Corpus Linguistic Methods Research Articles

Topic modelling as a method for framing analysis of news coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022–2023

This study critically analyses the representation of the Russia-Ukraine war in Western (the Euronews) and Eastern (the Kyiv Post) media discourses. It examines how media organisations shape narratives through strategic framing. Employing the Natural Language Processing technique – Topic Modelling – with a generative probabilistic model LDA and a transformer-based language model BERT, the study reveals generic frames elaborated by more specific extensions, shedding light on media portrayal of economy, public opinion, security & defence, external regulations, policy evaluation, and health & safety sectors. Through Named Entity Recognition with roBERTa, Sentiment Analysis with distilBERT, and Corpus Linguistics methods with LancsBox X, interpretation of these overarching frames provides a comprehensive analysis of the nuances in narratives, societal perceptions and policy decisions amidst the ongoing war.

BOOK REVIEW: CORPUS LINGUISTICS AND SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION: PERSPECTIVES, ISSUES, FINDINGS

This article discusses the application of corpus linguistic methods in second language acquisition (SLA) research. It highlights the significance of utilizing native and learner corpora, along with automated tools for corpus annotation and analysis, to explore various aspects of SLA. The article is based on a book titled "Corpus Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition: Perspectives, Issues, Findings," which covers five chapters. These chapters delve into topics such as variations in L2 usage at a group level, factors influencing L2 processing and production, group-level longitudinal trajectories of L2 development, and inter- and intra-learner variability in L2 development. The book aims to provide valuable insights and methodologies for researchers interested in employing corpus linguistic methods to enhance their SLA research.

Shedding new light on English loanwords in Croatian: computational-linguistic and corpus linguistic perspectives

Abstract English loanwords in Croatian have been thoroughly investigated in terms of the degree of their adaptation, use across different styles and domains, and speakers’ attitudes. Most studies rely on selectively chosen examples or specialized corpora. To provide systematic data on a subgroup of English loanwords, those that occur in orthographically unadapted forms, new resources have been recently developed. They provide the data on the identification of unadapted English loanwords in Croatian, their meaning, native equivalents, and frequency. The aim of this paper is to bring together recent findings on unadapted English loanwords in Croatian, obtained from a set of studies in which computational-linguistic and corpus linguistic methods were used, with the purpose of providing a new insight into the phenomenon.

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.

Retelling the Story of the Birds and the Bees in the Age of Biodiversity Extinction

John Lovejoy coined the term biological diversity in 1980, made the first projection of global extinction rates, and 43 years later we are still discussing biodiversity and extinction in an inconsequential fashion. Extinction signs include the loss of millions of birds in the UK since 1970 and the decline in insects. Goulson summarizes in detail the scientific and biological evidence for the many species extinctions. Although most people do not notice the declines in insects, the loss of bees has been noted when bees’ use as pollinators began to be harnessed as a corporate and commercial activity. This is linked to intensive agricultural practices. The lobbying power of agrochemical companies shapes agricultural practices that directly impact the well-being of all species. Critical ecological discourse analysis of insect decline and the issues related to it is employed, going back to the famous speech given by Michael Halliday. Then corpus linguistic methods scrutinize material from the website of Syngenta, an agrochemical company. We ask whether the website of such a firm can uncover the necessary circumstances for such biodiversity. A corpus-assisted critical analysis of Syngenta’s business report, looks at computer-generated concordances of some of the relevant content words, like ‘crop’, ‘sustainable’, ‘soil’, ‘control’, ‘biodiversity’ and ‘water’. Hopefully, this study will encourage researchers to provide more indications of the disappearance of so many species, and not just birds and insects. But, to really achieve effective protection of biodiversity much more is needed.

Tindak Tutur Direktif dalam Novel Azzamine Karya Sophie Aulia

This study aims to describe: (1) the types of directive speech acts in the novel Azzamine by Sophie Aulia. (2) the strategy of directive speech action in the novel Azzamine by Sophie Aulia. (3) the function of directive speech in the novel Azzamine by Sophie Aulia. The object of this research is Sophie Aulia's novel Azzamine which was published in 2022. "Directive speech can be seen in direct communication and can also be seen in a written book in the form of a novel. As a fictional writing, the novel shows the storyline through dialogue between characters. Dialogue in a novel is a form of speech in a certain unique situation or position of speech. This study was conducted to describe (1) the types of directive speech acts in the novel Azzamine by Sophie Aulia, (2) the strategy of directive speech actions in the novel Azzamine by Sophie Aulia, and (3) the function of directive speech acts in the novel Azzamine by Sophie Aulia. This research is a qualitative research using the description method. The data source used in this study is the dialogue of all the characters in Sophie Aulia's novel Azzamine which contains directive speech. The data collection technique in this study, the researcher utilizes the corpus linguistic method using Kortara for data collection and classifies the amount of data that is believed to be included in the act of directive speech. Data analysis is carried out in several steps as follows: (1) identifying data classified as a type of directive speech act using the KORTARA application, (2) classifying data based on research objectives, (3) analyzing the classified data, (5) formulating conclusions from the analysis results. Based on data analysis, three research findings were found. First, there are 5 types of directive speech acts, namely, directive speech acts of instructing, directive speech acts of probing, directive speech acts of demanding, and directive speech acts of defiance. The most dominant directive speech is the directive speech act of ordering and the least used is the act of challenging directive speech. Second, five speaking strategies, namely, "speaking frankly without further ado (BTTB), speaking frankly with positive politeness (BBKP), speaking frankly with negative politeness (BTBKN), vague speaking strategy (BSS), and speaking in the heart or silence (BDH). The most dominant speaking strategy is the strategy of speaking frankly without further ado (BTTB) and the least used is the strategy of speaking in the heart or silently (BDH). Third, the four functions of directive speech acts, namely, competitive functions, convivial functions, collaborative functions, and conflictive functions. The most dominant function of directive speech is the competitive function and the least used is the collaborative function, and the conflictive function.

Women’s voices in the public sphere

Abstract As alternative media, suffrage periodicals played an important role in women’s fight for universal suffrage, which marked a milestone on the road to democracy. Opening up a space for women in public discourse, these papers shaped and were shaped by processes of democratisation. This study explores how they balanced informative, propagandistic and commercial functions, and how women positioned themselves and others as social actors in the context of the movement, challenging gender ideologies. In line with Rühlemann and Aijmer’s (2015) notion of corpus pragmatics, the study combines the assets of corpus-linguistic methods, e.g., by drawing on keywords as pointers to relevant areas of interest, with a pronounced qualitative perspective, complementing the search results by features demanding manual analysis and discussing the findings in their socio-historical context.

Functioning and translation of English and Russian architectural terms in academic discourse

The study provides the analysis of architectural terminology in English and Russian in academic discourse. The object of the study is the terminological system of architecture. The subject of the study is the specifics of the use, functioning and translation of English and Russian architectural terminology in academic discourse. The classification and systematization of architectural terms, their hierarchical structure and functional types in academic texts are considered. In addition, the interdisciplinary nature of the architectural sublanguage is emphasized, which intersects with terms from the fields such as engineering, architecture, construction, art and design. The paper also identifies existing difficulties and problems that arise when translating English and Russian-language architectural terms, including differences in the linguistic structure of languages, semantic ambiguity, the need for a high degree of specialization of the translator for the correct interpretation of the term, the use of idiomatic and figurative language to describe some architectural terms, etc. The study uses a comprehensive methodology, in particular, methods of comparative and component analysis, as well as methods of corpus linguistics used to study semantic fields, hierarchical relationships and functional types of terms. The research results emphasize the importance of standardization of architectural terminology, understanding of cultural and historical background, as well as technical knowledge to ensure effective communication in the global architectural community. Analyzing the corpus of texts, including dictionaries, architectural reviews and academic articles, the author explains how specific terms function in academic discourse. This study makes a special contribution to the development of linguistic research in the field of architecture, offering an in-depth analysis of semantic fields and their role in structuring architectural vocabulary. The novelty of the research lies in an integrated approach to the study of the functioning and translation of architectural terms, which allows to identify the difficulties associated with the interdisciplinary character of the terminology. The results of the study will be useful not only for teachers and translators, but also for international experts in the field of architecture.

Discursive Construction of Immigration Through the Lens of News Values in the Brexit Referendum

This paper aims to analyse how immigration was discursively constructed as a newsworthy topic in the UK’s quality papers’ campaign coverage of the Brexit referendum. To do so, a corpus of four major British broadsheets (The Guardian, The Independent, The Times, and Daily Telegraph) was collected and analysed with a combination of qualitative (Discursive News Values Analysis) and quantitative (Corpus Linguistics) methods. The results show that similar patterns of news values usage appeared in the corpus across the ideological lines (left-right) and Brexit stance (Leave-Remain). Although some dissociation strategies can be observed in the left-wing or Remain backing press, the statistically significant presence of similar linguistic pointers indicates that an anti-immigrant discourse was a salient part of the coverage, even permeating into the left-wing press and the Remain camp’s discourse. The adoption and repetition of such narratives could also, by themselves, lead to further acceptance and normalisation of the common anti-immigrant topoi in the broader discourse of Brexit in society, although more research is needed in this regard.

Social Media Users’ Engagement with Fear Appeal Elements in Government’s Health Crisis Communication via State-Owned Media

Government health messaging is significant to the containment of public health crises. Such communication may benefit from using fear appeal, a message strategy for promoting health and preventing diseases. Yet little scholarly attention has been paid to how fear appeal is employed in government messaging to promote social media engagement through online actions including likes, shares, and comments. These actions play a meaningful role in addressing communication exigencies within the context of health crises. In this study, quantitative content analysis and corpus linguistics methods were employed to analyze fear appeal-related elements in COVID-19 messages sent by a state-owned media outlet on social media. The results show that when compared to messages without threat, messages conveying threat elicited significantly more comments, in which emotions and perceptions to threat and efficacy were exhibited, while messages containing both threat and efficacy generated more engagement in comparison to messages with threat alone. Moreover, while subdimensions under efficacy were positive predictors of engagement, those under threat were primarily found to have exerted negative effects. The findings provide insights into how fear appeal elements can be employed in government health crisis communication to engage the public.

A Pilot Study of Neologisms in Kuwaiti English.

The present work offers insights into lexical aspects of this emerging variety to systematically look into neologisms in Kuwaiti English (KE) using corpus linguistics methods and techniques. Such research results in a deeper understanding of lexical development, productivity, and creativity in the variety under scrutiny, as well as how reciprocal lexical influences develop within a variety (Anesa 3). The study focuses on a written corpus of 337,102 words to see whether or not written English-language texts in Kuwait can provide sufficient data worthy of further exploration. The current project in broad strokes focuses on (i) local neologisms and (ii) L2 neologisms. To flesh out the latter, namely suffixation, compounding, and borrowing, a predetermined list, wildcards, and corpus query language (CQL) were used. For the former, keyness analysis was used, and it was found that this technique provided more insight into indigenous words than suffixation, compounding, predetermined lists, wildcards, and CQL, all of which did not reveal sufficient evidence of neologisms in KE. Overall, keyness analysis was the most successful method in uncovering neologisms in the corpus. As the data indicate, the most productive features of KE seem to be those that are related to culture or religion. It could identify words that were not detected by the other methods. Moreover, more research should be done on more types of neologisms, such as blends, in order to obtain a better understanding of the use of English in Kuwait. According to the study, neologisms are used because they are practical, culturally influenced, and socially acceptable. Additionally, KE neologisms are mainly the result of semantic change, such as semantic restriction. Research on neologisms, especially geared towards understanding cultural or religious concepts incorporated within a variety, seems to be best examined using keyness analysis as it highlights such terms and concepts effectively.

Lexico-grammatical Features of Online Essay Writings Among Chinese EFL Learners

This linguistic study investigates the lexico-grammatical features of Chinese EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners’ argumentative essays. The study utilizes corpus linguistic methods and natural language processing tools to analyze 1460 writing samples from an online learner corpus. Variations in linguistic complexity and sophistication of clause, phrase, and syntactic sophistication across different proficiency levels were examined using AntConc, Multidimensional Analysis Tagger, and TAASSC. The results indicate significant variances in lexico-grammatical complexity and sophistication features between low and high proficiency levels. The study revealed that proficiency levels of EFL learners had varying effects on clausal complexity, phrasal complexity, and syntactic sophistication. The study also identifies limitations in the natural language processing tool used for extracting target indices in argumentative essays. Overall, these findings have implications for EFL teaching, learning, and assessment, and for improving NLP tools.

Adverbia Penanda Aspek dalam Novel Sansai karya Ermanto: Suatu Kajian Morfologi

This study examines the use of adverbial aspect markers in Ermanto's novel Sansai, aiming to revitalize Minangkabau literature by focusing on both cultural and social issues. The research explores how aspect markers influence narrative understanding and temporal dynamics in contemporary Minangkabau prose. Through qualitative document analysis using the Indonesian Language Corpus Linguistic Method (KORTARA), the study identifies and classifies adverbs that denote actions, events, situations, and traits in various temporal contexts. The analysis reveals four types of aspect markers: durative, perfective, imperfective, and inchoative. The novel contains 476 adverbial aspect markers, distributed as follows: 73 durative ("middle"), 64 imperfective ("not yet"), 278 perfective ("already"), and 61 inchoative ("beginning") markers. The perfective aspect "already" emerges as the most frequently used, suggesting a narrative emphasis on completed actions or states. This linguistic analysis provides insights into the narrative structure and temporal nuances of contemporary Minangkabau literature, contributing to a deeper understanding of how language use shapes storytelling and cultural expression. The findings offer a foundation for further exploration of the relationship between linguistic features and literary techniques in regional Indonesian literature.

Word frequency and cognitive effort in turns-at-talk: turn structure affects processing load in natural conversation.

Frequency distributions are known to widely affect psycholinguistic processes. The effects of word frequency in turns-at-talk, the nucleus of social action in conversation, have, by contrast, been largely neglected. This study probes into this gap by applying corpus-linguistic methods on the conversational component of the British National Corpus (BNC) and the Freiburg Multimodal Interaction Corpus (FreMIC). The latter includes continuous pupil size measures of participants of the recorded conversations, allowing for a systematic investigation of patterns in the contained speech and language on the one hand and their relation to concurrent processing costs they may incur in speakers and recipients on the other hand. We test a first hypothesis in this vein, analyzing whether word frequency distributions within turns-at-talk are correlated with interlocutors' processing effort during the production and reception of these turns. Turns are found to generally show a regular distribution pattern of word frequency, with highly frequent words in turn-initial positions, mid-range frequency words in turn-medial positions, and low-frequency words in turn-final positions. Speakers' pupil size is found to tend to increase during the course of a turn at talk, reaching a climax toward the turn end. Notably, the observed decrease in word frequency within turns is inversely correlated with the observed increase in pupil size in speakers, but not in recipients, with steeper decreases in word frequency going along with steeper increases in pupil size in speakers. We discuss the implications of these findings for theories of speech processing, turn structure, and information packaging. Crucially, we propose that the intensification of processing effort in speakers during a turn at talk is owed to an informational climax, which entails a progression from high-frequency, low-information words through intermediate levels to low-frequency, high-information words. At least in English conversation, interlocutors seem to make use of this pattern as one way to achieve efficiency in conversational interaction, creating a regularly recurring distribution of processing load across speaking turns, which aids smooth turn transitions, content prediction, and effective information transfer.

Discrepancies in the portrayal of Japan’s nuclear water release in Chinese and US media outlets: A corpus-based news values analysis of marine disputes

This article aims to explore the reactions and cognitions of Chinese and US societies toward Japan’s nuclear water release by comparing the methods used to construct this event in media reports from these two countries. Adopting corpus linguistic methods and a discursive news value analysis approach, this study examines news values through key words, nomination strategies and photographs in Chinese and US mainstream English language news coverage. The results show that by exercising overall control in multimodal news devices, the Chinese media dominantly constructed Japan’s nuclear water release as an environmentally harmful and legally irresponsible behavior for international society and demonstrated a prominent antagonistic position and critical attitude, while the US media mainly constructed Japan’s nuclear water release as a technically safe and politically rational behavior and manifested its neutral position and acceptive attitude. The results indicate that the acceptance of US society was supported by Japan’s technical treatment of nuclear waste water and by Japan’s political authorities’ justification for their behaviors, while the opposition of Chinese society was supported by their inquiries about the illegality of Japan’s behavior and their worries about the damage caused by Japan to the ocean environment and to the security of the international community. This study revealed the social cognitive grounds for supporting the political positions of the two countries in terms of Japan’s nuclear water release and demonstrated an effective sociological analysis method for examining the maritime disputes and marine strategies of different countries.

Cultural Concepts in the Turkish Translation of „The Knight in the Panther’s Skin“

The present work is a critical analysis of Shota Rustaveli's poem "The Knight in the Panther’s Skin" translated into Turkish by Professor Bilal Dindar and Assistant Professor Zeinelabidin Makas. We will present comparison of the original and translated texts of "The Knight in the Panther’s Skin". "The Knight in the Panther’s Skin" is one of the remarkable monuments of medieval literature. "The Knight in the Panther’s Skin" is an epic work containing lyrical passages, the story of which takes place in Arabia and India. We often find cultural-specific concepts in the target language, the translator tries to adapt the lexical units in the original text to his own culture. These cultural concepts are: sun, moon, devil, wine drinking. We used the following methods during the research: Corpus Linguistic research method, which is relevant in modern humanitarian studies. The use of this method allows to quickly and efficiently process a large amount of empirical material, which simplifies the research process. We have also used method of linguoculturological analysis. Modern linguoculturology studies are of a comparative-contrastive nature, because the national specificity and universality of the concepts are particularly clearly revealed when comparing the materials of two or more languages. According to the linguocultural analysis, we will study the cultural concepts in two different cultural texts, which will help in the detailed description of the cultural concepts expressed in the linguistic process.

Discrepancies in the newsworthiness of maritime security in Chinese and US media outlets: a corpus-based discursive news values analysis

This article analyzes and compares the news values constructed in the English news reporting from Chinese and US mainstream media around events concerning maritime security, revealing how the related events have been packaged and sold differently in the two societies, uncovering the discrepancies in Chinese and US social visions on maritime security, and exploring the social attitudes underpinning the constant conflicts between the two countries in the marine sphere. Adopting corpus linguistic methods and the discursive news values analysis (DNVA) framework, this study examines news values through keywords, naming strategies, and images contained in Chinese and US mainstream English news outlets. The results show that Chinese media established the news values of Positivity and Proximity prominently through both textual and visual reporting, by emphasizing common international interests, advocating diplomatic joint cooperation and demonstrating optimistic attitudes towards the future of marine environment. By contrast, US media keenly construed Negativity and Eliteness, by highlighting the exclusive national interests/security of the US, dwelling on threats from other countries and distinctly demonstrating worries, fears, anger and violence. The differences in newsworthiness reflect that maritime security has been constructed in discrepant ways in Chinese and US society: as international joint security with optimistic perspective in China, and as exclusive national security with pessimistic perspective in US. This study has improved and supplemented the results of the previous China-US marine policy studies by the findings of the social emotions/cognition towards maritime policy revealed through newsworthiness analysis.

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.

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.

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).