Corpus Linguistics Research Articles

Analysing the Functions of Lexical Bundles for Teaching Academic Writing to Graduate Students

Academic writing skills contribute greatly in academic performance. One of the key elements of good academic writing is to know the proper use of the strings of the words usually occur together. These words are termed as lexical bundles in corpus linguistics. Some research has been conducted on the use and functions of lexical bundles in spoken and written discourses (Chen & Chen, 2020). However, there is scarce research on the functions of lexical bundles and their use in Pakistani research writing. While drawing on the corpus of 90201 corpora of the 12 Pakistani research articles, we investigated the functions and use of lexical bundles in research papers of Pakistani authors. The list of the lexical bundles by Simpson-Vlach and Ellis (2010) was used as a source to interpret the lexical bundles. We found the referential expressions were the highest lexical bundles in research articles of Pakistani authors followed by the expressions of ability and possibility and hedges in the list. Based on these findings, we argue that Pakistani authors are aware about the various types of the lexical bundles and their functions in academic writing. It is suggested that the high-frequency bundles can help the learners to improve the use of modal words used as hedges in academic writing. As per the findings of this study, it is recommended that a large corpus may be built for better results in the future.

Advances in sign language corpus linguistics: exploring the frontiers of deaf studies and education

Advances in sign language corpus linguistics: exploring the frontiers of deaf studies and education

Anotacja socjolingwistyczna w Korpusie dawnych polskich tekstów dramatycznych (1772–1939)

SOCIOLINGUISTIC ANNOTATION IN THE CORPUS OF OLD POLISH DRAMATIC TEXTS (1772–1939) The article presents the criteria applied in the sociolinguistic annotation in the Corpus of old Polish dramatic texts (1772–1939) (KorTeDa). This level of annotation was about assigning the three basic sociolinguistic variables: age, sex and social status to all the utterances of drama characters (except for collective statements). Six values were selected for determining age (underage, young adult, middle- aged adult, older adult (senior), indeterminate adult, indeterminate); three for sex (female, male, indeterminate); and four for social status (low, medium, high, indeterminate). The article shows the interdependence between those factors and the historical, social and cultural context. Additionally, the authors illustrated substantial and technical problems they faced during the process of this type of annotation. KorTeDa may become an important tool for analysing the history of the Polish language taking into account the methods of corpus linguistics and sociopragmatics.

How real is the quantitative turn? Investigating statistics as the new normal in linguistics

Abstract Statistical approaches in linguistics seem to have gained in importance in recent times, especially in the field of Corpus Linguistics. In particular, the last ten years have seen an upsurge of linguists being dedicated to statistical methods and the improvement of statistical knowledge. This has repeatedly been described as ‘the quantitative turn’ in linguistics. In the present paper, we assess how real this quantitative turn actually is and whether statistics can be considered the ‘new normal’ in (corpus) linguistics. To this end, we have analyzed the contributions to six high-impact journals (Corpora, Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory, ICAME Journal, English World-Wide, Journal of English Linguistics, and Language Variation and Change) for a period of eleven years (January 2011 until December 2021). Our results suggest that, indeed, statistical methods seem to be on the rise in linguistic studies. However, their frequency strongly varies between the journals, and, in general, we have identified some room for improvement in the use of advanced statistical methods, in particular the discussion of true prediction.

Exploring corpus linguistics via computational tool analysis: key finding review

Corpus linguistics investigates language using extensive text databases. Tools assist researchers in analyzing, extracting, and interpreting linguistic information efficiently. Furthermore, if researchers only use traditional tools in corpus linguistic analysis, they will lack the comprehensiveness and efficiency required to effectively navigate and derive valuable insights from language data. This paper employed the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) approach to find the primary data based on a few keywords in corpus linguistic, corpus analysis, computational linguistic, text corpora and tool support. Based on this method, we used advanced searching techniques on Scopus and Web of Science (WoS) and discovered (N=28) data pertinent to the study. Expert scholars decide on a theme based on the problem, which is (i) types of corpus tools and their uses; (ii) their contributions and their capabilities (iii) limitations of corpus tools. All the tools were used in interdisciplinary studies. In summary, this systematic review uncovers pivotal key findings at the intersection of computational tools and corpus analysis, enriching linguistic knowledge. It highlights the interdisciplinary potential of corpus-based analysis in advancing linguistic tools and, their applications, as well as language analysis.

Against level-3-only analyses in corpus linguistics

Abstract In the last few decades, much work in corpus linguistics has attempted to discover, and then interpret, differences in the frequencies of use of linguistic elements (words, patterns, constructions, discourse features, etc.). It is probably fair to say that such studies were particularly frequent in (i) learner corpus research, (ii) corpus-based varieties research, and (iii) sociolinguistically motivated studies. For instance, many studies have discussed the differences in how often certain elements are used (i) in corpus data from native speakers vs. corpus data from learner from different L1 backgrounds, (ii) in corpora representing different inner- and outer-circle varieties, or (iii) by speakers in corpora representing people of different gender or sexual identities. This paper will make the admittedly bold claim that any such study can in fact by definition unable to ‘prove’ what is often their main points, namely that the distributional differences found are in fact due to the one hypothesized explanatory variable(s) of L1, VARIETY, or, e.g., GENDER even when the distributional differences are significant and come with a decent effect size. To substantiate this claim, I will discuss some terminology from the family of methods known as multi-level modeling, namely the distinction between level-1, level-2, ... level-n variables and its relevance for many corpus studies. Second, I will then demonstrate how studies using only the above kinds of variables cannot distinguish the effect of their favored predictors from the effect of local/contextual level-1 variables. Third, in discussing this, I will exemplify how such effects need to be explored quantitatively instead.

ANALYSIS OF SOME EXCEPTIONS IN HOMONYMY AND HOMONYMIC MODELS IN UZBEK ELECTRONIC CORPUS MANAGER

This article discusses the analysis of some homonymous units that create problematic situations in the process of searching for homonyms and dividing them into tokens in the Uzbek electronic corpus manager, and the alternative models that can be developed for them. Addressing the following homonymy problems and developing models for software can help overcome homonymy-related shortcomings for computational linguistics, particularly corpus linguistics.

The image of China in modern Russian media (based on materials from the National Corpus of the Russian Language)

The article examines the representation in the language of modern media of the image of China as a component of Russian linguistic consciousness. It is noted that in the language of the media, the image of China that has developed in the Russian linguistic consciousness is simultaneously realized, and this image is constructed and supplemented in its modern implementation. The media have a significant impact on the image of China, what it will be like in the future, and also on how Russians perceive it. The analysis was based on the consideration of the functioning in the media of lexemes and phraseological units expressing Chinese semantics: China, Chinese, Chinaman, Celestial Empire, hieroglyphs, etc. Observation showed that the image of China is frequent. The research was carried out on the basis of traditional methods of observation, description, analysis, synthesis, and generalization. One of the main ones was the method of corpus linguistics. The method of linguocultural interpretation, structural-semantic method were used. It has been revealed that the most important part of the image of China, implemented in the media, is the idea of this country as a strong state with developed industry, economy and social sphere, as a strategic partner of the Russian Federation and a global antagonist of the United States. Attention is focused on the fact that the brightest means of representing the image of China in the Russian linguistic consciousness are comparative constructions, metaphors, phraseological units, through which such features of China as ancient history, rich and difficult to understand culture, and deep philosophy are actualized. A Chinese in the Russian linguistic consciousness is a hardworking, enterprising, intelligent, cunning, wise, independent person. The conclusion is made about the dynamic image of China, to the change of which the Russian media make a significant contribution.

Intellectualisation of Northern Sotho through English terminology adaptation

This study aimed to investigate and propose a pragmatic approach in the adaptation of English terminologies for scientific purposes into Northern Sotho. This is necessary because of the lack of terminologies to describe and define scientific phenomena in the language. Languages are constantly evolving, and speakers drive their evolution. The study aimed to overcome the scientific terminology development challenge for Northern Sotho by analysing existing data and using corpus linguistics as a method. The Multilingual Natural Science and Technology Dictionary Grade 4–6 (2013) was used to provide illustrative examples and clarify linguistic complexities in scientific terminology. The study revealed the complexity of the linguistic adaptation of Northern Sotho and the challenges and pitfalls linked to the integration of borrowed English terminology into academic discourse, encompassing apprehensions concerning accuracy, clarity and cultural appropriateness. Furthermore, the findings indicated that the puristic term adaptation approach tends to be perplexing.Contribution: This study contributes to the intellectualisation and revitalisation of Northern Sotho by enhancing the language and equipping its speakers to engage more efficiently in scientific contexts, illuminating intricacies and potential misrepresentations inherent in the process of adaptation. Moreover, the research underscored the significance of employing adaptation strategies that are suitable for the Northern Sotho context and are consistent with linguistic patterns and semantics.

Dynamicity of interaction in academic discourse: Evidence from a corpus-based study

Metadiscourse features are the rhetorical devices that serve to maintain the writer-reader and speaker-audience interaction. The way metadiscourse features are utilized in spoken and written modes may differ given the nature of these two modes of communication. For this reason, the present study set to unpack the distributional pattern of metadiscourse features as well as investigate the construction and maintenance of writer-reader and speaker-audience interaction in academic written and spoken English. To achieve this goal, two corpora of The British Academic Written English Corpus and British Academic Spoken English Corpus were utilized as the data gathering resources. To categorize the metadiscourse features, Hyland's taxonomy was selected. The quantitative analysis of the data showcased that the written corpus was more interactive oriented despite the fact that the spoken corpus showed a propensity towards the interactional category of metadiscourse features. On the other hand, the analysis of the concordance lines illustrated that academic conventions differed significantly in spoken and written academic English which resulted in a dynamic interaction between writer-reader as well as speaker-audience. The results of the study at hand may have implications in such lines of research as corpus linguistics, contrastive analysis and genre studies.

LANGUAGE CONCEPTS «DAY» AND «NIGHT» IN THE POETIC WORLD OF F.I. TYUTCHEV (THE EXPERIENCE OF CORPUS RESEARCH)

The present study is devoted to the interpretation of linguistic concepts “Day” and “Night” in the artistic texts of the classic of Russian poetry F.I. Tyutchev. The research is carried out in an interdisciplinary aspect based on the linguistic understanding of the concept and the interpretation of this concept in the literary study of the poetic text. In addition, the research uses corpus linguistics methods and corpus technologies for the analysis of a work of art. The relevance of the topic selection is due to the increasing interest of scientists in corpus studies of literary text. The research has a scientific novelty, which is justified by the insufficient development of algorithms for corpus research of poetic text, especially in terms of identifying concepts and their interpretation. The paper comprehensively reveals the theoretical foundations of the study of concepts in various aspects: linguistic, literary, corpus. The works of Kazakhstani scientists on the concepts on the basis of which the theoretical basis of the study is being built are reflected. The structure of the concept, its types and relationship with the author's idea are revealed. In the practical part, the interpretation of the concepts “Day” and “Night” in the lyrics of F.I. Tyutchev is presented, a corpus study is conducted to identify the frequency of use of a particular concept, the relationship of the concept with the thematic focus of the poem and its ideological content, interesting observations and conclusions are made. In addition to the theoretical substantiation of the problem of interpretation of artistic concepts in a poetic text, the paper presents an algorithm for the study of the concepts “Day” and “Night” in F.I. Tyutchev's poems, based on work with the RNC (Russian National Corpus).

Framing the Polish-Belarusian Border in 2021. The Case of Public Service Television (TVP)

ABSTRACT The 2021 events at the Belarus–European Union border have had considerable political, economic, and humanitarian consequences. Combining insights from the Discourse-Historical Approach and Corpus-Assisted Discourse Analysis with securitization theory, the paper investigates the dominant frames identified in the coverage of the border events by the largest Polish television network (TVP). The findings suggest that TVP portrayed immigrants and refugees mostly as dangerous, relying on the stereotypical image of the Muslim Other. Utilizing quantitative methods to analyze large data samples, the study illustrates how corpus linguistics tools provide valuable insights for social science research.

Corpus linguistics and the social sciences

Abstract Corpus linguistics, with its methodological orientation towards the empirical analysis of language based on large text collections, has the potential to offer significant tools for addressing real-world problems across various social science domains, including climate change, criminology, healthcare and policy making. Despite this potential, the integration of corpus linguistics into social science disciplines (beyond linguistics) remains hampered by fundamental differences in epistemology, definitions and methodological approaches. This article explores the relationship between corpus linguistics and the social sciences. It is argued that epistemology, or the theory of knowledge, represents a primary barrier to integration, with much corpus linguistics research aligning with positivist and naturalist epistemologies. By contrast, many social science disciplines embrace more interpretive, conventionalist approaches that account for the dynamic nature of social phenomena. Considering the role of naturalism and conventionalism within both corpus linguistics and the social sciences, this article illustrates how these epistemological stances are likely to influence the acceptance and use of corpus methods in social science research. Despite the challenges, areas of convergence (e.g. shared use of data processing tools and the acknowledgement of the central role of language in social processes) provide opportunities for cross-disciplinary collaboration. As means to bridge the epistemological divide, this article advocates for a critical realist approach and concludes by calling on users of corpus linguistic methods to be reflexive and transparent about their epistemological stances when reporting their research.

Использование машинного обучения для тематической разметки текстовых материалов корпуса устной речи

The research aims to determine the effectiveness of the thesaurus method for forming a list of topic classes when using machine learning for the topic classification of text materials of sociolinguistic interviews. The paper considers the potential of using machine learning in the topic annotation of linguistic corpus materials. The polytopical nature of the analyzed material is due to its genre belonging to dialogical speech. The hierarchical structure of the topics, identified as a result of a preliminary introspective analysis of the texts, can be described using a thesaurus. The results of using the unsupervised machine learning method are discussed involving two sets of topic class names: a list of topics used in manual text annotation and an extended list of micro-topics whose names were selected from a Russian language thesaurus. The paper is novel in that it is the first to propose the thesaurus method for selecting topic labels for the zero-shot classification of weakly structured Russian texts. The research findings show that using a more detailed lexical description for topic classes improves the classification result.

Mediatization of the Ecological Security in the English Media: Corpus-Assisted Approach

Introduction. The relevance of the work is due to the interest of linguistics in the issues of discursive mediatization of socially significant phenomena in the English-language media, in particular environmental safety as the most important value of modern society. The scientific novelty of the study lies in establishing the content of the value “environmental safety” on the basis of systematization and quantification of semantic fields that are correlated with the main topics that determine the interpretation of this socially significant phenomenon in the British media and form a discourse-based thesaurus of its representation. Methodology and sources. The paper used corpus linguistics methods and the interpretative method of discourse analysis. The empirical basis of the study was a corpus of media texts of high-quality and popular media devoted to environmental safety issues, the corpus size was more than 200 thousand words. Results and discussion. Based on corpus analysis, semantic fields were identified that represent the concept under study in the high-quality and popular British press. It is shown that in the media narratives of the British media, ES is closely associated with climate change and global warming. It was revealed that the dominant topics in narratives about environmental security in both types of media are: 1) the environment; 2) science; 3) politics. A comparative analysis of the semantic fields showed the predominance of the semantic field “science” in high-quality media, which indicates rational and logical strategies for influencing a wide readership. In the texts of popular media, the semantic field “politics” dominates, which indicates the politicization of the discourse of environmental safety and indicates a strategy of emotional impact on the addressee. Both corpora emphasize the issues of climate change, related to unfavourable weather conditions and extremely high temperatures, however, high-quality press texts mention temperature anomalies much more often, which indicates an attempt to arouse public concern about the existing threat and encourage the adoption of necessary measures. Conclusion. The proposed methodology can be used in analyzing the specifics of other media discursive practices in terms of their discursive-textual organization, in studying the rhetorical, pragmatic and linguocultural organization of environmental safety discourse in sociocultural and ideological perspectives.

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.

Exploring critical reception and thematic trends: A corpus-based analysis of critic reviews for 'While You Were Sleeping'

This study presents a corpus-based analysis of 51 critic reviews of the romantic comedy "While You Were Sleeping", sourced from RottenTomatoes, to explore the linguistic nuances, thematic focuses, and sentiment orientation in film criticism. Employing corpus linguistics and critical discourse analysis, the study systematically examines the language and thematic patterns in these reviews, aiming to understand the broader dialogue about cinema and its cultural impact. The analysis reveals several key themes: the balance between charm and credibility, the significance of lead performances, narrative plausibility versus genre conventions, cultural and seasonal context, divergent perspectives on humor and tone, the importance of cinematic style and directorial choices, reflections on the romantic comedy genre, and audience engagement and emotional resonance. These findings highlight the complex and multifaceted nature of film criticism, particularly in the romantic comedy genre, where films are evaluated not just for entertainment but also for narrative structure, character development, and adherence to genre norms. The study underscores the importance of external factors such as cultural context and timing in film reception and emphasizes the impact of lead performances and casting decisions on audience engagement and film perception. It contributes to a deeper understanding of film criticism, extending beyond mere entertainment to encompass cultural, narrative, and stylistic considerations. The insights gained can inform future film productions, critiques, and academic discussions in cinema studies.

Fair or biased? A corpus-based study of Australia’s early COVID-19 media representation of China

ABSTRACT Given the surge in xenophobia faced by Chinese communities during the pandemic, there is a pressing need to delve into the concealed ideologies within public discourse that fuel discrimination. Against this backdrop, this study employs Critical Discourse Analysis and Corpus Linguistics to scrutinise the discursive construction and communication of China’s image in Australian print media during the early outbreak of COVID-19. The analysis uncovered recurrent negative depictions of the Chinese government, associating it with authoritarianism and responsibility for the pandemic. In the context of blame attribution and racialisation of COVID-19 terms, a counter-narrative was observed in Australian newspapers, reflecting journalistic efforts to present a balanced perception of China and to challenge the prevailing racialisation and discrimination. Furthermore, the study revealed Australian media’s focus on economic consequences over human losses during the early outbreak of this pandemic. That underscores China’s role as Australia’s indispensable economic partner. This research contends that the depiction of China in Australian news discourses during the COVID-19 pandemic is intertwined with historical tensions, bilateral relations, and journalistic efforts to counter prevailing biases.

Understanding tourism consumer behavior using biometric technologies: bibliographic review and research agenda

Recent technological advances, particularly in biometrics, have significantly impacted the tourism industry. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, these technologies have grown rapidly, posing challenges and opportunities in utilizing the resulting data. This study aims to develop a research agenda concerning biometrics in tourism consumer behavior, detailing what biometric data entails and outlining its diverse applications. Through a bibliographic review of 422 recent papers, employing machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques, we extracted keywords, topics, and frequencies using the methodological approach of corpus linguistics and latent Dirichlet allocation algorithm. The results identified 26 topics, including “KPIs”,” Techniques”, “Personalization”, “Health”, and “Travel and transport”. Furthermore, we observed that the COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically impacted the tourism sector, with “Health” present in four categories. The practical implications of our study suggest that companies can find the issues that most concern the tourism consumer in the lines of research presented in the research agenda, paying particular attention to the lines developed in the research agenda involving “personalization”, "travel and transport" and "health".

Perceptions of Forms of Address in European Portuguese in Online Metadiscourse or What Happens When You Use você in Court

The point of departure for this study is an incident in 2020 when a football manager testifying in a Lisbon court used the pronoun of address você and was reprimanded. With the aid of corpus linguistics, we qualitatively analyse the comments (understood as metacomments) that this case generated on media outlets and social media. The main conclusion is that the sociocultural foundations of EP (European Portuguese) address are polarised and unstable based on the following: the nexus between forms of address and the expression of (im)politeness is often rejected, with concerns that a complex system of address might impede an egalitarian society; despite this, discernment remains a core facet, expressed in the concern for finding appropriate sociolinguistic rules so as to arrive at forms understood as intrinsically (im)polite. Furthermore, a binary T/V dimension does not apply to the EP system, and although a N (neutral) dimension should be added, the polarised perceptions of EP address preclude clear candidates not only for the N platform but also, to an extent, for the V dimension. Fifty years after the 1974 ‘Carnation’ Revolution that initiated the transition to democracy in Portugal, EP conceptualisations of address show that sociocultural concerns for an egalitarian society coexist with persistent concerns for hierarchy and rules.