scholarly journals Inclusion, Contrast and Polysemy in Dictionaries: The Relationship between Theory, Language Use and Lexicographic Practice

2014 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 319-340
Author(s):  
Anu Koskela
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Lexical Item ◽  
British National Corpus ◽  
Lexical Items ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
National Corpus

This paper explores the lexicographic representation of a type of polysemy that arises when the meaning of one lexical item can either include or contrast with the meaning of another, as in the case of dog/bitch, shoe/boot, finger/thumb and animal/bird. A survey of how such pairs are represented in monolingual English dictionaries showed that dictionaries mostly represent as explicitly polysemous those lexical items whose broader and narrower readings are more distinctive and clearly separable in definitional terms. They commonly only represented the broader readings for terms that are in fact frequently used in the narrower reading, as shown by data from the British National Corpus.  

Uzbek re-modeled

2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 313-333
Author(s):  
Lydia Catedral
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Language Planning ◽  
Russian Language ◽  
Semantic Classes ◽  
Unique Approach ◽  
Lexical Items ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract This study investigates the relationship between Russian language use and language planning in the context of newly independent, post-soviet Uzbekistan (1991–1992). It is guided by the question: In what ways does the use of Russian loanwords in Uzbek language newspapers accomplish language planning in newly independent Uzbekistan? The main finding from this analysis is that post-independence use of Russian loanwords from particular semantic classes in particular contexts reinforce overtly stated ideologies about Russian and construct difference between soviet Uzbekistan and independent Uzbekistan. These findings demonstrate the need to reexamine the role of Russian language in post-soviet contexts, and they contribute a unique approach to analyzing links between lexical items and ideology in language planning.

scholarly journals Rivalry or alliance?: the relationship between hyperbole and literal language

2013 ◽  
pp. 285
Author(s):  
Laura Cano Mora
Keyword(s):  
Figurative Language ◽  
Common Pattern ◽  
Naturally Occurring ◽  
British National Corpus ◽  
Literal Expression ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
National Corpus ◽  
Figurative Expressions

This paper focuses on the relationship between neighbouring literal and figurative expressions, a much under-researched area in figurative language theories. Traditionally it has been assumed that language is used figuratively when a literal expression would be inadequate, thus supporting the view that figurative and literal language replace or substitute each other. In order to question this view and to explore this relationship, a group of hyperbolic adverbs extracted from the British National Corpus and used in naturally-occurring speech was examined. The results show that hyperbole and literal comments seem to extend and complement, rather than replace, each other. This complementation is often achieved through paraphrase or clarification of a preceding remark, whether literal or exaggerated. The analysis also seems to suggest that if speakers need to add some information the most common pattern is a hyperbole followed, rather than preceded, by a literal expression.El presente artículo se centra en el estudio de la relación entre expresiones literales y figuradas adyacentes, cuestión rara vez investigada en las teorías del lenguaje figurado. Tradicionalmente se ha creído que los hablantes utilizamos las figuras cuando el lenguaje literal resulta inadecuado, reafirmando así la idea de que el lenguaje literal y figurado se sustituyen el uno al otro. Con el fin de cuestionar esta visión y explorar dicha relación examinamos un grupo de adverbios hiperbólicos usados en conversaciones reales extraídas del British National Corpus. Los resultados indican que la hipérbole y el uso literal del lenguaje parecen complementarse en lugar de reemplazarse. Con frecuencia dicha complementariedad se consigue a través de la paráfrasis o clarificación de un comentario previo, ya sea literal o exagerado. El análisis a su vez parece sugerir que cuando el hablante siente la necesidad de añadir información el patrón más común es una hipérbole seguida, en lugar de precedida, de una expresión literal.

scholarly journals Extracting Significant Words in Engineering Texts for Specialised Language Descriptions

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (12) ◽  
pp. 5862-5868
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Visual Representations ◽  
Academic Discourse ◽  
Multivariate Technique ◽  
Technical Vocabulary ◽  
Reference Corpus ◽  
Language Needs ◽  
British National Corpus ◽  
Potential Tool ◽  
National Corpus

The academic discourse of a specialised language is characterised by specialised and technical vocabulary, and lexicogrammar. Studies on language description suggest the need to explore and determine the specific characteristics of the academic discourse of each specialised language, to serve the language needs of the learners. This study demonstrates an exploration of this discipline specificity by looking at the nouns used in a specialised language - an Engineering English. It attempts to integrate a multivariate technique, i.e. the Correspondence Analysis (CA), as a tool to extract significant nouns in a specialised language for any further language use scrutiny. CA allows visual representations of the word interrelationships across different genres in a specialised language. To exemplify this, an Engineering English Corpus (E2C) was created. E2C is composed of two sub-corpora (genres): Engineering reference books (RBC) and online journals articles (EJC). The British National Corpus (BNC) was used as the reference corpus. 30 key-key-nouns were identified from the E2C, and the frequency lists of the words were retrieved from all the corpora to run the CA. The CA maps of the nouns display how these corpora are different from each other, as well as, which words characterise not only E2C from a general corpus (BNC), but also the different genres in E2C. Thus, CA proves to be a potential tool to display words which characterise not only a specialised corpus from a general corpus, but also the different genres in that specialised corpus. This study promises more informed descriptions of a specialised language can be made with the identification of specific and significant vocabulary for any academic discourse investigations.

scholarly journals Are Synonyms Always Synonymous? A Corpus-assisted Approach to Announce, Declare, and State

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ike Susanti Effendi ◽  
Riska Amalia ◽  
Sakinah Asa Lalita
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Corpus Linguistics ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Authentic Materials ◽  
Word Combination ◽  
Instrument Analysis ◽  
Data Source ◽  
British National Corpus ◽  
National Corpus

<p><em>The study on (near) synonymous word has been of intriguing topic in the recent decades. Scholars have investigated them from diverse perspectives including but not limited to semantics, grammar, and language teaching. However, few of them examine synonymous verbs. This study endeavors to scrutinize ‘announce’, ‘declare’, and ‘state’ by employing descriptive qualitative approach and British National Corpus as data source. Besides, it also attempts to shed pivotal light the pedagogical implication of corpus linguistics to the teaching of word or vocabulary and meaning in use. Sketch Engine is used as instrument analysis by which collocation and concordance analysis were employed to elucidate word combination and contexts to produce meaning. The findings demonstrate that ‘announce’, ‘declare’, and ‘state’ could not be used rudimentary interchangeably since they carry out (slightly) different meaning depending on collocate word and grammatical pattern. This study also corroborated the notion that corpus linguistics plays significant role in foreign language teaching since it offers authentic materials and contextual clue for language use.</em><strong><em></em></strong></p>

scholarly journals The necessity modals have to, must, need to, and should

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 220-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bert Cappelle ◽  
Ilse Depraetere ◽  
Mégane Lesuisse
Keyword(s):  
High Frequency ◽  
Short Circuit ◽  
Lexical Item ◽  
British National Corpus ◽  
Pragmatic Aspects ◽  
National Corpus ◽  
Shared Environments

Abstract When an ambiguous lexical item appears within a familiar string of words, it can instantly receive an appropriate interpretation from this context, thus being saturated by it. Such a context may also short-circuit illocutionary and other pragmatic aspects of interpretation. We here extract from the British National Corpus over 500 internally highly collocating and high-frequency lexical n-grams up to 5 words containing have to, must, need to, and/or should. These contexts-as-constructions go some way toward allowing us to group these four necessity modals into clusters with similar semantic and pragmatic properties and to determine which of them is semantico-pragmatically most unlike the others. It appears that have to and need to cluster most closely together thanks to their shared environments (e.g., you may have/need to…, expressing contingent, mitigated necessity), while should has the largest share of unique n-grams (e.g., rhetorical Why shouldn’t I…?, used as a defiant self-exhortation).

scholarly journals Context-Based Interpretation of Subordinating Conjunctions in Communication

Languages ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 62
Author(s):  
Aziz Thabit Saeed ◽  
Saleh Al-Salman
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Interactive Communication ◽  
Adequate Knowledge ◽  
British National Corpus ◽  
Syntactic Constraints ◽  
Lexical Density ◽  
National Corpus

While acknowledging that different conjunctions define different relationships between ideas, this study focuses on the interpretation of four subordinating conjunctions, namely, because, since, for and as in causal clauses. Since the meanings of these conjunctions vary according to context, among other things, they usually pose problems to language users leading to misinterpretations. Not only does this emerge from the fine and minute distinctions in usage between them, but also due to the lack of adequate knowledge of the rules of language use in their metatheoretical framework. This kind of knowledge is crucial in interactive communication, speech acts, pragmatics, logical arguments and multidisciplinary debates. The data for this study were compiled from grammar books, articles, and from the British National Corpus (BNC). The data were analyzed not only to identify the discrete features of each conjunction that would render it different from its synonymous counterparts, but also to understand the kind of knowledge required to determine the choice. The findings of the study reveal that, in addition to the syntactic constraints, the degree of the ‘givenness’ or ‘newness’ of the information that the conjunction introduces, context, degree of formality of the register, and lexical density of the utterance that contains the conjunctions emerged to play a role.

scholarly journals Normality and normalcy: A case of -ity/-cy doublets in the BNC

2021 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 189-201
Author(s):  
Tamara Jevrić
Keyword(s):  
Derivational Morphology ◽  
Strong Connection ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
British National Corpus ◽  
Lexical Items ◽  
Semantic Distinction ◽  
National Corpus

Corpus-based research into derivational morphology can explain how affixes function, answer questions about their productivity and its relation to their synonymy, and clarify the rivalry between certain affixes and their semantic distinction. The aim of this research is to establish the similarities and differences between the nouns normality and normalcy by contrasting the suffixes -ity and -cy they contain in the British National Corpus (BNC). The focus is on the collocates which precede the nouns and the sources in which they appear. The attempt is also to understand what characterises the suffixes and their distribution. By focusing on normality and normalcy, we examine how lexical items behave in an electronically-stored corpus and whether a strong connection between meaning and form manifests itself in different word patterns highlighting different aspects of meaning.

scholarly journals Adverbs In Expressions of Disagreement: a Corpus Study

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 159-175
Author(s):  
Rika Mutiara
Keyword(s):  
American English ◽  
Corpus Study ◽  
Semantic Categories ◽  
Language Functions ◽  
British National Corpus ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
National Corpus

This study examined the occurrences of expressions of disagreement in the textbook and corpora namely Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) and British National Corpus (BNC). Besides, this study scrutinized the concordance lines in which disagreement occur to obtain other language functions that were usually used together in expressions of disagreement. It also studied the used of adverbs in expressions of disagreement. They were categorized based on semantic categories develop by Biber, et al. (1999). Some expressions of disagreement given in the textbook were not found in BNC. The findings from the corpora showed that the speakers tend to give opinions and reasons in stating disagreement. They, moreover, showed direct respect to the interlocutors in order to manage the relationship. These language functions were not found in the expressions of disagreement in the textbook. The adverbs that belonged to the categories of degree and stance were more salient than any other categories. The adverbs intensified the level of disagreement and represent speakers’ certainty. Furthermore, the adverbs indicate speakers’ attitude toward the issues of disagreement. It seemed that adverbs played a role in stating disagreement. However, no expressions of disagreement in the textbook contained adverbs.---Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengecek kemunculan ungkapan yang digunakan untuk menyatakan tidak setuju di buku teks dan korpus. Korpus tersebut adalah Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) dan British National Corpus (BNC). Selain itu, penelitian ini mengkaji ungkapan lain yang biasanya muncul ketika menyatakan tidak setuju dengan menganalisa baris konkordansi. Lebih dalam lagi, penelitian ini menganalisa adverbial yang muncul dalam ungkapan menyatakan tidak setuju. Adverbia dikategorikan berdasarkan klasifikasi yang dikembangkan oleh Biber, dkk (1999). Beberapa ungkapan yang muncul di buku teks tidak ditemukan di BNC. Penutur cenderung memberikan pendapat dan alasan  ketika menyatakan tidak setuju. Mereka juga menunjukan sikap hormat kepada lawan bicaranya untuk menjaga hubungan. Hali seperti ini tidak ditemui di ungkapan menyatakan tidak setuju yang terdapat di buku teks. Adverbia yang berfungsi untuk menunjukan kadar dan kepastian dalam ungkapan tidak setuju merupakan fitur penting. Selain itu, adverbia yang merefleksikan sikap penutur juga menjadi fitur yang menonjol dalam menyatakan tidak setuju. Hal ini menunjukan bahwa adverbia memiliki peranan tersendiri ketika penutur menyatakan tidak setuju. Namun, semua ungkapan menyatakan tidak setuju di buku teks tidak memuat adverbia.DOI : 10.15408/bat.v24i1.7017

Die Macht der Bilder und Bilder der Macht: die sprachliche Konstruktion von Nationalismus und Konservatismus in der strategischen politischen Kommunikation von Vox España

2020 ◽  
Vol 136 (2) ◽  
pp. 538-566
Author(s):  
Sandra Issel-Dombert
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Multimodal Discourse ◽  
The Social ◽  
Core Elements ◽  
The Media ◽  
Right Wing Populism ◽  
The One ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractFrom a theoretical and empirical linguistic point of view, this paper emphasizes the importance of the relationship between populism and the media. The aim of this article is to explore the language use of the Spanish right wing populism party Vox on the basis of its multimodal postings on the social network Instagram. For the analysis of their Instagram account, a suitable multimodal discourse analysis (MDA) provides a variety of methods and allows a theoretical integration into constructivism. A hashtag-analysis reveals that Vox’s ideology consists of a nativist and ethnocentric nationalism on the one hand and conservatism on the other. With a topos analysis, the linguistic realisations of these core elements are illustrated with two case studies.

“That’s well good”: A Re-emergent Intensifier in Current British English

2020 ◽  
pp. 007542422097914
Author(s):  
Karin Aijmer
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Social Factors ◽  
British English ◽  
Discourse Marker ◽  
Time Gap ◽  
British National Corpus ◽  
Semantic Types ◽  
Over Time ◽  
National Corpus

Well has a long history and is found as an intensifier already in older English. It is argued that diachronically well has developed from its etymological meaning (‘in a good way’) on a cline of adverbialization to an intensifier and to a discourse marker. Well is replaced by other intensifiers in the fourteenth century but emerges in new uses in Present-Day English. The changes in frequency and use of the new intensifier are explored on the basis of a twenty-year time gap between the old British National Corpus (1994) and the new Spoken British National Corpus (2014). The results show that well increases in frequency over time and that it spreads to new semantic types of adjectives and participles, and is found above all in predicative structures with a copula. The emergence of a new well and its increase in frequency are also related to social factors such as the age, gender, and social class of the speakers, and the informal character of the conversation.

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