Corpus linguistics

obligatory courses

Classroom

The course provides an overview of issues related to corpus linguistics. Its scope includes the presentation of the most important research directions in this field and a discussion of corpus research methods. Basic descriptive and inferential statistics used in this type of research will also be presented. Participants will also have the opportunity to learn about the possibilities of using many generally available corpus resources in Polish and English as well as tools for corpus data analysis

Language corpora are increasingly used in research in linguistics. They provide access to vast resources of authentic and natural, written and oral linguistic production, and thus facilitate a more accurate and reliable analysis of language at its many levels: phonetic and phonological, morphological, syntactic, lexical, phraseological, semantic, pragmatic and at the discourse. Thanks to corpora, new methods of linguistic data analysis were created, emphasizing the concepts of frequency, patterning and variation. Corpus linguistics also proposes a new approach to language description based on probability rather than rules.

This course is an overview of the most important directions of research in the field of corpus linguistics, along with a discussion of corpus research methods. The course will also present the contribution and importance of corpus methodology in research in many areas of theoretical and applied linguistics. Statistical tests used in corpus research will be presented. Participants will have the opportunity to explore the potential and fundamental principles of utilizing a wide array of publicly accessible corpus resources in both English and Polish, alongside gaining proficiency in the use of tools for analyzing corpus data.

Textbooks:

• Biber, D., & Reppen, R. (Eds.). (2015). The Cambridge Handbook of English Corpus Linguistics. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139764377

• McEnery, T., & Brezina, V. (2022). Fundamental Principles of Corpus Linguistics. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781107110625

• McEnery, T., & Hardie, A. (2011). Corpus Linguistics: Method, Theory and Practice. Cambridge University Press.

• O’Keeffe, A., & McCarthy, M. (Eds.). (2022). The Routledge Handbook of Corpus Linguistics (2nd edition). Routledge.

• Paquot, M., & Gries, S. T. (Eds.). (2021). A Practical Handbook of Corpus Linguistics. Springer.

Additional reading:

Selected papers which serve as examples of corpus-based studies in different areas of linguistics

Knowledge:

The student will know and understand

P8S_WG.1 scientific output, including theoretical foundations and general and selected specific issues - relevant to corpus linguistics

P8S_WG.2 main developmental trends in corpus linguistics

P8S_WG.3 a variety of corpus resources and tools in English and Polish and the methodology of corpus research

Skills:

The student will be able to

P8S_UW.1 use knowledge of corpus linguistics to creatively identify, formulate and innovatively solve complex problems or research tasks, in particular

- define the purpose and object of research based on corpus resources,

- apply corpus methods, techniques and tools,

- draw conclusions on the basis of corpus-based research results

P8S_UK.1 communicate on specialized topics related to corpus linguistics to the extent allowing for active participation in the international scientific community

P8S_UK.4 participate in scientific discourse related to corpus-based research

Social competences:

The student will be ready to

P8S_KK.3 recognize the importance of knowledge in corpus linguistics in solving cognitive and practical problems and apply corpus research methods to own research purposes

1. class attendance (two absences permitted)

2. participation in class

3. completing a short corpus-based project on a topic selected by the student and approved by the instructor