On Conceptual and Axiological Aspects of the Word Mutter ʻMotherʼ in Context (Based on Corpus Material)

This paper focuses on a linguistic image of mother in German languages. It seeks to grasp it through a typical context of the German word Mutter ʻmotherʼ. The research is based on results of distributional and thematic analyses of these words. These analyses are used as a base for reconstructing prototypical characteristics of “mother” and the related concepts used by speakers of German. The paper develops these findings into compiling the most frequent collocations and other (mostly contextual) information gathered by the use of corpus tools. The paper concludes with an outline of unconscious axiological processes used in evaluating the image of mother on the good/bad axis.

On corpus-driven research of complex adverbial prepositions with spatial meaning in Czech

Complex adverbial prepositions with spatial meaning have not been sufficiently studied so far in Czech. To establish a set of these expressions in their actual usage, the resources of the Czech National Corpus were used in this study. The research has shown that the SYN2020 corpus is a relevant tool for searching for two-word expressions with a LOCATIVE ADVERB – SIMPLE PREPOSITION structure that have the same function as a one-word locative preposition. The article describes a method for the extraction of these expressions from the corpus, as well as a method for the collection of their quantitative data using corpus tools. As a result of the research, a list of expressions that are presumably complex prepositions is provided.

A Comparative-Contrastive Analysis of Corpus Tools (Case Study: Working with Corpora of Cinematic Discourse)

A broad scope of application of corpus technologies indicates their importance in applied linguistics. Employing the comparative-contrastive method and the method of computer analysis, the author seeks to compare and contrast the main corpus tools of the programs Sketch Engine, AntConc, and WordSmith Tools, focusing on texts from specialized periodicals about cinematography ‘Total Film’ and ‘American Cinematographer’ for 2019–2020. The primary goal of this comparison is to provide recommendations for optimal choice of tools and programs for obtaining certain types of information. The author processed the total volume of texts that contained over 900,000 words, using the functions “concordance”, “word list”, “collocations” + “word s etch”, “N-grams”, “keywords” in Sketch Engine and AntConc (Word-Smith Tools has only “concordance”, “wordlist,” and “keywords”). Information about specific tools available in various corpora is collected and presented in a specially developed table. Different software programs described in the article have functions that perform the same tasks, but there are some differences in how data is presented. Among the software programs featured in this case study, the Sketch Engine platform gives the most options for choosing personal settings. The “concordance” function shows the word in context, “Wordlist” shows all the words on a given list with a record of their frequency in the corpus. The “collocation” function (or “word s etch”) recognizes fixed expressions, “N-grams” finds phrases that comprise a certain number of elements, while the “ eywords” function allows users to identify words that are specific to a particular subject area. Information thus obtained from the corpora may be helpful in updating English LSP dictionaries and glossaries of cinematography. The theoretical significance of the present study lies in systematizing the material about existing corpus tools, while its practical value is in using the tools of three corpus programs for the study of cinematic discourse, understood here as language used by the community of movie goers and filmmakers in their discussions of cinematography in specialized periodicals ‘Total Film’ and ‘American Cinematographer’.

Poetic Language and the Computer: A Corpus Stylistic Study of The Waste Land

This study aims at proposing a methodology in analyzing one of the significant poems of the twentieth century, The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot. By means of applying the tools of the computer, namely; Wmatrix (Rayson 2003, 2008) and WebCorp Live (Birmingham City University). This paper seeks to examine whether corpus stylistics can be helpful in analyzing a single poem 2. Verifying the importance of corpus tools in interpreting poetic language. Moreover, this study attempts to examine key semantic domains, keywords, and concordances in the poem. This study proves that corpus tools are crucial in matters of saving time, reaching to accurate results and achieving much more objectivity than applying only the qualitative method in analyzing the data. Thus, it is recommended to integrate both methodologies (qualitative and quantitative) in the study of poetic language.

Student approaches and attitudes towards writing in German as a foreign language, using corpus-linguistic tools

Linguistic researchers are optimistic about what corpora can offer language learners; however, very little empirical assessment of the direct use of corpus tools is reported on in context, especially for languages other than English. One method of assessing the effectiveness and value of corpus tools is by collecting students’ experiences of using them and establishing if they perceive benefits through using corpus tools. Following a qualitative questionnaire which examined student approaches to writing in German as a foreign language, and a quantitative analysis of their writing, a writing module was designed and instituted at Rhodes University for third-year German Studies students. The writing module made use of both indirect (paper-based) and direct (computer-based) corpus-based methods to teach everyday academic vocabulary and formulaic expressions, based on materials developed for the WHiG project in the UK. This study presents an overview of the students’ attitudes and perspectives (as recorded in questionnaires and interviews), in order to give voice to the qualitative and subjective dimension of foreign language learning, which is often neglected in corpus-based studies. The participating students perceived an improvement in their writing through a changed approach to researching and using everyday academic German. Keywords: German as a foreign language; student perceptions; teaching with corpora; everyday academic language; Deutsch als alltägliche Wissenschaftssprache; academic writing; students as co-creators of teaching materials.

CORPUS-DRIVEN ESP PEDAGOGY: A PRELIMINARY CASE STUDY

The study explores application of a freely available EcoLexicon online corpus in specific language classes at Environmental studies faculty of RUDN University, Russia. Although corpus tools are traditionally used by linguists, I intend to demonstrate how they can be offered to non-linguist students to facilitate better understanding of inherent semantics, depart from generic surface understanding of professional texts and delve deep into structures and meanings, enhancing overall linguistic competence of learners and instructors alike. One of the main results of the study is that implementation of corpus-based tools clearly demonstrates unreliability of automated translated tools and fosters departure of novice professionals from assisted translation towards independent exploration of semantic nuances of target specialized languages. Despite numerous benefits, corpus-based tools can present certain challenges as well. These deficiencies, however, may be remedied by careful design of teaching materials and assignments.

Рroject of a terminological dictionary of the customs sphere: corpus approach

The paper deals with general overviews of thematic aspects research within the field of the modern corpus lexicography; difficulties in selecting language material and a wide range of tasks for corpus tools in the process of compiling terminographic resources. The method of constructing a terminological dictionary of the customs sphere within the framework of the Eurasian Economic Union is considered.

Sketching Women: A Corpus-Based Study of Female Protagonist in A Dolls House

The This paper investigates the words used by Henrik Ibsen in his play, A Dolls House, to portray a female character. The use of adjectives for the female protagonist Nora is of primary concern in this research. The play A Dolls House was downloaded from the internet and used for the corpus compilation, which was analyzed using the corpus tools, AntConc 3.5.8 and TagAnt, and explained with the help of the Feministic theoretical framework. The findings of the study suggest that the female protagonist is a submissive woman of low self-esteem due to the treatment she receives from her husband. This suggests that women were not treated reasonably by men in Norwegian society and are mostly victims of gender inequality because of the patriarchal nature of society. The present study sought to explore male domination and supremacy by focusing on the adjectives used for Nora, the female protagonist.

Beyond frequency: evaluating the lexical demands of reading materials with open-access corpus tools

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the appropriateness of open-access reading materials for an intensive English for Academic Purposes (EAP) course, and to provide teachers with a set of criteria to select online texts systematically and efficiently. The Corpus for Veterinarians (VetCorpus) was compiled and analyzed using Lextutor corpus tools. Taking into account students’ vocabulary size, background knowledge, word frequency, proper nouns, compound words, and cognates, the VetCorpus was considered useful and appropriate for intermediate level students, but too difficult for elementary level students. Further lexical analysis showed that the VetCorpus also provides learners with opportunities to encounter technical and academic vocabulary.

Slipping Through the Cracks in e-Lexicography

Despite the remarkable advances made in recent years to facilitate the lexicographer’s work of interpreting and synthesizing the complexity of language uncovered by corpora, an uncritical use of cutting-edge corpus tools and resources can instill a false sense of assurance. In this paper, authentic examples pertaining to wordlist use, collocation research and example selection that arose when compiling a real-world lexical database are discussed through the lens of problems that can easily slip through the cracks in e-lexicography. In doing so, we emphasize the importance of solid training and sound lexicographic judgment when using corpora, corpus tools and corpus-derived resources, and provide an opportunity to reflect on how e-lexicography can be further refined in the future.