuition, or asking people what they do• ‘quantitative’ – counts show which words and features are common/ typical, and which are rare• used as basis for decisions and descriptions by linguists, teachers, learners, lexicographers, translators (e.g. Collins Cobuild Dictionary)

Precursor to modern-day electronic corpora

1959 - Survey of English Usage (SEU) - UCL, London- 200 text samples, 5,000 wds- speech and writing- stored on cards- in chests of drawers

Some modern-day corporasmall, finite, static corpora

1961 - Brown corpus; 1 mill. words 1961 1967 - LOB corpus; 1 mill. words 1961 1961 - Brown ‘family’ 1 mill. words 1931-1991 1975 - London /Lund corpus (100 sp. samples) ½ mill.

words

large, finite, static corpora 1991 British National Corpus (BNC) 100 million words 1986 Bank of English 450 million words

modern, chronological, open-ended corpora 1989 - RDUES news corpus 1 bill. words 1984-

ongoing 2006 - WebCorpLSE – ‘mini-web' 12 bill. words

ongoing 2008 - Corpus Contemp. Am. Engl. (COCA) 400m wds

1990-ongoing

……the sky is the limit

Corpus; pl. corpora - definition

A corpus is a collection of texts, written or spoken, built to answer a question about language in use.i.this could be:

“what was the language of Dickens like?” and the corpus consists of all known works of Dickensii. or the other extreme:

“what is the language of today like?”and the corpus ‘represents’ ‘the language’ in use today • of course, this is impossible in the strict sense• the normal compromise is to select texts from wide range of text types • or take a single, varied text type like UK journalism

Concordance - definition

• term introduced in 1244 by first concordancer - Hugues, de Saint-Cher

• a concordance was an index of some or all of the words in a manuscript/collection of manuscripts

• words might also be extracted within their contexts; with definitions or annotations; cross-referencing to their locations in the original text(s) or to topic headings

• purpose: to aid devotional, and later, literary study

Evolution of ‘concordances’

1. as general research resources

• 1230 –index to the Vulgate Bible;

by Hugues, de Saint-Cher + 500 fellow-Dominicans printed 1470

• 1790 – Shakespeare index by Samuel Ayscough

• 1845 – full Shakespeareconcordanceby Mary Cowden Clarke →

Cowden Clarke concordances

The complete concordance to Shakspere: being a verbal index to all the passages in the dramatic works of the poet by Mary Cowden Clarke, compiled 1809-1898.

Evolution of concordances

2. as aid in dictionary preparation

• back to 1755 - Samuel Johnson’s archive of 15,000 illustrative citations on slips of paper, for 40,000 head words

• 1879- 1928 - Oxford English Dictionary 447, 000 word forms, 2.4 mill. quotationsby James A. H. Murray

Modern-day concordances/concordance lines - definition

• nowadays, a full concordance is a set of all the instances of every single word in the corpus, extracted with their contexts

• words, sub-words and phrases can be the object of study

• the concordance lines (or informally, concordances) for a word are presented as a series of single-line extracts, with the node word situated centrally

Concordance with node word centrally placed

speak to her, and do a sad face, to show I feel her

did nothing to intervene. What a sad waste of a young life. What

in Las Vegas tomorrow night. How sad does it get? These are two

contract is illegal and irrelevant. The

sadreality is that a proud Premiership

measured, and it would be rather sad if we didn't take some pride

again soon and that is very sad . "His aim was to play in

myself finally moved by this desperately

sadfilm and by the performances of

a concordance; concordance lines

• but the accompanying context can also be longer - sentence or paragraph length,

• with the node word falling where it may

Sentence-length concordance lines

And I put my head to the side when I speak to her, and do a sad face, to show I feel her pain.

What a sad waste of a young life.

How sad does it get? The sad reality is that a proud Premiership club has brought our game into disrepute. Greenwich mean time is the standard by which time in the rest of the world is measured, and it would be rather sad if we didn't take some pride in that.

He is unlikely to be playing again soon and that is very sad. "

I don't know but found myself finally moved by this desperately sad film and by the performances of Rowan McNamara and Marissa Gibson as the lovers themselves.

Ordering of concordance lines

• concordance lines are ordered in different ways

• usually alphabetical• usually by first word to the right/left of the

node word• ordering is important because it helps to

find patterns of meaning for the node word

Concordance lines ordered to left

confirm that it's the most beautiful

creature ever to inhabit this earth. It's

satisfaction of having helped a fellow

creature at the risk of your own

1940 s, Berry spotted "a gorgeous

creature who was a librarian. We got

to be thought a cold, heartless creature, but unless you survive, you can't

a selkie, a legendary creature that's a seal in the water Darko might be right, every

living creature on earth dies alone but we

on the horizon, grilling any living

creaturein the immediate vicinity that couldn't

is apparently a "selkie", a mythical

creaturefrom the seas, whose singing charms

fun. David Willetts is a rare creature. Britain does not produce many public

A good risotto is a rare creature, and this was very good indeed

the distance a huge dinosaur type

creature grazed. I don't think I'd be

had to pick which furry woodland

creature to sport, it's a toss up

Concordance lines ordered to right

used to a high level of creatur

ecomforts, and money sloshing around

the landscape. There are all the

creature

comforts you'd expect, yet it has

him like an alien, like a creatur

efrom outer space, so he became

from this year's Coraline is a creatur

efrom your worst nightmares. But earlier

expected." Are you a creatur

eof habit? If not,

Pizza Express. I'm a creatur

eof habit, me, and

this predatory choice. You become a

creature

of the night, unable to stand

artist of the decade. Entirely a creatur

eof the noughties, she arrived

happy to be compared to a creatur

eon the verge of extinction. Serious

collocation, collocate (n/v) -definition

• the words to the left and right of the node word in a text are its ‘collocates’ – they ‘co-locate’ with it.

• why do we study words in context, with their collocates?

sole

•a living from catching sole and other fish in the channel •species like cod, haddock, sole, plaice , shrimps and langoustines•I tried to get a large unfilleted sole to come apart on the plate •oysters, followed by roast dover sole with cherry tomatoes

sole

•investigators believe he may be the sole survivor from the crash•I accept sole responsibility for the military action in Cyprus •although their sole aim is to live in Israel •officers whose sole aim was the harassment of black youth•businesses run by sole traders, partnerships, and companies

sole

•It's a Tudor leather shoe sole . Look at that tiny instep •detonate explosives hidden in the hollowed-out sole of his shoe•more chunky, yet the heavy sole and heel flatter the leg•the shoes I'm wearing have been repaired, heel and sole.•Heel pain is a soreness or tenderness on the sole of your foot.

sole

• a living from catching sole and other fish in the channel • species like cod, haddock, sole, plaice , shrimps and langoustines• I tried to get a large unfilleted sole to come apart on the plate • oysters, followed by roast dover sole with cherry tomatoes---

• investigators believe he may be the sole survivor from the crash• I accept sole responsibility for the military action in Cyprus • are a part. Although their sole aim is to live in Israel, • officers whose sole aim was the harassment of black youth• businesses run by sole traders, partnerships, and companies---

• It's a Tudor leather shoe sole . Look at that tiny instep • detonate explosives hidden in the hollowed-out sole of his shoe• more chunky, yet the heavy sole and heel flatter the leg• the shoes I'm wearing have been repaired, heel and sole• Heel pain is a soreness or tenderness on the sole of your foot

sole

• a living from catching sole and other fish in the channel • species like cod, haddock, sole, plaice , shrimps and langoustines• I tried to get a large unfilleted sole to come apart on the plate • oysters, followed by roast dover sole with cherry tomatoes---

• investigators believe he may be the sole survivor from the crash• I accept sole responsibility for the military action in Cyprus • are a part. Although their sole aim is to live in Israel, • officers whose sole aim was the harassment of black youth• businesses run by sole traders, partnerships, and companies.---

• It's a Tudor leather shoe sole . Look at that tiny instep • detonate explosives hidden in the hollowed-out sole of his shoe• more chunky, yet the heavy sole and heel flatter the leg• the shoes I'm wearing have been repaired, heel and sole• Heel pain is a soreness or tenderness on the sole of your foot

sole

collocation, collocate (n/v)

so in corpus linguistics, we look at words together with their collocates

- because the collocates help us to find the sensesand uses of the word

collocational span - definition

‘immediate –neighbour’ collocates have the strongest and most important relationship with the node word (they often form a compound)

• pastimes like stamp collecting and writing poetry

the order is not always fixed, and they can also be separated:

•like all children in those days, I collected stamps•Sir Graham Day is a collector. Not stamps but chairmanships.•Pupils at several schools collect and swap stamps

so we may look at the node word in a span of 1 or more words to left and right, depending on the kind of word

What is the missing word? Which clues tell you?

08/10/88 elderly couples tend ______ vegetable gardens. The farmers

02/06/90 whole building looks in ______ condition. In the Chapel,16/03/91 decorated bedrooms, with an ______ garden with a swimming pool

15/09/91 a gleaming building amid ______ lawns and flower beds22/09/92 no woman to launder the ______ jeans and shirt he is wearing 22/08/93 charmless perfection. The ______ gardens and leafy cul-de-sacs24/06/95 As dew glistened on the ______ lawn of the residence27/09/96 to which he replied in his ______ italic handwriting30/09/97 the house next door was in ______ condition, Mr Bowes did no26/09/97 Mrs Thatcher, because their ______ coiffeurs were their power14/10/99 maintain his croquet lawn in ______ condition. Mr Farmer, 18/05/99 suggest that his was an ______ conception and a virgin birth08/05/99 Both women looked ______ in designer tennis dresses22/08/99 in her tan trouser suit, with ______ nails and shiny blonde hair 03/08/99 lounger in the garden of his ______ bungalow, sipping tea

What is the missing word? Which clues tell you?

08/10/88 elderly couples tend ______ vegetable gardens. The farmers

02/06/90 whole building looks in ______ condition. In the Chapel,16/03/91 decorated bedrooms, with an ______ garden with a swimming

pool 15/09/91 a gleaming building amid ______ lawns and flower beds22/09/92 no woman to launder the ______ jeans and shirt he is wearing 22/08/93 charmless perfection. The ______ gardens and leafy cul-de-sacs24/06/95 As dew glistened on the ______ lawn of the residence27/09/96 to which he replied in his ______ italic handwriting30/09/97 the house next door was in ______ condition, Mr Bowes did no26/09/97 Mrs Thatcher, because their ______ coiffeurs were their power14/10/99 maintain his croquet lawn in ______ condition. Mr Farmer, 18/05/99 suggest that his was an ______ conception and a virgin birth08/05/99 Both women looked ______ in designer tennis dresses22/08/99 in her tan trouser suit, with ______ nails and shiny blonde hair 03/08/99 lounger in the garden of his ______ bungalow, sipping tea

What is the missing word? Which clues tell you?

08/10/88 elderly couples tend ______ vegetable gardens. The farmers

02/06/90 whole building looks in ______ condition. In the Chapel,16/03/91 decorated bedrooms, with an ______ garden with a swimming pool

15/09/91 a gleaming building amid ______ lawns and flower beds22/09/92 no woman to launder the ______ jeans and shirt he is wearing 22/08/93 charmless perfection. The ______ gardens and leafy cul-de-sacs24/06/95 As dew glistened on the ______ lawn of the residence27/09/96 to which he replied in his ______ italic handwriting30/09/97 the house next door was in ______ condition, Mr Bowes did no26/09/97 Mrs Thatcher, because their ______ coiffeurs were their power14/10/99 maintain his croquet lawn in ______ condition. MrFarmer, 18/05/99 suggest that his was an ______ conception and a virgin

birth08/05/99 Both women looked ______ in designer tennis dresses22/08/99 in her tan trouser suit, with ______ nails and shiny blonde hair 03/08/99 lounger in the garden of his ______ bungalow, sipping tea