10.Corpus-based discourse analysi
It is a methodology that has been developed in the late 1990s, also because it uses computers to interpret data so of
course we need to wait for the advent of computer for the full development of this methodology.
othe corpus methodology has revolutionized nearly all branches of linguistics.
Why is corpora linguistic so important? Because:
oOne of the strengths of corpus data/linguistics lies in the fact that we use empirical data.
Empirical means that we are working with examples of real languages in use.
oThe second strength of the corpus linguistic it is represented by the fact that it pools together the intuitions
of great number of speakers, each one of them demonstrating their knowledge of the English language,
that’s why a corpus pulls together intuitions in the knowledge that language speaker had possess of their
language.
oThe third strength of corpus linguistic is linked to the fact that it makes linguistics analysis more objective.
What do we use the corpus for?
oTo test existing linguistic theories and hypothesis
oTo generate and verify new linguistic hypothesis
oTo provide textual evidence in text-based humanities
-A corpus can show us what is common and typical
-A corpus can readily give us accurate statistics
What is a corpus?
oThe word corpus comes from Latin (it means body) and the plural is corpora (corpus is singular).
A corpus is a collection, a body of naturally occurring language but rarely a random collection of text.,
because according to Leech (1992) corpora “are generally assembled/created with particular purposes in
mind’’
A quotation that has all the elements that allow us to define what a corpus is is given by Elena Tognini-Bonelli):
oA computerised collection of authentic texts that we can analyse. The texts are selected according to explicit
criteria in order to capture the regularities of a language-:
-Computerised = Generally this corpus has large dimensions, so it is very difficult to analyze corpora by hand,
it takes a long time. For this reason, the use of machines is required because it allows a rapid analysis.
-Authentic texts = we have)two corpus):
1.GENERAL CORPUS): serves as a resource or for studies of general linguistic features
A general corpus, thus, provides sample data from which we can make generalizations about
spoken and written discourse as a whole, and frequencies of occurrence, and co-occurrence, of
particular aspects of language in the discourse.
An example of a general corpus is the)British National Corpus. Some corpora contain texts that are
sampled (chosen from) a particular)variety)of a language, for example, from a particular dialect or
from a particular subject area.
2.SPECIALIZED CORPUS): is a corpus of texts of a particular type such as newspaper, academic
paper
It tell us about the use of written or spoken language of particular genres or domain of use
A specialized corpus might be used, for example, to examine the use of hedges in casual conversation
or the ways in which people signal a change in topic in an academic presentation
Michigan Corpus of Academic Spoken English (MICASE) is an example which contains only spo-
ken language from a university setting
-Explicit criteria = it means that the corpus data that we have collected is strictly linked to the intended
use of the corpus itself, this is called “research question”, this question guides the collection of our corpus.
