Corpus Linguistics

Table of Contents

1. Corpus Query Tools
2. Word Sketch Engine: Basics and Advanced Usage

Recap: three ways to access the corpora

• PC software (WordSmith, Antconc, etc)
• Web-based service (BYU, Word Sketch Engine, etc)
• Programming (Python, R, etc)

PC-based Corpus Query Tools

• Ant* Family
  • AntConc: corpus analysis toolkit.
  • AntPConc: parallel corpus analysis toolkit.
  • . . .
• Limits: work well only with small data; word segmentation (SegmentAnt) is just incredible ...

A random example

Web-based service: Word Sketch Engine

https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/corpus-linguistics/3/steps/36639

Let's walk through an example by

• Building a corpus of US Presidents Inaugural Address.
• Explore the provided functions.
• Try the advanced query methods (e.g., CQL).

Steps

• Data

Change over time and lock words

• Coding yourself leads you to interesting research, e.g., http://viveksck.github.io/langchangetrack/

Homework (20151016)

• Form a hypothesis regarding the Presidents linguistic behaviours, conduct a corpus-based survey to support that.
• Watch FutureLearn (Week3) and write a reflective note.