Corpus-Based Language Studies

Corpus-Based Language Studies An advanced resource book

Tony McEnery, Richard Xiao and Yukio Tono

O Routledge g j ^ ^ Taylor Si Francis Croup LONDON AND NEW YORK

Contents

Series editors' preface Preface Acknowledgements SECTION A: INTRODUCTION

xv xvii xix 1

Unit A1 Corpus linguistics: the basics A1.1 Introduction A1.2 Corpus linguistics: past and present A1.3 What is a corpus? A1.4 Why use computers to study language? A1.5 The corpus-based approach vs. the intuition-based approach A1.6 Corpus linguistics: a methodology or a theory? A1.7 Corpus-based vs. corpus-driven approaches Summary Looking ahead

3 3 3 4 5 6 7 8 11 12

Unit A2 Representativeness, balance and sampling A2.1 Introduction A2.2 What does representativeness mean in corpus linguistics? A2.3 The representativeness of general and specialized corpora A2.4 Balance A2.5 Sampling Summary Looking ahead

13 13 13 15 16 19 21 21

Unit A3 Corpus mark-up A3.1 Introduction A3.2 The rationale for corpus mark-up A3.3 Corpus mark-up schemes A3.4 Character encoding Summary Looking ahead

22 22 22 23 27 28 28

Unit A4 A4.1 A4.2 A4.3 A4.4 A4.5

29 29 30 33 33 44

Corpus annotation Introduction Corpus annotation = added value How is corpus annotation achieved? Types of corpus annotation Embedded vs. standalone annotation

C oatsrif s

Summary Looking ahead

44 45

UnitA5 Multilingual corpora A5.1 Introduction A5.2 Multilingual corpora: terminological issues A5.3 Corpus alignment Summary Looking ahead

46 46 47 50 51 51

UnitA6 Making statistical claims Introduction A6.1 A6.2 Raw frequency and normalized frequency A6.3 Descriptive and inferential statistics A6.4 Tests of statistical significance A6.5 Tests for significant collocations Summary Looking ahead

52 52 52 53 53 56 57 57

UnitA7 Using available corpora Introduction A7.1 A7.2 General corpora A7.3 Specialized corpora A7.4 Written corpora A7.5 Spoken corpora A7.6 Synchronic corpora A7.7 Diachronic corpora A7.8 Learner corpora A7.9 Monitor corpora Summary Looking ahead

59 59 59 60 61 62 64 65 65 67 69 70

UnitA8 Going solo: DIY corpora Introduction A8.1 A8.2 Corpus size Balance and representativeness A8.3 Data capture A8.4 A8.5 Corpus mark-up A8.6 Corpus annotation A8.7 Character encoding Summary Looking ahead

71 71 71 73 73 74 75 76 76 76

Copyright UnitA9 Introduction A9.1 Coping with copyright: warning and advice A9.2 Summary Looking ahead

77 77 77 78 79

UnitAlO Corpora and applied linguistics A10.1 Introduction A10.2 Lexicographic and lexical studies

80 80 80

Contents

A10.3 Grammatical studies A10.4 Register variation and genre analysis A10.5 Dialect distinction and language variety A10.6 Contrastive and translation studies A10.7 Diachronic study and language change A10.8 Language learning and teaching A10.9 Semantics A10.10 Pragmatics A10.11 Sociolinguistis A10.12 Discourse analysis A10.13 Stylistics and literary studies A10.14 Forensic linguistics A10.15 What corpora cannot tell us Summary Looking ahead

85 87 90 91 96 97 103 104 108 111 113 116 120 121 1 22

SECTION B: EXTENSION

123

Unit B1 Corpus representativeness and balance B1.1 Introduction B1.2 Biber(1993) B1.3 Atkins, Clear and Ostler (1992) Summary Looking ahead

125 125 125 128 130 130

Unit B2 B2.1 B2.2 B2.3 B2.4 Summary

131 131 131 135 140 144

Objections to corpora: an ongoing debate Introduction Widdowson (2000) Stubbs (2001b) Widdowson (1991) vs. Sinclair (1991b): a summary

Unit B3 Lexical and grammatical studies B3.1 Introduction B3.2 Krishnamurthy (2000) B3.3 Partington (2004) B3.4 Carter and McCarthy (1999) B3.5 Kreyer(2003) Summary Looking ahead

145 145 145 148 152 155 159 159

Unit B4 Language variation studies B4.1 Introduction B4.2 Biber (1995a) B4.3 Hyland(1999) B4.4 Lehmann (2002) B4.5 Kachru (2003) Summary Looking ahead

160 160 160 165 169 174 177 1 77

Unit B5 B5.1

178 178

Contrastive and diachronic studies Introduction

Contents

B5.2 Altenberg and Granger (2002) B5.3 McEnery, Xiao and Mo (2003) B5.4 Kilpio (1997) B5.5 Mair, Hundt, Leech and Smith (2002) Summary Looking ahead Unit B6 Language teaching and learning B6.1 Introduction B6.2 Gavioli and Aston (2001) B6.3 Thurston and Candlin (1998) B6.4 Conrad (1999) Summary Looking ahead

SECTION C: EXPLORATION

1 78 1 81 185 1 90 194 1 94 195 195 195 198 201 202 203

205

Unit C1 Collocation and pedagogical lexicography Case study 1 C1.1 Introduction C1.2 Collocation information C1.3 Using corpus data for improving a dictionary entry Summary Further study

208 208 210 220 225 225

Unit C2 HELP or HELP to: what do corpora have to say? Case study 2 C2.1 Introduction C2.2 Concordancing C2.3 Language variety C2.4 Language change C2.5 An intervening NP C2.6 The infinite marker preceding HELP C2.7 The passive construction Summary Further study

227 227 228 235 239 240 241 245 246 246

Unit C3 L2 acquisition of grammatical morphemes Case study 3 C3.1 Introduction C3.2 Morpheme studies: a short review C3.3 The Longman Learners' Corpus C3.4 Problem-oriented corpus annotation C3.5 Discussion Summary Further study

247 247 249 250 251 260 263 263

Unit C4 Swearing in modern British English Case study 4 C4.1 Introduction C4.2 Spoken vs. written register C4.3 Variations within spoken English C4.4 Variations within written English Summary Further study

264 264 265 269 279 285 286

C o n t s si t s

Unit C5 Conversation and speech in American English Case study 5 C5.1 Introduction C5.2 Salient linguistic features C5.3 Basic statistical data from the corpus C5.4 The dimension scores of three genres C5.5 The keyword approach to genre analysis Summary Further study Domains, text types, aspect marking and English-Chinese translation Case study 6 C6.1 Introduction C6.2 The corpus data C6.3 Translation of aspect marking C6.4 Translation and aspect marking C6.5 Domain and aspect marking C6.6 Text type and aspect marking Summary Further study

287 287 288 293 303 308 319 320

Unit C6

Glossary Bibliography Appendix of useful Internet links Index

321 321 323 324 336 338 340 341 343 344 352 379 381