Corpus Linguistics Methodology Research Articles

SYNTACTIC FEATURES OF PREPOSITIONS AND PRO-FORMS IN CAMEROON FRANCOPHONE ENGLISH

This paper examines the syntactic features of prepositions and pro-forms by Cameroon Francophone English (CamFE) users with a tertiary education level. Written and spoken data were drawn from 95 participants from various domains encompassing administration, education, sports, and politics. A corpus of 136,767 words was built and exploited following the corpus linguistics methodology. The AntConc analytical toolkit was used in sorting out data. Quirk and Greenbaum’s (1973) structural approach to grammar was used as the analytical framework to establish the common core features (CCFs) and the interfered features (IFs). It was found that the English by Francophone Cameroonians is characterised by features that drift away from the common core features. Items were inserted, substituted, anticipated, delayed or clustered. The French language has impacted those features in a considerable degree. The conclusion that is drawn from the analysis is that CamFE is a francophonised non-native variety of English in Cameroon.<p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/soc/0717/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

Construction grammar approach to the innovative use of [unless x

This study analyzes the construction [unless X] as based on the Construction Grammar framework (cf. Fillmore et al., 1988; Goldberg, 1995, 2006; Bybee, 2010), in association with the Corpus Linguistics (McEnery; Hardie, 2013; Sinclair, 2005) methodology. The construction [unless X] characterizes as an innovative use of the word “unless”, in which the conjunction isn’t followed by a subordinate clause, as it can be seen in “don’t add Coca Cola unless diet” or “he was so calm unless tried” or “I can never tell the season unless winter”. Motivated by the findings of Mendes Junior and Mattos (2021), who reported high rates of productivity in the construction [because X] (e.g. “I’m excited for my holidays because tired”), we propose a model that accounts for the new constructional properties of “unless”. Data were collected through the iWeb Corpus (Davies, 2018), which contains 14 billion words extracted from about 22 million web pages. Preliminary analysis shows that the construction [unless X] heavily favors verbs in the past participle, adjectives, adverbs and nouns in the [X] slot. Moreover, the [X] slot cannot be filled by interjections, pronouns, conjunctions and prepositions, as opposed to [because X]. Following Fillmore et al. (1988), [unless X] can be understood as codable, formal, extra-grammatical construction. We suggest that [unless X] often behaves similarly to the traditional use of ‘unless’, though it tends to favor reduced clauses and is mainly used in more informal contexts.

From pre-owned printers to pristine Porsches

Abstract Recent years have seen a considerable increase in e-commerce, with sales forecast to continue rising over the coming years. This study provides a corpus linguistic analysis of item descriptions on eBay’s UK website, on which both members of the public and businesses can offer goods for sale. It is based on two corpora of items sold on the site in 2015 and 2020 which together contain 412,601 item descriptions and over 57 million words of text. The analysis applies corpus linguistic methods to gain further insight into the diachronic development of language use on eBay, to explore linguistic features in item descriptions and across product categories, and to relate word choice to product selling price. Its findings offer new understanding of the changing language of online selling and indicate how a corpus linguistic methodology may be used to explore the impact of linguistic features on sales figures.

Investigating the Effectiveness of Using Corpus-Based Developed Materials in Vocabulary Learning for Saudi EFL Students

Many studies have employed corpus linguistics methodologies to gain insights into L2 learning and teaching. While these studies have contributed to a comprehensive theoretical understanding of corpus use in L2 instruction, particularly in vocabulary learning, there remains a gap in practical application, especially within the context of English as a Foreign/Second Language (EFL/ESL). Therefore, this paper empirically examined the effectiveness of using the corpus approach for EFL students’ vocabulary development and explored students’ attitudes toward using a corpus to develop their vocabulary. In a five-week experimental study, involving 24 Saudi EFL female students, participants were evenly divided into two groups: the control and experimental groups. These objectives were investigated using a mixed-method design, comprising both quantitative and qualitative approaches, which included pretests, posttests, questionnaires, and diaries for the experimental group only. Data were statistically analyzed using the SPSS program (v.25), incorporating T-tests and descriptive statistical analysis, alongside a descriptive analysis of learners’ diaries to corroborate the questionnaire findings. The findings showed that both groups revealed improved vocabulary during the study period based on the post-test results, but favored the experimental group that received the corpus-based approach. Furthermore, the attitudes questionnaire’s results showed most students held positive attitudes toward using the COCA corpus for vocabulary learning, despite facing some difficulties, which, as described in their weekly diaries, could be overcome over time through practice and training.

ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN INDIAN POLITICAL COMMUNICATION: A STUDY OF CORPUS LINGUISTIC ANALYSIS OF POLITICAL NARRATIVE ON TWITTER DURING KARNATAKA ASSEMBLY ELECTION 2023

This study examines the political communication strategies applied during the Karnataka Assembly elections on May 23, 2023, with a specific focus on the Twitter (now X) as a platform. The Karnataka Assembly elections held notable importance for the then ruling Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP), as it aimed to consolidate its political influence in southern India in preparation for the upcoming 2024 general elections. The Indian National Congress, as the opposition party, perceived this as a favourable circumstance, as the voters appeared to be divided as a result of the presence of numerous influential local leaders who were not in sync with the ideology of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). This study utilises the Corpus linguistic methodology to examine the data obtained from the social media platform, Twitter, where political campaigning has become a significant strategy for achieving political mileage in India. This study conducts an analysis of the tweets shared by significant political actors throughout the campaign season for the Assembly elections, with a focus on examining the precise influence exerted by these tweets on the political discourse. The findings serve to reaffirm the resilience of the Indian democracy, as the electorate has demonstrated their capacity to differentiate and discern between matters of online debate and those that hold local significance. The study provides additional evidence to support the notion that the Twitter platform serves as a virtual space for political expression and the exchange of varied perspectives. However, it is important to note that these expressions and ideas may not necessarily translate into immediate influence on voting behaviour.

Sustaining vocabulary knowledge growth through corpus-generated lists of lexical bundles and keywords in the law of contracts

Non-native English-speaking law students and international legal practitioners who speak English as an additional language face significant challenges while pursuing legal studies at English-only institutions, participating in professional training or catering to the legal needs of an increasingly diverse clientele. One of the most difficult challenges is sustaining adequate lexical knowledge to initiate and maintain communication regarding legal subject matter. This study aims to address this issue by presenting two short lists of lexical bundles and keywords (KWs) of the Law of Contracts. Through a combination of corpus analysis and linguistics methodology, these lists are designed to provide a pedagogically useful and subject-focused source for learning academic vocabulary. Bundles are functionally classified into referentials, discourse organisers and stance markers, and their structural forms are filtered into distinct nominal, prepositional and verbal categories. KWs are POS-tagged to allow for direct instructional intervention. This research discusses the pedagogical implications of the research for teaching English for legal purposes.

Depictions of social workers and other caring professionals on television

Summary Social workers, alongside many professionals in “caring” domains, often feel they are poorly represented in television dramas. This study draws on a 172-million-word database to consider how social workers and seven other professional groups (cop, doctor, nanny, nurse, priest, teacher, and therapist) are portrayed in English-medium TV programs in the period 2010–2017. IMDb plot summaries are analyzed, and 200 examples per profession (n = 1,600) are classified as negative, positive, or neutral. Employing the methodology of corpus linguistics, the study contrasts with previous research as the focus is on the language surrounding mentions of professionals rather than on visual depictions or characters’ actions. Findings The study evidences the prevalence of negative societal discourses around social workers as either judgmental bureaucrats or uncaring “childcatchers,” contextualizing the findings through comparison with other professionals. The analysis also suggests that social work characters on TV—in common with those from other female-dominated professions such as nanny or nurse—are frequently referred to in terms of their sexual availability or physical appearance. Applications Findings will have practical relevance for those interested in the recruitment, job satisfaction, and retention of practitioners, and in reducing the stigmatization of social workers and their clients. The innovative methodology employed in the study offers particular insights for social work researchers and also scriptwriters. The study evidences the ongoing need to support media professionals and the general public to better understand the challenges facing the profession and thereby reduce the tendency toward a culture of blaming individuals for society's failings.

Unravelling Yu Guangzhong’s Identity Through His Poetic Reflections: A Corpus-Based Investigation

This study examines Yu Guangzhong’s identity presented in his self-translated poetry collection, The Night Watchman. It employs corpus linguistic methodologies and utilizes the corpus linguistic tool AntConc for analysis. This study highlights Yu Guangzhong’s identity, which is presented in different categories and topics of poems. It is found that Yu Guangzhong’s identity is ever-changing, varying at different times, and occasionally conflicting and opposing. This study may have practical implications for Chinese literature and culture looking to enhance their international influence, and it may also provide academic insights for investigating other literary giants.

"A Rare Vocabulary Dictionary based on school curriculum literature": theoretical issues of creation and methodological prospects for use

The article describes the principles of compiling the Rare Vocabulary Dictionary based on school curriculum literature (hereinafter referred to as the Dictionary) and its methodological potential for being used as an electronic educational resource in teaching schoolchildren. Moreover, the study examines the specific features of the Dictionary in comparison with similar existing lexicographic publications. The Dictionary creation is relevant as there is a need to make Russian classical literature texts more understandable for the modern reader. As a result, the resource can promote the culture of reading literary texts and the formation of students’ linguistic personality, as well as enhance learning efficiency. The Dictionary materials were comprised of Russian authors’ works included in the school literature curriculum for years 5 to 11. The paper pays particular attention to the innovative solutions concerning the principles of glossary compilation and dictionary entry creation. The research relied on corpus linguistics methodology and its tools for working with text, which enabled us to select vocabulary based on objective criteria (low frequency in modern Russian) and describe the meaning of a particular word relying on the entire set of contexts of its use in the literature under study. The focus of lexicographic interpretation was an extensive layer of rare vocabulary of various semantic groups (including proper names and occasionalisms) and different parts of speech. Semantic description demonstrates the history of word meanings in the language in conjunction with contextual interpretation of a lexical unit. The entries contain encyclopedic information and a detailed cultural and/or philological commentary. Maximal attention is given to authorial neologisms. Some entries are accompanied by images of the item being described. The Dictionary is implemented as a module of the new Russian Classics cross platform mobile application. The article also describes the operating principles and capabilities of the application.

UTILISING CORPUS STYLISTICS TO FACILITATE LITERARY ANALYSIS: AN ASSESSMENT OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF SEMANTIC DOMAINS IN IDENTIFYING MAJOR LITERARY THEMES IN A SELECTION OF CHARLES DICKENS’ NOVELS

Though still in an early stage of development, corpus-assisted literary analysis is becoming increasingly popular as having the full potential of corpus linguistics methodology for literary stylistics. This paper argues that corpus linguistic procedures can be considered an addition to the analytical inventory of traditional stylistics. It aims to explore how corpus linguistic procedures, particularly semantic domains, can be effective in detecting major literary themes in fiction. In order to do so, five corpora were compiled: a corpus for each of the four novels of Charles Dickens’ selected (i.e., Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Great Expectations and Our Mutual Friend) and a compiled corpus combining all four novels. Wmatrix 5, with the BNC Sampler-Written as a reference corpus, was used to extract the key semantic domains in each corpus respectively. The literature on the selected novels was consulted to identify the major themes. Then, it was verified whether these themes were reflected in the corpus analysis, and, finally, the extent to which the procedure was effective in reflecting the major literary themes was also explored. The findings confirmed the effectiveness of the procedure of analysing semantic domains in studying literary texts, particularly in relation to their themes.

디지털 인문학으로 분석한 문화재 안내판의 분포와 어휘

The Cultural Heritage Interpretation Boards are public facilities erected on site to explain the designation, historical background, and preservation value of the cultural heritages. The Cultural Heritage Administration has been revising the inscriptions for the improvement project since 2019. With the previous literature largely grounded upon linguistics, this article analyzes the distribution and vocabulary of the Boards reinstalled from 2019 to May 2023. To do so, I employ the methodology of GIS and corpus linguistics in the name of digital humanities. The first half of the analysis performs inductive analyses examining a total of 2,705 Boards revised. Gyeongju-si houses the greatest number of them, while Paldal-gu in Suwon-si has the highest density. The top-frequency words — involving designation, periodization, and appearance — vary across the four regions and affirm the corpora’s uniqueness as Boards. In the second half devoted to deductive analyses, I visualize the locations where specific terms are mentioned. The search words are found in unexpected places unless irrelative usages are filtered out. Although this paper examined only the latest revisions due to the limited accessibility to the previous information, I hope to identify the complete patterns of the Boards in follow-up projects by incorporating the pre-revision data.

A Linguistically-Informed Assessment Model for Multidimensional Competence Building in Romanian School Writing

In education, student involvement in writing activities is crucial for enhancing their learning experience and developing multiple competences. The development of any national curriculum within Europe is based on the indispensable competences required for lifelong learning as outlined in the European Parliament’s Reference Framework. In response to the changing landscape of education, the Romanian national curriculum has undergone revisions that currently prioritise a competence-based approach to teaching writing. This approach aims to equip students with the necessary skills and knowledge to effectively communicate through writing, enabling them to express their ideas and thoughts clearly and concisely. Nevertheless, it is noteworthy that there has been a lack of research conducted to assess the efficacy of the didactic resources and materials developed to facilitate these educational goals. This study uses corpus linguistics methodologies to examine the correlation between the content of textbooks used for writing tasks in primary education, secondary education, and high schools and the pedagogical skills they aim to develop. For this purpose, we have constructed a preliminary textbook corpus called ROTEX, which consists of online materials, specifically Romanian language and communication textbooks approved by the Ministry of Education. The corpus includes three datasets, one for each educational level (4th grade, 8th grade, and 12th grade). Our analysis uses writing tasks to identify linguistic and thematic complexity patterns. This approach allows us to determine the competences that are effectively enhanced at each educational level. Our conclusions are backed up by quantitative linguistic evidence, which provides valuable insights into the dominant competences fostered within the educational framework.

Corpus-linguistic approaches to lexical statutory meaning: Extensionalist vs. intensionalist approaches

Scholars and practitioners interested in legal interpretation have become increasingly interested in corpus-linguistic methodology. Lee and Mouritsen (2018) developed and helped popularize the use of concordancing and collocate displays (of mostly COCA and COHA) to operationalize a central notion in legal interpretation, the ordinary meaning of expressions. This approach provides a good first approximation but is ultimately limited. Here, we outline an approach to ordinary meaning that is intensionalist (i.e., 'feature-based'), top-down, and informed by the notion of cue validity in prototype theory. The key advantages of this approach are that (i) it avoids the which-value-on-a-dimension problem of extensionalist approaches, (ii) it provides quantifiable prototypicality values for things whose membership status in a category is in question, and (iii) it can be extended even to cases for which no textual data are yet available. We exemplify the approach with two case studies that offer the option of utilizing survey data and/or word embeddings trained on corpora by deriving cue validities from word similarities. We exemplify this latter approach with the word vehicle on the basis of (i) an embedding model trained on 840 billion words crawled from the web, but now also with the more realistic application (in terms of corpus size and time frame) of (ii) an embedding model trained on the 1950s time slice of COHA to address the question to what degree Segways, which didn't exist in the 1950s, qualify as vehicles in this intensional approach.

Динамика медиатизации транскультурного концепта «Индивидуальная мобильность»: корпусно-ориентированное исследование

The research is relevant due to the interest of linguistics in studying Russian-language mediatization discursive practices, which contribute to the perception and evaluation of the contemporarily implemented concepts envisioned as a new social reality in media communication. The article introduces the mechanism of transcultural concept mediatization exemplified by the concept "Individual Mobility" that is emerging in the Russian language consciousness. The paper substantiates corpus linguistic methodology applicability to research into the scrutiny of the current media practices. The dynamic nature of introduction and inculcation of ideas upon the significance of mobility provided by personal transporters as the fashionable way of life, represented in the thesaurus of media texts corpus, proves research outcomes novelty. By applying the corpus methods, the linguistic mechanisms of the concept "Individual Mobility" mediatization are revealed as being represented in the dominance of translingual units in the key concept domain nominations and chronological variability in the nominative density of their implementation; the thematically heterogeneous nature of thesaurus of the texts corpus governs the perception of the contemporarily implemented concept by Russian-speaking actors of mass media discourse. The evaluation vector in conceptualization of the socially significant phenomenon under study in the Russian media discourse is determined, its specificity is described. The concept "Individual Mobility" mediatization is being traced in the hybridization of the thematic layer of media texts corpus, in particular, in the presence of administrative discourse vocabulary whilst the relative stability of terminology that nominates fashionable personal transporters and their users. The presence of lexical units, which comprise the thematic group "Risk of injury" accompanied by legal and administrative vocabulary, indicates the dynamic formation of mass critical and negative comprehension of the concept "Individual Mobility" domain accomplished by means of the chosen vectors of mediatization.

“Doesn’t Really Answer My Question . . .”: Exploring Customer Service Interactions on Twitter

This article explores customer service interactions between the Irish airline Ryanair and its passengers on the social networking platform Twitter. Using a corpus linguistic methodology, it investigates a 1-million-word corpus of Twitter threads comprising tweets addressed to and posted by Ryanair between August 2018 and July 2019. Studying the communicative strategies used in the corpus reveals customers’ main concerns and causes for complaint, and how the airline addresses these in their response tweets offering assistance to passengers. In addition, the analysis of customer response tweets to these corporate replies allows insights into customers’ reactions to and perception of the (often generic) answers they receive. The aim of this case study is to gain further understanding of the linguistic and communicative features that characterize customer service interactions online, and the attitudes customers voice toward them, with a view to streamlining customer communication and improving levels of customer satisfaction.

Linguocultural Specifics of Cybersecurity Discursive Practices Representation in Russian Media Communication: Corpus-Assisted Approach

The issue of the semantic, pragmatic and axiological specifics of cybersecurity discursive practices as it is displayed in the genres of media and online communication is considered. The novelty of the work lies in the application of the corpus linguistics methodology to the study of discourse, understood as a language-mediated social practice. The relevance of the work is due to the interest of linguistics in the study of discursive practices that shape a new social reality formed as a result of the Russian language functioning. By using the methods of corpus linguistics, the cognitive-semantic structure of discursive thesaurus, which comprise a new layer of lexical units, has been reconstructed, thematic groups of lexical units have been identified and their distribution in various genres of cybersecurity discourse has been established. It has been found that along with the terminology focused on the transfer of operational, practical knowledge about safe online practices, the texts in the corpus regularly employ lexical units with military and aggressive semantics, which indicates the contradiction between the goals of the discourse aimed at forming a positive attitude towards digital technologies, and language means employed to achieve them. It is shown that due to regular occurrence of neutral lexical units in negatively colored contexts, they develop negative evaluative connotations, which also contributes to the formation of users’ distrust of new technologies, enhances the feeling of risk, and generates anxiety and concern.

Scientific Discourse: Evolution of Theoretical and Methodological Approaches and Concepts

Introduction. The article presents the results of an analytical review of scientific papers reflecting the stages of formation and development of the theory of scientific discourse in Russian linguistics. The purpose of the article is to systematize and critically analyze approaches, concepts and methodological principles of the study of scientific communication in the aspect of its communicative-pragmatic, genre-stylistic, linguocognitive and linguocultural specifics.Methodology and sources. The paper is based on theoretical concepts in the field of discourse analysis, considering discourse as a type of social practice, as a methodology of corpus linguistics using software tools and quantitative methods to extract language structures from large arrays of texts. An overview of the existing empirical research base is given.Results and discussion. As a result of the review study, the evolution of approaches to scientific discourse is characterized, their chronological framework is determined, key concepts that influenced the modern understanding of scientific communication are identified (genre-stylistic, sociocultural, cognitive, linguocultural, pragmalinguistic, communicative-pragmatic approaches), modern interpretations of scientific discourse are analyzed and prospects for further research are outlined. It is shown that in the study of scientific discourse, the corpus methodology is today in demand and is used in its synchronic and diachronic description. The diachronic development of the English-language scientific discourse by the example of a scientific article genre is an extremely interesting issue, which, according to our data, has not been thoroughly studied before. That is why our further works will be devoted to its consideration.Conclusion. It is shown that despite the long and intensive study of scientific discourse in the scientific literature there is an insufficient number of works highlighting the trends in the development of scientific communication genres, which demonstrate a certain historical dynamics and changes in the collective consciousness. It is concluded that the discursivecorpus approach to the study of scientific discourse and the methods of corpus linguistics make it possible to objectively identify and describe dynamic processes in the field of written scientific communication caused by changing ways of knowledge transfer under the influence of changes in the socio-cultural context and intensive development of science.

Discourse Analysis of the Semiotic Field of the Concept FAMILY: A Comparative Study of the Chinese and English Parallel Corpora (In Eng.)

The article is devoted to the analysis of the semiotic field of the concept FAMILY in the English and Chinese languages through the application of the methodology of critical discourse analysis and corpus linguistics. The article is based on the materials of the Chinese English Learners Corpus (CELC) and the combined materials of the BROWN and the written British National Corpus (BNC) for studying the vocabulary co-occurrence of the node word “family” from the point of view of collocation, colligation, semantic preference, and semantic prosody. The differences between Chinese and Western family cultures are revealed from the perspective of critical discourse analysis and the use of a horizontal combination of vocabulary relevant to the semiotic field of family. The study exemplifies the significant differences between Chinese learners and English native speakers in the choice and the use of core collocations in the minimal context of the family-related vocabulary. The conducted examination of the use of the node word “family” and its collocations in the Chinese English Learners Corpus compared to the combined English native speakers corpus in terms of semantic preference and semantic prosody demonstrates the most significant differences in understanding of the related concept as observed through the most common collocations. The article demonstrates the efficiency of the critical discourse analysis use in combination with the methods of corpus linguistics for the purpose of validation and verification of the conclusions regarding the content of the semiotic fields, as exemplified on the basis of the semiotic field of the concept FAMILY. Future research developments are seen in the possible extension of the corpus material base, including the materials on a wide variety of languages, for the purpose of further comparative analysis.

Dialogic interaction between player and non-player characters in animal crossing

Abstract Dialogic interaction is a distinctive feature of Animal Crossing, a social simulation video game developed by Nintendo, yet, little attention has been paid to it from a discourse analytical perspective. This paper aims to explore how AC characters are characterised through language and which discourse strategies are applied to engage players. The analysis, based on a corpus of dialogues transcribed by fans of the game, relies on corpus-linguistics methodologies and can be framed within the context of ludolinguistics. The study shows that emotive language is used to create an active interaction between player and non-player characters (NPCs). Even though NPCs are minimally characterized in terms of gender, age, or social status, the collocational analysis of “I” and “you” highlights two opposite personalities interacting in the dialogues: type A, lexically represented as extroverted, dynamic, and active, and type B, represented as kind, hesitant, and passive.

Dogs know it, trees wait for it, and the wind snatches it

Verbal constructions of personification (i.e. nonhuman subject + predicate verb primarily used for human beings only) can be considered a key linguistic realization of personification. Although as grammatical metaphors they are rather invisible, the verb’s selection restrictions have a crucial role in expressing conceptual personification. In other words, the nominal form of personification as cross-domain mapping (e.g. WIND IS A THIEF ) is often realized via verb + argument structures (e.g. the wind grabbed the papers out of my hand). In a previous study, the domains of MOVEMENT , CONTROL and MENTAL ACT proved to be the most frequent conceptual categories of verbal personifications in a corpus of 20 th -century Hungarian poems. However, despite these initial findings, we have relatively little knowledge about what are the typical verbal components of personifications in Hungarian on a more general level.
 The present paper aims to extend the scope of personification research, adopting corpus linguistic methodology to explore the semantic domains of verbal personification in Hungarian. In a collostructional analysis, I investigate the significant verbal collexemes of noun + verb personifications in the huTenTen12 corpus, using three categories of nominal keywords: animals (dog, horse, fish), plants (tree, fruit, flower) and inanimate natural phenomena (water, air, fire). The study hypothesises that verbs of MENTAL ACT will dominate the first category, MOVEMENT and CONTROL will be prominent among the verbal collexemes of nouns denoting personified natural phenomena, while the semantic domains of verbal personifications will be more heterogeneous in the realm of plants.