English Corpus Linguistics: An Introduction (Studies in English Language)

Cover......Page 1
Half-title......Page 3
Series-title......Page 4
Title......Page 7
Copyright......Page 8
Dedication......Page 9
Contents......Page 11
Preface......Page 13
1 Corpus analysis and linguistic theory......Page 19
1.1 Linguistic theory and description......Page 20
1.2 Corpora in functional descriptions of language......Page 23
1.3.1 Grammatical studies of specific linguistic constructions......Page 29
1.3.2 Reference grammars......Page 31
1.3.3 Lexicography......Page 32
1.3.4 Language variation......Page 35
1.3.5 Historical linguistics......Page 38
1.3.6 Contrastive analysis and translation theory......Page 40
1.3.7 Natural language processing......Page 42
1.3.8 Language acquisition......Page 44
1.3.9 Language pedagogy......Page 45
Study questions......Page 46
2.1 The British National Corpus......Page 48
2.2 The overall length of a corpus......Page 50
2.3 The types of genres to include in a corpus......Page 52
2.4 The length of individual text samples to be included in a corpus......Page 56
2.5 Determining the number of texts and range of speakers and writers to include in a corpus......Page 58
2.6 The time-frame for selecting speakers and texts......Page 63
2.7 Sampling native vs. non-native speakers of English......Page 64
2.8.1 Gender balance......Page 66
2.8.2 Age......Page 67
2.8.3 Level of education......Page 68
2.8.4 Dialect variation......Page 69
2.8.5 Social contexts and social relationships......Page 70
Study questions......Page 71
3.1 General considerations......Page 73
3.2 Collecting samples of speech......Page 74
3.3 Collecting samples of writing......Page 79
3.4 Keeping records of texts gathered......Page 82
3.5 Computerizing data......Page 84
3.6 Computerizing speech......Page 87
3.6.1.1 Vocalized pauses and other lexicalized expressions......Page 90
3.6.1.3 Partially uttered words and repetitions......Page 91
3.6.1.5 Punctuation......Page 92
3.6.2 Iconicity and speech transcription......Page 93
3.7 Computerizing written texts......Page 96
Study questions......Page 98
4 Annotating a corpus......Page 99
4.1 Structural markup......Page 100
4.2 Tagging a corpus......Page 104
4.3 Parsing a corpus......Page 109
4.4.3 Problem-oriented tagging......Page 115
4.5 Conclusions......Page 116
Study questions......Page 117
5 Analyzing a corpus......Page 118
5.1 The pseudo-title in English: framing a research question......Page 119
5.2 Determining whether a corpus is suitable for answering a particular research question......Page 121
5.3.1 Defining the parameters of a corpus analysis......Page 125
5.3.2 Coding and recording grammatical information......Page 127
5.3.3 Locating relevant constructions for a particular corpus analysis......Page 132
5.4 Subjecting the results of a corpus study to statistical analysis......Page 137
5.4.1 Judging the suitability of a corpus for statistical analysis and determining the appropriate statistical tests to apply......Page 139
5.5.1 Exploring a corpus......Page 141
5.5.2 Using quantitative information to support qualitative statements......Page 143
5.6 Conclusions......Page 154
Study questions......Page 155
6 Future prospects in corpus linguistics......Page 156
Appendix 1 Corpus resources......Page 160
PC/Macintosh-based programs......Page 169
Web-based programs......Page 170
References......Page 171
Index......Page 180