Download Corpus Linguistics

Uses of a Corpus


“[E]xplore actual patterns of language
use”
Develop “materials for classroom
language instruction”
Reppen, Randi & Rita Simpson. 2010. Corpus Linguistics. In Norbert Schmitt, editor,
Chapter 6, pp. 89-105. An Introduction to Applied Linguistics, 2nd edition, pp. 53-69.
London: Hodder Education, p. 89.
Characteristics of
a Good Corpus










large
systematically assembled
principled
collection
of natural texts
often available to other researchers
spoken and/or written language
usually in electronic form
can be tagged
for use with text manipulation programs
Reppen, Randi & Rita Simpson. 2010. Corpus Linguistics. In Norbert Schmitt, editor,
Chapter 6, pp. 89-105. An Introduction to Applied Linguistics, 2nd edition, pp. 53-69.
London: Hodder Education, pp. 89-91.
Corpus-Based Analyses of
Language
“1. It is empirical, analysing the actual patterns of
use in natural texts.
2. It utilizes a large and principled collection of
natural texts, known as a 'corpus', as the basis
for analysis.
3. It makes extensive use of computers for
analysis, using both automatic and interactive
techniques.
4. It depends on both quantitative and qualitative
analytical techniques.
(From Biber, Conrad and Reppen, 1998: 4.)”
Reppen, Randi & Rita Simpson. 2010. Corpus Linguistics. In Norbert Schmitt, editor,
Chapter 6, pp. 89-105. An Introduction to Applied Linguistics, 2nd edition, pp. 53-69.
London: Hodder Education, p. 89.
Selected Well-Know Corpora







British National Corpus (BNC)
Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA)
Brown Corpus
Lancaster/Oslo-Bergen (LOB) Corpus
Helsinki Corpus of English Texts
CANCODE (Cambridge and Nottingham Corpus of
Discourse in English (“spoken discourse”)
ICE (International Corpus of English (“for the study of
national varieties of English”)
Reppen, Randi & Rita Simpson. 2010. Corpus Linguistics. In Norbert Schmitt, editor,
Chapter 6, pp. 89-105. An Introduction to Applied Linguistics, 2nd edition, pp. 53-69.
London: Hodder Education, pp. 90-92.
Corpus Studies
1. Historical Language Change
2. Developmental Language Change
(L1/L2)
3. Differences / Similarities in
National / Regional Varieties
4. Differences between Spoken and Written
Language
5. Characteristics of a Particular Register
Reppen, Randi & Rita Simpson. 2010. Corpus Linguistics. In Norbert Schmitt, editor,
Chapter 6, pp. 89-105. An Introduction to Applied Linguistics, 2nd edition, pp. 53-69.
London: Hodder Education, pp. 100-101.
Corpus Studies and Language
Teaching 1
1. Provides a basis for deciding which language
features and structures are important.
2. Provides data about how various features and
structures are used.
a. Range of the features
b. Lexical and pragmatic co-occurrence patterns
3. Evidence for teachers and materials writers for
claims and inclusion
4. Teachers can shape instruction based on corpusderived information
Reppen, Randi & Rita Simpson. 2010. Corpus Linguistics. In Norbert Schmitt, editor,
Chapter 6, pp. 89-105. An Introduction to Applied Linguistics, 2nd edition, pp. 53-69.
London: Hodder Education, pp. 101-103.
Collocations: What verb can
we use with MAFAN?
____ 麻煩
Corpus Studies and Language
Teaching 2
5. Teachers can make their own enquiries for
teaching needs
6. Learners can interact with corpora
a. Exploring corpora
b. Hands-on activities
7. Scanned texts can provide vocabulary learning
priorities for a book
a. Vocabulary studies may indicate a text
should not be taught now
Reppen, Randi & Rita Simpson. 2010. Corpus Linguistics. In Norbert Schmitt, editor,
Chapter 6, pp. 89-105. An Introduction to Applied Linguistics, 2nd edition, pp. 53-69.
London: Hodder Education, pp. 101-103.
Corpus Studies and Language
Teaching 3
8. Frequency lists can be manipulated by students
a. Assigning words to grammatical categories
b. Transforming words through affixation
9. Concordances can help students understand the
meaning and usage of words
a. Distinguishing between apparent synonyms
which collocate differently
b. Fine-tuning word senses
10. Influence the production of teaching materials
Reppen, Randi & Rita Simpson. 2010. Corpus Linguistics. In Norbert Schmitt, editor,
Chapter 6, pp. 89-105. An Introduction to Applied Linguistics, 2nd edition, pp. 53-69.
London: Hodder Education, pp. 101-103.