This seminar provides an introduction to Corpus Linguistics for students who want to get some hands-on experience with real language data. Our aim is to leave behind the rules and regulations of prescriptive grammar and investigate how English is used in everyday communication. You will be introduced to corpus linguistic methodology and data collection and will acquire the basic technical skills needed to prepare language data for future analysis. During the course of the semester, you will get to know different types of corpora, both spoken and written, that we will use to analyse different varieties and registers of the English language. No special technical or corpus-linguistic knowledge is required, but the seminar is most suitable for students with an interest in empirical research and a natural understanding of computers.
Recommended preparatory readings
Biber, Douglas, Susan Conrad and Randi Reppen. 1998. Corpus Linguistics: Investigating Language Structure and Use. Cambridge University Press.
O’Keeffe, Anne, and Michael McCarthy (eds.). 2010. The Routledge Handbook of Corpus Linguistics. London/New York: Routledge. |
