CORPUS'LINGUISTICS'AND'CONTRASTIVE'LINGUISTICS'
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Corpora!and!electronic!resources!
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• Several! types! of! corpora!should! be! distinguished.!Johansson! (1988)! differentiates! two! kinds! of!
multilingual!(including!bilingual)!corpora:!
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(1) Comparable* corpora,! consisting! of! original! texts! in! the! same! language,! of! equivalent!
type,!subject!matter!and!communicative!function,!which!can!be!either!domainFspecific!or!
general!collecting!different!text!types;!
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(2) Translation*corpora,! containing! texts!in! the!original!languages!and! their!translations!into!
other!languages.!Translation!corpora!are:!
a. Unidirectional,! if! the! translations! go! only! from! one! language! to! (an)other!
language(s),!
b. Bi4/multidirectional,! if! translations! from! and! to! all! the! languages!under!
comparison!are!considered.!
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(3) Parallel*corpora!are,! strictly!speaking,!aligned!corpora! in!which!translations!are!linked! in!
corresponding!units! (although! the!label!‘parallel! corpora’! has!also!been! used! as! a!cover!
term!for!the!other!two!types).!
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There!are!many!types!of!parallel!corpora:!
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F Comparable!corpora!of!different!historical!periods,!!
F Or!for!different!social!and!regional!varieties,!
F Or! learner! language!corpora.! Contrastive! and! learner! corpora!complement!
each!other:!
• Contrastive!corpora!compare!langs.!and!formulate!hypotheses!about!
learning!problems!
• Learner! corpora! identify! the! characteristics! of! learner! language! and!
interferences!of!the!mother! tongue,!which!in!turn! provide!feedFback!
for!contrastive!descriptions.!
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