scholarly journals Managing Synchronic Corpus Data with the British National Corpus (BNC)

2022 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Corpus Data ◽  
British National Corpus ◽  
National Corpus

Making Sense of Corpus Data

1997 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beth Levin ◽  
Grace Song
Keyword(s):  
Essential Role ◽  
Lexical Semantic ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Corpus Data ◽  
British National Corpus ◽  
Government Binding ◽  
Linguistic Account ◽  
National Corpus

This paper demonstrates the essential role of corpus data in the development of a theory that explains and predicts word behavior. We make this point through a case study of verbs of sound, drawing our evidence primarily from the British National Corpus. We begin by considering pretheoretic notions of the verbs of sound as presented in corpus-based dictionaries and then contrast them with the predictions made by a theory of syntax, as represented by Chomsky's Government-Binding framework. We identify and classify the transitive uses of sixteen representative verbs of sound found in the corpus data. Finally, we consider what a linguistic account with both syntactic and lexical semantic components has to offer as an explanation of observed differences in the behavior of the sample verbs.

Unwitting Inventors: Speakers Use -ly-Adverbs More Creatively when Primed

2018 ◽  
Vol 66 (3) ◽  
pp. 329-340 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hendrik De Smet
Keyword(s):  
Morphological Pattern ◽  
Linguistic Resources ◽  
Linguistic Resource ◽  
Corpus Data ◽  
British National Corpus ◽  
National Corpus

Abstract Speakers may use language creatively because they want to be extravagant, or because they need to communicate content for which no conventional coding solution exists. In addition, however, there is a third motivation for creativity that is both more fundamental and less conspicuous. Speakers are creative because their mental access to linguistic resources is limited and variable – a factor referred to here as ‘availability.’ In this paper, corpus data from the spoken British National Corpus and from the Hansard Corpus are used to show that speakers of English use the morphological pattern of -ly-adverb formation (as in correctly, locally, poorly etc.) more creatively when they have recently heard or used another -ly-adverb. This manifests itself in higher type frequencies – hence, more varied forms – for -ly-adverbs. The effect can be ascribed to priming, and indicates that the creative use of a linguistic resource depends on factors that facilitate mental access to it.

scholarly journals SEPARABLE AND INSEPARABLE TRANSITIVE PHRASAL VERBS

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-58
Author(s):  
Diana Anggraeni ◽  
Cece Sobarna ◽  
Lia Maulia ◽  
Eva Tuckyta Sari Sujatna
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Method ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Data Sources ◽  
Phrasal Verbs ◽  
English Writing ◽  
Transitive Verbs ◽  
Corpus Data ◽  
British National Corpus ◽  
Phrasal Verb ◽  
National Corpus

A phrasal verb is a phrase consisting of standard verbs and one or two particles. The standard verb is like go, make, take. While the particles (s) used can be within the form of adverbs and/ or prepositions. Usually, a phrasal verb is often used in native-speaker dialogue and informal English writing. The purpose of this study is to describe transitive phrasal verbs. The method used in this research is a descriptive qualitative method. Linguistic data sources were taken from the British National Corpus. Data containing phrasal verbs are collected and then classified into several categories. Categories that are suitable for research purposes are separated and labeled and then explained in the narrative in accordance with the theory and research objectives. The results showed that transitive phrasal verbs consist of two types, namely separable and inseparable transitive phrasal verbs. A separable transitive phrasal verb is a type of phrasal verb whose particles are separated from the verb and inserted by the noun phrase as its object. In addition, particles must be separated from the verb if the object used is in the form of a pronoun. While inseparable transitive verbs are phrasal verbs that have a direct object but the particles are inseparable from the verb.

scholarly journals A Comparative Analysis of Verb Synonyms from the Perspective of Valency Structure in the Context of 'Provide and Offer'

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 217
Author(s):  
Mei Hongxia
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Frequency Distribution ◽  
Corpus Data ◽  
British National Corpus ◽  
National Corpus

This article reported a study of verb synonym’s valency structure based on corpus data, which clearly shows the affiliation between the word item and its governing member. This study analyzed ‘provide’ and ‘offer’ in British National Corpus from the perspective of types and frequency distribution of valency structures, action elements, the relevance between valency structure and its meaning. The results indicate the valency structure is characteristic and closely interrelated with word’s meaning. Therefore, this can give us some enlightenment in h distinguishing verb synonyms effectively and promoting the English vocabulary teaching.

scholarly journals MIP, the corpus and dictionaries

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 145-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alice Deignan
Keyword(s):  
Native Speaker ◽  
Good Alternative ◽  
Basic Meaning ◽  
Corpus Data ◽  
British National Corpus ◽  
National Corpus ◽  
The Ideal

MacArthur questions the use of the “Macmillan Dictionary” in metaphor identification. In this response, I argue that the ideal way of determining basic meaning is by analysis of concordance citations sampled from an appropriate corpus. This is demonstrated using a 1000 word sample of the concordance for say and its inflections, taken from the “British National Corpus”. It is shown that it is very difficult to identify separable senses, which calls into question whether say is actually a realisation of a mapping from writing to speaking. A dictionary developed on corpus principles is a good alternative to using corpus data directly. It is argued that learners’ dictionaries are more suitable than native speaker dictionaries for this purpose.

scholarly journals COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH WITH REFERENCE TO THE CORPUS-BASED DATA ANALYSIS BY TEACHING FOREIGN LANGUAGE (THE CASE OF TENSE-ASPECT FORMS OF THE VERB)

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 163-168
Author(s):  
Arsentiy I. Bochkarev ◽  
◽  
Sergey S. Zhdanov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Data Analysis ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Education ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
British English ◽  
Corpus Data ◽  
British National Corpus ◽  
Communicative Approach ◽  
Oriented Approach ◽  
National Corpus

The paper deals with the frequency of tense-aspect forms in British English for justifying the selec-tion of language phenomena from the linguistic point of view. This approach is applied through educa-tional process at universities. Moreover, communicative oriented approach to language education should be based on this selection. It presupposes educational orientation to real communicative situa-tions. Based on analyzing corpus data from the British National Corpus all tense-aspect forms can be divided into four groups: rare, occasional, frequent and constant. The authors have made the algorithm for learning tense-aspect forms in British English based on the frequency of these forms.

A corpus-based validation study of the universal processing hypothesis in English relative clause formation

2005 ◽  
Vol 149-150 ◽  
pp. 77-91
Author(s):  
Akihiro Ito ◽  
Junko Yamashita
Keyword(s):  
Computer Program ◽  
Validation Study ◽  
Relative Clause ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Valid Predictor ◽  
Corpus Data ◽  
British National Corpus ◽  
National Corpus ◽  
English Relative Clauses

The present study focuses on spoken and written data in the British National Corpus (BNC). Based on a review of recent studies on English relative clauses, we formulated a Universal Processing Hypothesis (OS >OO>SS> SO) as target hypothesis to be validated using a corpus data approach. A computer program was designed to calculate the frequency of appearance of the four types of relative clauses (OS, OO, SS, and SO). The results indicated this hypothesis to be a valid predictor of frequency of appearance of relative clauses in the domain for written corpus texts. However, it is not supported in context-governed spoken material. Limitations of the present investigation and the direction of future research are also discussed.

From proper name to primary interjection

2008 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elke Gehweiler
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Change ◽  
Syntactic Position ◽  
Gradual Process ◽  
The Standard Model ◽  
Proper Name ◽  
Diachronic Study ◽  
Repeated Use ◽  
Corpus Data ◽  
British National Corpus ◽  
National Corpus

This paper is concerned with interjections that have evolved from nouns. Looking at a subclass of interjections, so-called expletives like gee!, jeeze!, gosh!, crikey!, it will be shown how primary interjections regularly evolve from religious names (here Jesus, God, Christ) via secondary interjections (Jesus!, God!, Christ!). Four stages can be distinguished: I proper name Jesus II secondary interjection Jesus! III phonological modification of Jesus! IV primary interjection gee! The “standard” model for subjectification in grammaticalization, Traugott and Dasher’s Invited Inferencing Theory of Semantic Change (2002), which focuses on the speaker as initiator of change, suffices to explain the gradual process through which the secondary interjection Jesus! has evolved through the repeated use of Jesus in invocations, oaths and prayers. Moreover it is claimed that the syntactic position of Jesus in these uses — sentence-initial and separated from the rest of the sentence — played a crucial role in the emergence of the interjection. Invited inferencing, however, fails to explain the emergence of gee!. It will be shown with corpus data that gee! emerged rather abruptly. The meaning of gee! is different from the meaning of Jesus! from its very beginning, and — in contrast to the process through which the secondary interjection Jesus! emerged — there are no transitional stages attested where both the meaning of Jesus! and the meaning of gee! can be inferred. It will be argued that this change was hearer-based and that semantic stability and relationships between words are determined by aspects of phonological transparency. As a result of the clipping of Jesus! (speakers did not want to “take the name of the Lord in vain”), which yielded gee!, the semantic base of gee! became phonologically obscured. Accordingly the hearer had to infer the meaning of gee! from the context of its occurrence alone — consequently gee! differed in meaning from Jesus! straightaway. The OED will be used as a corpus for the diachronic study (cf. Fischer 1992 and Hoffmann 2004 for a discussion of how the OED can be used as a historical corpus). The synchronic use of the forms discussed will be illustrated with examples from the British National Corpus and from the GoogleGroups newsgroups (cf. Bergh 2005 for a discussion of whether and how the Internet can be used as corpus).

scholarly journals STATISTIC-LINGUISTIC COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE PERCEPTUAL TYPES OF A RUSSIAN AND AN ENGLISH WORD (BASED ON NCRL, BNC, ANC)

2019 ◽  
pp. 273-291
Author(s):  
Tatiana N. Chugaeva ◽  
◽  
Olga V. Baiburova ◽  
Anton A. Vakhotin ◽  
Svetlana Y. Dmitrieva ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
High Frequency ◽  
English Word ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Rhythmic Structure ◽  
Data Comparison ◽  
Corpus Data ◽  
British National Corpus ◽  
National Corpus

Corpus research presents obvious benefits, though linguists approach the material in various ways. For example, corpus linguists approach data in an exploratory way, whereas psycholinguists more often tend to combine corpus data and experimental research. The current work uses the theoretical systemic approach to describe the two frequency strata of the three corpora (Russian National Corpus, British National Corpus and Open American National Corpus) and build the classification of phonetic word types in Russian and English (British and American). The aim of the research is to draw up the phonetic (perceptive) classification of the corresponding languages and to describe the identity of their sound systems based on these types. The high frequency and the frequency strata of the three corpora have been analyzed to identify the words characterized by the following linguistic features: length in syllables, stressed vowel, rhythmic structure, etc. The data comparison discovered more distinctions than similarities among the three corpora...

“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.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document