Using language corpora
for academic writing
Petr Sudický
Department of English and American Studies
FF MU
Workshop Goals
● to get new information about the structure of
academic / specialized English
● to enhance own language and writing skills
● to understand how we can use online tools to
help us producing academic texts
Introducing Language Corpora
Look at the following sentences. Are they
correct or incorrect in terms of grammar /
style? Use any tools you want to find out.
● If the sun is too hot perhaps you would like
to sit in the shadow?
● The amount of accidents is very increasing.
So, what about this corpus?
So, what about this corpus?
Language Corpus
● a set of texts that have been electronically
pre-processed and can be used for further
language querries
● stucture of each corpus is directly related to its
overall purpose and specific research aims
● types of corpora:
● general x specialized
● mono- x multilingual
● small-scale x large-scale
How can a corpus help me?
● dealing with specific language-related issues
● dictionaries are insufficient when dealing with
questions about specific use and style
● source of inspiration for my own writing
● model language
● enhancing my own writing skills
So, how does English actually work?
● English is largely phraseological / fixed/
prefabricated / language
● academic writing could be thought of as putting
these prefabricated units one after another
● functional language blocks are important:
● make production and understading easier
● make texts more idiomatic
● important markers of field-related style
It is important to realize that the meaning of most
of the single words in English is not fixed, but
highly context-dependent.
The meaning and use of a word or phrase cannot
be separated from one another.
If we want to understand the differences between
pairs of words with very similar meaning we have
to search for other clues – context, style,
collocations etc.
Typical Corpus Queries
● What is the usual use of an academic word?
(significant)
● Which of the similar words should I use?
(therefore x thereby)
● What is the appropriate preposition?
(the main idea ___ this approach)
● Is the word / phrase used correctly in the
context of academic English?
('lots of' evidence)
Corpus Tools
basic outcomes:
frequency
phraseology
collocations
Irresistable Terminology
● search string, simple search
● lemma, word (form), phrase
● KWIC concordance
● context
● text-type
● noun, adjective, verb, adverb, preposition
Basic Query Types
increase
● increase OF or IN
● typical collocations
● difference between increase and go up?
Basic Query Types
research
● typical types of research
● typical phrases
Problematic Areas of Language Use
Think about the areas of language that you
struggle with (prepositions, academic words,
verbs, nouns, etc) and the ways you could use
corpus tools to deal with them.
Problematic Areas
words similar in meaning
pretty, quite and rather
● usual types of texts
● typical phrases / collocations
Problematic Areas
prepositions
deal, focus and study
● typical prepositions for these words
● how can prepositions change meaning
Probematic Areas
text structure
on the other hand, however, though
● position in sentences
● how do we use come with these
● usual text types
Problematic Areas
hidden meaning
cause
● how do we use the word cause
● what words does it usually go together with
● what is the meaning of the phrases
Thank you for your attention! :-)
Wish you best of luck with your writing tasks!
Petr Sudický
sudicky@phil.muni.cz