scholarly journals Book Review

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 50-55
Author(s):  
Yanwei Wang
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Corpus Linguistics ◽  
Lexical Priming ◽  
Linguistic Methodology ◽  
Corpus Linguistic ◽  
Semantics And Pragmatics

The significance of Patterson's work Understanding Metaphor Through Corpora: A Case Study of Metaphors in Nineteenth Century Writing is that only through corpus linguistics have we been able to apply real empirical evidence to our arguments of what metaphor is. By demonstrating that metaphor is supposed to be approached from a linguistic perspective along with a psycholinguistic one, Patterson succeeds in drawing readers' attention to the efficacy and the benefits of combining corpus linguistic methodology with the theory of lexical priming. Thus, the volume is an essential reader for students and researchers in corpus linguistics, metaphor studies, lexicography, semantics, and pragmatics.

Corpus linguistics in language and sexuality studies

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heiko Motschenbacher
Keyword(s):  
Corpus Linguistics ◽  
American English ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Theoretical Discussion ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Sexuality Studies ◽  
Linguistic Methodology ◽  
Corpus Linguistic ◽  
Queer Linguistics ◽  
Per Se

Abstract As an introduction to the special issue, this paper presents an overview of previous corpus linguistic work in the field of language and sexuality and discusses the compatibility of corpus linguistic methodology with queer linguistics as a central theoretical approach in language and sexuality studies. The discussion is structured around five prototypical aspects of corpus linguistics that may be deemed problematic from a poststructuralist, queer linguistic perspective: quantification and associated notions of objectivity, reliance on linguistic forms and formal presence, concentration on highly frequent features, reliance on categories, and highlighting of differences. It is argued that none of these aspects rules out an application of corpus linguistic techniques within queer theoretically informed linguistic work per se and that it is rather the way these techniques are employed that can be seen as more or less compatible with queer linguistics. To complement the theoretical discussion, a collocation analysis of sexual descriptive adjectives in the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) is conducted in an attempt to address some of the issues raised. The concluding section makes suggestions for future research.

scholarly journals Corpora and historical linguistics

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 417-457 ◽  
Author(s):  
Merja Kytö
Keyword(s):  
Corpus Linguistics ◽  
Historical Linguistics ◽  
Academic Career ◽  
Wide Spectrum ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Linguistic Methodology ◽  
Future Developments ◽  
Corpus Linguistic ◽  
Language History ◽  
Current State

The present article aims to survey and assess the current state of electronic historical corpora and corpus methodology, and attempts to look into possible future developments. It highlights the fact that within the wide spectrum of corpus linguistic methodology, historical corpus linguistics has emerged as a vibrant field that has significantly added to the appeal felt for the study of language history and change. In fact, according to a historical linguist with more than fifty years of experience, "[w]e could even go as far as to say that without the support and new impetus provided by corpora, evidence-based historical linguistics would have been close to the end of its life-span in these days of rapid-changing life and research, increasing competition on the academic career track and the methodological attractions offered to young scholars" (RISSANEN, forthcoming). Historical corpora and other electronic resources have also made the study of language history attractive: working on them engages students in an individual and interactive way that they find appealing (CURZAN 2000, p. 81).

Measuring the success of prescriptivism: quantitative grammaticography, corpus linguistics and the progressive passive

2014 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
LIESELOTTE ANDERWALD
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Quantitative Study ◽  
Corpus Linguistics ◽  
Language Change ◽  
American English ◽  
Careful Analysis ◽  
Text Type ◽  
Corpus Linguistic ◽  
National Differences ◽  
The Us

This article connects the quantitative study of grammaticography with a more traditional corpus-linguistic investigation of the progressive passive. Based on a careful analysis of over 250 grammars of English published during the nineteenth century in Britain and the US, I will try to answer the question whether prescriptivism has had any influence on purported differences between British and American English in the rise of the progressive passive. This article will argue that text-type sensitivity is the overriding factor determining the occurrence of the progressive passive in the nineteenth century, rather than national differences between British and American English. Prescriptive comments during the nineteenth century did not influence developments in American English significantly. However, during the 1950s modern-style prescriptivism can be shown to have massive effects on American newspaper language. Combining quantitative historical grammaticography and corpus-linguistic studies can thus extend our insights into the factors that influence language change.

Complementary perspectives on hedging behaviour in family discourse

2011 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 371-390 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Clancy
Keyword(s):  
Home Environment ◽  
Corpus Linguistics ◽  
Illustrative Case ◽  
Social Categories ◽  
Corpus Linguistic ◽  
Family Discourse ◽  
Language Variety ◽  
Pragmatic Analysis ◽  
Illustrative Case Study

This paper argues that corpus linguistics offers a methodology which benefits variational pragmatic analysis in a number of ways. Corpus linguistic tools such as word frequency lists allow the researcher to construct a detailed “pragmatic profile” of a word, cluster or act. This, coupled with the fact that most corpora are constructed to be representative of a particular language variety, facilitates an accurate account of language-use differences across various social categories. Pragmatic analysis relies heavily on context for its interpretation. Therefore, an illustrative case study of two corpora representing spoken language recorded in the home environment, one from a middle class Irish family and one from a family from the Irish Traveller Community will be utilised in order to elucidate the benefits of the synergy of corpus linguistics and variational pragmatics. Specifically, the variational distribution of the occurrences of hedges across these two distinct cultural groupings will be examined.

scholarly journals Problematising characteristicness

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheryl Prentice ◽  
Jo Knight ◽  
Paul Rayson ◽  
Mahmoud El Haj ◽  
Nathan Rutherford
Keyword(s):  
Association Study ◽  
Corpus Linguistics ◽  
Association Studies ◽  
Flux Analysis ◽  
Corpus Linguistic ◽  
Expert Assessments

Abstract Keyness is a commonly used method in corpus linguistics and is assumed to identify key items that are characteristic of 1 corpus when compared to another. This paper puts this assumption to the test by comparing case study corpora in the fields of genetic, immunological and psychiatric biomedical association studies, using what we refer to as a ‘K-FLUX’ analysis to produce a set of key items. Experts from within these fields are asked to evaluate the extent to which identified key items are characteristic of their discipline. The paper concludes that less than 50% of the items identified by the method are rated as highly characteristic by experts and that this ranges between types of association study. Further, there is difficulty in reaching a consensus over what is deemed to be ‘characteristic’, thus posing a challenge to the ultimate aim of the keyness method. The paper demonstrates the value of supporting corpus linguistic studies with expert assessments to evaluate whether (and which) items can be said to be indicative of a particular field.

scholarly journals Space and Time in 100 Million Words: Health and Disease in a Nineteenth-century Newspaper

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 196-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine Porter ◽  
Paul Atkinson ◽  
Ian N. Gregory
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Corpus Linguistics ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Geospatial Technologies ◽  
Victorian Culture ◽  
Reading Methods ◽  
Digital Format ◽  
Health And Disease ◽  
Research Questions

The abundance of information contained in nineteenth-century texts means the traditional ‘close reading’ of Victorian culture has limitations. With the burgeoning availability of newspapers in digital format, there is a pressing need to look at how we might effectively and efficiently use these digital resources to help answer research questions and add to key historical and geographical debates. Focusing on the analysis of a large digital corpus, this paper has two key foci: (I) to apply an innovative digital methodology, that combines corpus linguistics and geospatial technologies, to a very large corpus of newspaper texts and; (II) apply said methodology to a case study assessing the presentation of health and disease in a nineteenth-century newspaper. The paper illustrates that by linking existing techniques with new and innovative approaches it is possible to temporally and spatially analyse and map themes of interest in large digital corpora on a scale not possible through more traditional close reading methods.

‘A Routh O’ Auld Nick-Nackets’ – the antiquarian collection of John Rae

2015 ◽  
Vol 36-37 (1) ◽  
pp. 163-183
Author(s):  
Paul Taylor
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Social Context ◽  
Moral Education ◽  
The United States ◽  
Representative Case ◽  
National Museums ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The University

John Rae, a Scottish antiquarian collector and spirit merchant, played a highly prominent role in the local natural history societies and exhibitions of nineteenth-century Aberdeen. While he modestly described his collection of archaeological lithics and other artefacts, principally drawn from Aberdeenshire but including some items from as far afield as the United States, as a mere ‘routh o’ auld nick-nackets' (abundance of old knick-knacks), a contemporary singled it out as ‘the best known in private hands' (Daily Free Press 4/5/91). After Rae's death, Glasgow Museums, National Museums Scotland, the University of Aberdeen Museum and the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, as well as numerous individual private collectors, purchased items from the collection. Making use of historical and archive materials to explore the individual biography of Rae and his collection, this article examines how Rae's collecting and other antiquarian activities represent and mirror wider developments in both the ‘amateur’ antiquarianism carried out by Rae and his fellow collectors for reasons of self-improvement and moral education, and the ‘professional’ antiquarianism of the museums which purchased his artefacts. Considered in its wider nineteenth-century context, this is a representative case study of the early development of archaeology in the wider intellectual, scientific and social context of the era.

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