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    Using The Corpus in Linguistic Research

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    Pandeng Li
    This document outlines the steps for conducting a corpus linguistic study to analyze the use of "try to" versus "try and" in different varieties of English. It discusses 1) forming a research question, 2) choosing an appropriate research method and corpus, 3) extracting relevant data from the corpus, 4) quantifying the data through counts and calculations, 5) looking for patterns in the corpus data, and 6) evaluating and repeating the analysis as needed. The goal is to systematically analyze the distribution and use of these expressions across different English varieties.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Using The Corpus in Linguistic Research

    Uploaded by

    Pandeng Li
    29 views22 pages
    This document outlines the steps for conducting a corpus linguistic study to analyze the use of "try to" versus "try and" in different varieties of English. It discusses 1) forming a research question, 2) choosing an appropriate research method and corpus, 3) extracting relevant data from the corpus, 4) quantifying the data through counts and calculations, 5) looking for patterns in the corpus data, and 6) evaluating and repeating the analysis as needed. The goal is to systematically analyze the distribution and use of these expressions across different English varieties.

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    Corpus_Presentation_6.pdf

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    This document outlines the steps for conducting a corpus linguistic study to analyze the use of "try to" versus "try and" in different varieties of English. It discusses 1) forming a research question, 2) choosing an appropriate research method and corpus, 3) extracting relevant data from the corpus, 4) quantifying the data through counts and calculations, 5) looking for patterns in the corpus data, and 6) evaluating and repeating the analysis as needed. The goal is to systematically analyze the distribution and use of these expressions across different English varieties.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    29 views22 pages

    Using The Corpus in Linguistic Research

    Uploaded by

    Pandeng Li
    This document outlines the steps for conducting a corpus linguistic study to analyze the use of "try to" versus "try and" in different varieties of English. It discusses 1) forming a research question, 2) choosing an appropriate research method and corpus, 3) extracting relevant data from the corpus, 4) quantifying the data through counts and calculations, 5) looking for patterns in the corpus data, and 6) evaluating and repeating the analysis as needed. The goal is to systematically analyze the distribution and use of these expressions across different English varieties.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    of 22

    Corpus Linguistics 6

    Using the corpus in linguistic research


    http://tinyurl.com/669o4zt

    Ylva Berglund Prytz & Martin Wynne


    IT Services, Hilary 2014
    Fill in the blanks
    1. Did you try … talk her out of swimming?
    2. Mr. Kissinger, try … explain to us what might
    happen
    3. He did it to try … score points
    4. They both wanted to try ... have a family
    5. They try … treat you like machines
    6. Sometimes, people try … make fun of you by
    imitating you.
    7. Now the government will try … sell all of this.
    8. Did you try … get out of it?
    9. I will try … understand this.
    One way to do a corpus linguistic study:
    1. Research question?
    2. Research method?
    3. What corpus?
    4. Extract data
    5. Quantify data (with or without statistics)
    6. Look for patterns
    7. Run alternative/additional searches
    8. Compare to other (reference) corpora
    9. Evaluate
    10.Repeat as necessary
    1. Research question?
    What do you want to know?

    What does your intuition say?


    What has been said before?

    (What is possible to find out?)


    Should this be part of consideration when
    setting your research question?
    Fill in the blanks
    1. Did you try … talk her out of swimming?
    2. Mr. Kissinger, try … explain to us what might
    happen
    3. He did it to try … score points
    4. They both wanted to try ... have a family
    5. They try … treat you like machines
    6. Sometimes, people try … make fun of you by
    imitating you.
    7. Now the government will try … sell all of this.
    8. Did you try … get out of it?
    9. I will try … understand this.
    1. Did you try and talk her out of swimming?
    2. Mr. Kissinger, try and explain to us what might
    happen
    3. He did it to try and score points
    4. They both wanted to try and have a family
    5. They try to treat you like machines
    6. Sometimes, people try to make fun of you by
    imitating you.
    7. Now the government will try to sell all of this.
    8. Did you try to get out of it?
    9. I will try …. understand this
    Some quotes:
    “Try and do something is incorrect for try to
    do…” [Partridge and Greet 1947]
    “Try and is well established in conversational
    use ..Try to is to be preferred in serious
    writing” [Plain Words 1986]
    “… try and has been socially acceptable for
    these two centuries … is not used in an
    elevated style” [Webster’s Dictionary 1989]
    try to and try and in:

    British English (BrE)


    American English (AM)
    Spoken (-S)
    Written (-W)

    What does your intuition say?


    2. Research method

    Is a corpus approach an option?


    Is it the only/best one?
    How will you do your corpus study?
    Hommerberg & Tottie (2007)
    ICAME Journal 31:45-64
    http://icame.uib.no/ij31/ij31-page45-64.pdf

    TRY TO OR TRY AND? VERB


    COMPLEMENTATION IN BRITISH AND
    AMERICAN ENGLISH
    3. What corpus?

    • Is there an existing corpus that fits your


    needs?
    • Do you have to compile your own
    corpus?
    • Will you combine more than one
    source/corpus?
    Arrange access, tools, etc
    4. Extract data

    • Test search strategies to ensure you


    find all relevant examples and only
    relevant ones
    • Extract all necessary data
    • (clean up or complement your set of
    examples)
    • Save in suitable format
    5. Quantify data
    For example:
    Number of examples (e.g. frequency of try to vs try and)
    Proportions (e.g. try to = 70% of all try to + try and)
    Relative frequency (e.g. XX instances of try to per million
    words)

    Illustrate (explore) through graphs (where relevant)


    Consider statistical tests
    E.g. ‘frequency in Corpus A is significantly higher
    than in Corpus B’ (see Stubbs 1995)
    Sample process:
    1. Search corpora
    2. Add results to spreadsheet
    3. Calculate totals, proportions, and pmw
    4. Create diagram(s)
    • Frequency
    • Pmw
    • Proportions
    • What else?
    From article
    100%

    80%

    60%
    try and
    40% try to

    20%

    0%
    BrE-S BrE-W Am-S Am-W
    Suggested reading:

    Stubbs, M. (1995). Collocations and semantic


    profiles: on the cause of the trouble with
    quantitative studies. Functions of Language
    2(1): 23-55
    Available at http://www.uni-
    trier.de/fileadmin/fb2/ANG/Linguistik/Stubbs/stu
    bbs-1995-cause-trouble.pdf
    6. Look for patterns

    Explore your corpus/data.


    Collocates, colligates
    Other linguistic/extra-linguistic features
    Distribution across corpus/texts
    Etc
    7. Run alternative/additional searches

    Compare to other similar expressions (do


    start, help, attempt show similar
    patterns?)
    Look at distribution of the collocates in
    other contexts (is to or try used more in
    spoken or written language?)
    Etc
    8. Compare to other (reference) corpora

    Do you find the same results in other


    (types of) corpora?
    If not, can you see why?
    Do differences tell you something about
    your corpus/expression?
    9. Evaluate

    • Search strategy/method
    • Corpus
    • Analysis

    Compare to relevant literature


    10. Repeat as necessary

    • Check your results


    • Run same searches on different
    corpora
    • Re-do data clean-up, analysis,
    statistics
    • Etc
    Corpus Linguistics 6

    Using the corpus in linguistic research


    http://tinyurl.com/669o4zt

    Ylva Berglund Prytz & Martin Wynne


    IT Services, Hilary 2014

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