1. What is Corpus Linguistics?

About this Lecture

Lecture

In this lecture we provide an introduction to corpus linguistics, focusing in particular on: (i) what corpus linguistics is: the use of computer technology to analyse a very large number of texts at the same time; (ii) the meaning of the word corpus (plural: corpora) in the term corpus linguistics; (iii) the concepts of sampling and representativeness; (iv) corpus linguistics as an empirical discipline; and (v) the kinds of texts that corpus linguistics is applicable to.

Course

In this course Dr Robbie Love (Aston University) provides an introduction to corpus linguistics. In the first lecture, we think about some of the key principles of corpus linguistics, including the concepts of sampling and representativeness, and the means by which corpora are created. In the second lecture, we think about some of the analytical methods that can be applied to corpora, including frequency analysis, concordance analysis, collocation analysis and keyness analysis. In the third lecture, we think about using corpus linguistics in discourse analysis, focusing on Paul Baker’s work on the representation of refugees, asylum seekers, immigrants and migrants in the British press. In the fourth lecture, we look at the use of corpus linguistics to explore how swearing has changed between 1994 and 2014, before turning in the fifth lecture to think about the tools available for students to conduct their own analyses using corpus linguistics.

Lecturer

Dr Robbie Love is a Lecturer in Social Sciences and Humanities at Aston University. He specialises in corpus linguistics, and uses corpus methods to explore English is used in a range of contexts, including casual conversation and public communications.