Exam Contents

1. Corpus
2. Chunks
3. Frequent Words
4. Collocations
5. Forbidden Words
6. Idioms
7. Language and the Internet
8. Strategies to improve Vocabulary

Corpus Linguistics

Corpus linguistics is the study of language as expressed in samples (corpora) or "real world" text. This method represents a digestive approach to deriving a set of abstract rules by which a natural language is governed or else relates to another language. Originally done by hand, corpora are now largely derived by an automated process.

The corpus approach runs counter to Noam Chomsky's view that real language is riddled with performance-related errors, thus requiring careful analysis of small speech samples obtained in a highly controlled laboratory setting[citation needed].

The problem of laboratory-selected sentences is similar to that facing lab-based psychology: researchers do not have any measure of the ethnographic representativity of their data.

Corpus linguistics does away with Chomsky's competence/performance split[citation needed]: adherents believe that reliable language analysis best occurs on field-collected samples, in natural contexts and with minimal experimental interference. Within corpus linguistics there are divergent views as to the value of corpus annotation, from John Sinclair advocating minimal annotation and allowing texts to 'speak for themselves', to others, such as the Survey of English Usage team (based in University College, London) advocating annotation as a path to greater linguistic understanding and rigour.
Source: Wikipedia.org

CORPORA
AMERICAN NATIONAL CORPUS (ANC)
BERGEN CORPUS OF LONDON TEENAGER LANGUAGE (COLT)
BRITISH ACADEMIC SPOKEN ENGLISH CORPUS (BASE)
BRITISH NATIONAL CORPUS (BNC)
CAMBRIDGE AND NOTTINGHAM CORPUS OF DISCOURSE IN ENGLISH (CANCODE)
CAMBRIDGE INTERNATIONAL CORPUS (CIC)
COLLINS WORDBANKS ONLINE ENGLISH CORPUS

6 Online Corpus

What can we use Corpus with our students for?

Mainly to keep them updated about common colloquial language: idioms, collocations, slang, reduced forms which they may need as they encounter real English in movies or songs. Also, to make a research project.

Idioms

An idiom (Latin: idioma, “special property”, f. Greek: ἰδίωμα — idiōma, “special feature, special phrasing”, f. Greek: ἴδιος — idios, “one’s own”) is an expression, word, or phrase that has a figurative meaning that is comprehended in regard to a common use of that expression that is separate from the literal meaning or definition of the words of which it is made.[1] There are estimated to be at least 25,000 idiomatic expressions in the English language.[2]

In linguistics, idioms are usually presumed to be figures of speech contradicting the principle of compositionality; yet the matter remains debated. John Saeed defines an “idiom” as words collocated that became affixed to each other until metamorphosing into a fossilised term.[3] This collocation — words commonly used in a group — redefines each component word in the word-group and becomes an idiomatic expression. The words develop a specialized meaning as an entity, as an idiom. Moreover, an idiom is an expression, word, or phrase whose sense means something different from what the words literally imply. When a speaker uses an idiom, the listener might mistake its actual meaning, if he or she has not heard this figure of speech before.[4] Idioms usually do not translate well; in some cases, when an idiom is translated into another language, either its meaning is changed or it is meaningless.

Source: Wikipedia

Idioms are: A set expression of two or more words that means something other than the literal meanings of its individual words. Adjective: idiomatic.

Examples and Observations:
"Every cloud has its silver lining but it is sometimes a little difficult to get it to the mint."
(Don Marquis)


"Fads are the kiss of death. When the fad goes away, you go with it."
(Conway Twitty)


"American idioms drive me up the hall!"
(Ziva David in NCIS)


"I worked the graveyard shift with old people, which was really demoralizing, because the old people didn't have a chance in hell of ever getting out."
(Kate Millett)


Kirk: If we play our cards right, we may be able to find out when those whales are being released.
Spock: How will playing cards help?
(Captain James T. Kirk and Spock in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, 1986)


"If natural language had been designed by a logician, idioms would not exist."
(Philip Johnson-Laird, 1993)


"Idioms, in general, are deeply connected to culture. . . . Agar (1991) proposes that biculturalism and bilingualism are two sides of the same coin. Engaged in the intertwined process of culture change, learners have to understand the full meaning of idioms."
(Sam Glucksberg, Understanding Figurative Language. Oxford Univ. Press, 2001)


"Shakespeare is credited with coining more than 2,000 words, infusing thousands more existing ones with electrifying new meanings and forging idioms that would last for centuries. 'A fool's paradise,' 'at one fell swoop,' 'heart's content,' 'in a pickle,' 'send him packing,' 'too much of a good thing,' 'the game is up,' 'good riddance,' 'love is blind,' and 'a sorry sight,' to name a few."
(David Wolman, Righting the Mother Tongue: From Olde English to Email, the Tangled Story of English Spelling. Harper, 2010)


"Idioms vary in 'transparency': that is, whether their meaning can be derived from the literal meanings of the individual words. For example, make up [one's] mind is rather transparent in suggesting the meaning 'reach a decision,' while kick the bucket is far from transparent in representing the meaning 'die.'"
(Douglas Biber et al., Longman Student Grammar of Spoken and Written English. Pearson, 2002)


"The thought hit me that this was a pretty pathetic way to kick the bucket--being accidentally poisoned during a photo shoot, of all things--and I started weeping at the idiocy of it all."
(Lara St. John)

Source: http://grammar.about.com/od/il/g/idiomterm.htm

More Info

Collocations

Within the area of corpus linguistics, collocation defines a sequence of words or terms that co-occur more often than would be expected by chance. The term is often used in the same sense as linguistic government.

Collocation defines restrictions on how words can be used together, for example, which prepositions are used with ("governed by") particular verbs, or which verbs and nouns are typically used together. An example of this (from Michael Halliday) is the collocation strong tea. While the same meaning could be conveyed through the roughly equivalent powerful tea, the fact is that tea is thought of being strong rather than powerful. A similar observation holds for powerful computers, which is preferred over strong computers.

Collocations are examples of lexical units. Collocations should not be confused with idioms although both are similar in that there is a degree of meaning present in the collocation or idiom that is not entirely compositional. With idioms, the meaning is completely non-compositional whereas collocations are mostly compositional.

Source: Wikipedia

Collocations
Tell me who you go with and I'll tell you who you are.

What is a collocation?
A collocation is two or more words that often go together. These combinations just sound "right" to native English speakers, who use them all the time. On the other hand, other combinations may be unnatural and just sound "wrong". Look at these examples:

Natural English... Unnatural English...
the fast train
fast food the quick train
quick food
a quick shower
a quick meal a fast shower
a fast meal

Why learn collocations?
Your language will be more natural and more easily understood.
You will have alternative and richer ways of expressing yourself.
It is easier for our brains to remember and use language in chunks or blocks rather than as single words.

How to learn collocations
Be aware of collocations, and try to recognize them when you see or hear them.
Treat collocations as single blocks of language. Think of them as individual blocks or chunks, and learn strongly support, not strongly + support.

When you learn a new word, write down other words that collocate with it (remember rightly, remember distinctly, remember vaguely, remember vividly).

Read as much as possible. Reading is an excellent way to learn vocabulary and collocations in context and naturally.

Revise what you learn regularly. Practice using new collocations in context as soon as possible after learning them.

Learn collocations in groups that work for you. You could learn them by topic (time, number, weather, money, family) or by a particular word (take action, take a chance, take an exam).

You can find information on collocations in any good learner's dictionary. And you can also find specialized dictionaries of collocations.

Types of Collocation
There are several different types of collocation made from combinations of verb, noun, adjective etc. Some of the most common types are:

Adverb + Adjective: completely satisfied (NOT downright satisfied)
Adjective + Noun: excruciating pain (NOT excruciating joy)
Noun + Noun: a surge of anger (NOT a rush of anger)
Noun + Verb: lions roar (NOT lions shout)
Verb + Noun: commit suicide (NOT undertake suicide)
Verb + Expression With Preposition: burst into tears (NOT blow up in tears)
Verb + Adverb: wave frantically (NOT wave feverishly)

Source: English Club

Sample Collocations
Collocations List
Collocations Quizz

Corpus

Corpus
• CORPUS
From Corpus to Classroom

WHAT IS CORPUS?

• What is Corpus?
A corpus is a collection of texts, written or spoken, which is stored on a computer.
A corpus is a principled collection of texts available for qualitative and quantitive analysis.
It must represent something and its merits will often be judged on how representative it is.

WHAT CAN WE USE FROM IT?

• COLLOCATIONS
Words that collocate with another and no other:
Depend on
Look up
Wooden box (ADJECTIVE+NOUN)

• WORDS/CHUNKS
A SMALL COMPONENT OF LANGUAGE:
I
YOU
I DON’T KNOW
A LOT OF
ONE OF THE
I MEAN
THE

• DISCOURSE MARKERS
OPENINGS AND CLOSINGS
YOU KNOW
I MEAN
ANYWAY
MIND YOU
WELL

• FREQUENCY
THE RANGE IN WHICH A WORD IS REPEATED IN CERTAIN DISCOURSE
S1—S2—S3
W1—W2—W3

• REGISTER
FORMAL/INFORMAL/COLLOQUIAL
TECHNICAL

More Info!

Corpus Blog

Cambridge Corpus

Verb Phrase

In traditional terminology, a verb phrase is a phrase that has the syntactic role of a simple verb, and is composed of a main verb and auxiliary verbs or verbal particles related syntactically to the verb.

Verb Phrases
Verb phrases are groups of words that express action or state of being. They take on various forms.

The men live in the dormitory.
(Single verbs)
He stayed at the Hi Hat Hotel.
(Past tense verbs)
I am learning many new things.
(Progressive verbs)
She has been there before.
(Perfect verbs)
They have been working here five years.
(Perfect progressive verbs)
I could use some assistance.
(Verbs and modals)
The trip was approved by the professor.
(Passive verbs)
Do you want some more pie?
(Verbs in questions)

Recognize Verb phrases

Practice Exercise: Write down the verb phrase in each of these sentences. Be careful; watch for separated helping verbs and watch for adverbs that separate the verb phrase.

1. Will you buy me a drink?
2. Sam is not going to the dance.
3. Al should have mowed the lawn today.
4. Theresa will be playing her clarinet at the concert tonight.
5. Rosie could have worked on that project today.
6. Tony and Jim have been chosen as finalists at the science fair.
7. Hasn't the tailor finished the suit?
8. My grandmother has carefully repaired the broken vase.
9. Maria will probably leave for New York on Wednesday.
10. Does that offer still stand?

More info!

Adjective Phrase

Adjective Phrase (AP)

In an ADJECTIVE PHRASE (AP), the Head word is an adjective. Here are some examples:

Susan is [AP clever]
The doctor is [AP very late]
My sister is [AP fond of animals]

The pre-Head string in an AP is most commonly an adverb phrase such as very or extremely. Adjective Heads may be followed by a post-Head string:

[AP happy to meet you]
[AP ready to go]
[AP afraid of the dark]

A small number of adjective Heads must be followed by a post-Head string. The adjective Head fond is one of these. Compare:

My sister is [AP fond of animals]
*My sister is [fond]

Taken from: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/internet-grammar/phrases/ap.htm

More Info!

Task 2

In this task you will have to identify all Noun phrases in the following essay. After you have done it, select 10 and label each of the elements constructing the phrase. Use brackets to label them. We will correct some of the phrases in the workshop. This task is due on Friday, Sept 26th.
___________________________________________________
Learning is definitely best developed socially. Thus, what others think about you is relevant and can help you build your own identity. Peer feedback should be included in all classes so that students become more aware of how they see themselves and how others do too. I will mainly discuss the importance of peer feedback with adolescents and its richness.

Being an adolescent implies the construction of yourself. As Marshall and Stern pointed out "they are forming a whole picture in their minds of who they are" (2004); consequently, the formation of that self image can be extraordinarily improved by receiving comments from one’s peers. When we realize that another student believes you are not kind with him or her that feedback can help us change the image we present to our peers.

Apart from helping students build their self image, you can aid the class create their own identity. If we know each other, we can respect opinions, care about others and grow together. Respectful environments can be extremely useful when teaching. Having worked with teenagers, I could see how they bullied and insulted each other. I believe that with the incorporation of emotional learning exercises of peer feedback all these situations could have been somewhat avoided. In addition, establishing trust inside the class will absolutely assist students solve their personal problems. Thus, we will avoid misunderstandings and bad energy within the classroom.

Having peer feedback incorporated in the class can aid students build their own identity. Also, it will help the class be more respectful to each other and be able to solve problems more easily. As a final conclusion, peer feedback can and must be included in our EFL classroom because everybody will be at ease when dealing with problems and developing social interaction.

Task 1

In this task you will have to print the following essay and highlight all the noun phrases you can find. We will work with it in the first assistantship.

Being under Pressure

It is known that sometimes people under pressure perform actions which do not want to. The main character of the story “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell is pressured to shoot the elephant even though he did not want to. In this essay, I will try to prove this thesis with three different assertions presented in the story.

The first assertion is: “As soon as I saw the elephant I knew with perfect certainty that I ought not to shoot him.” The character is from the beginning desiring not to perform the action of killing the elephant. The second fact is that the character explains that when he was facing the elephant a huge crowd of “natives” were behind him so “And suddenly I realized that I should have to shoot the elephant after all. The people expected it of me and I had got to do it; I could feel their two thousand wills pressing me forward.” It is clear that this man felt the pressure and immediately understood that he would have to do something he did not want to. The last piece of evidence is that since he was a “sahib”, a European man, he had to act like one, being very resolute and do definite things. “For it is the condition of his rule that he shall spend his life trying to impress the “natives,” and so in every crisis he has got to do what the “natives” expect of him.” So, the character finds out that in the end all sahibs need to do what others want them to do.

In order to conclude, I can say that with the evidence provided I was able to prove the fact that the main character had to shoot the elephant because of the pressure natives imposed on him. Throughout human history, many situations have occurred because of the pressure people feel, for example wars. Many of the actions we performed are modelled by what the society expects of us. Sometimes, people should try to act correctly, doing good to others, instead of acting according to what others expect of them.

Noun Phrases

In grammar, a noun phrase (abbreviated NP) is a phrase whose head is a noun or a pronoun, optionally accompanied by a modifier set.

Noun phrases normally consist of a head noun, which is optionally modified ("premodified" if the modifier is placed before the noun; "postmodified" if the modifier is placed after the noun). Possible modifiers include:
determiners: articles (the, a), demonstratives (this, that), numerals (two, five, etc.), possessives (my, their, etc.), and quantifiers (some, many, etc.). In English, determiners are usually placed before the noun;
adjectives (the red ball); or
complements, in the form of a prepositional phrase (such as: the student of physics), or a That-clause (the claim that the earth is round);
modifiers; pre-modifiers if placed before the noun and usually either as nouns (the university student) or adjectives (the beautiful lady), or post-modifiers if placed after the noun. A postmodifier may be either a prepositional phrase (the man with long hair) or a relative clause (the house where I live). The difference between modifiers and complements is that complements complete the meaning of the noun; complements are necessary, whereas modifiers are optional because they just give additional information about the noun.
Noun phrases can make use of an apposition structure. This means that the elements in the noun phrase are not in a head-modifier relationship, but in a relation of equality. An example of this is I, Caesar, declare ..., where "Caesar" and "I" do not modify each other.
The head of a noun phrase can be implied, as in "The Bold and the Beautiful" or Robin Hood's "rob from the rich and give to the poor"; an implied noun phrase is most commonly used as a generic plural referring to human beings. Another example of noun phrase with implied head is I choose the cheaper of the two.
That noun phrases can be headed by elements other than nouns—for instance, pronouns (They came) or determiners (I'll take these)—has given rise to the postulation of a determiner phrase instead of a noun phrase.

Further Explanation: visit this page.

Sentences

Clauses
• Independent Clause: An independent clause contains a subject and a verb and expresses a complete thought. It can stand alone as a sentence by itself. An independent clause is like an adult person: it is independent and can “live” by itself.
• Dependent Clause: A dependent clause begins with a subordinator such as when, while, if, that, or who, followed by a subject, verb, and complement. It does not express a complete thought and cannot stand by itself as a sentence. A dependent clause is like a little child: it cannot “live” by itself.

Sentences
• Simple Sentence: A simple sentence is one independent clause. Like an adult person, it can “live” alone.
• Compound Sentence: A compound sentence is two or more independent clauses joined together, like two adults joined together in marriage. Each clause is of equal importance and could stand alone. There are three ways to join independent clauses to form a compound sentence:
With a coordinator: I enjoy playing tennis, but I hate playing golf.
With a conjunctive adverb: I enjoy playing tennis; however, I hate playing golf.
With a semicolon: I enjoy playing tennis; I hate playing golf.
• Complex Sentence: A complex sentence contains one independent clause and one (or more) dependent clause. It is like a mother with one or more children depending on her. In a complex sentence, one idea is generally more important than the other one. The more important idea is placed in the independent clause, and the less important idea is placed in the dependent clause.
• Compound—Complex Sentences: A compound—complex sentence is a combination of two or more independent clauses and one or more dependent clauses. It is like a family of two adults and one or more children.

Source: Oshima, A. & Hogue, A. 1991 Writing Academic English

Sentences

Refer to this very self-explanatory web page to understand types of sentences.

http://www.eslbee.com/sentences.htm

Task 5

In this text you will have the opportunity to analyze and identified each sentence, clause and all phrases you have studied so far.
If any question emerges, please let me know.

At the little town of Vevey, in Switzerland, there is a particularly comfortable hotel. There are, indeed, many hotels, for the entertainment of tourists is the business of the place, which, as many travelers will remember, is seated upon the edge of a remarkably blue lake--a lake that it behooves every tourist to visit. The shore of the lake presents an unbroken array of establishments of this order, of every category, from the "grand hotel" of the newest fashion, with a chalk-white front, a hundred balconies, and a dozen flags flying from its roof, to the little Swiss pension of an elder day, with its name inscribed in German-looking lettering upon a pink or yellow wall and an awkward summerhouse in the angle of the garden. One of the hotels at Vevey, however, is famous, even classical, being distinguished from many of its upstart neighbors by an air both of luxury and of maturity. In this region, in the month of June, American travelers are extremely numerous; it may be said, indeed, that Vevey assumes at this period some of the characteristics of an American watering place. There are sights and sounds which evoke a vision, an echo, of Newport and Saratoga. There is a flitting hither and thither of "stylish" young girls, a rustling of muslin flounces, a rattle of dance music in the morning hours, a sound of high-pitched voices at all times. You receive an impression of these things at the excellent inn of the "Trois Couronnes" and are transported in fancy to the Ocean House or to Congress Hall. But at the "Trois Couronnes," it must be added, there are other features that are much at variance with these suggestions: neat German waiters, who look like secretaries of legation; Russian princesses sitting in the garden; little Polish boys walking about held by the hand, with their governors; a view of the sunny crest of the Dent du Midi and the picturesque towers of the Castle of Chillon.

Task 4

Please identify all the noun phrases in your latest post.
Example:

the red ball
the university student
the rich
the poor
etc

This is due next Wednesday Sept 30th.
See you at the assistantship.

Task 3

Please, write a 300 word short story using as many idioms and collocations as you can (at least 15 idioms). Some of the ones you can use are the following:

Rise and shine
Pull somebody's leg
Shake a leg
Straight from the horses mouth
Different strokes for different folks
Smell a rat
Fishy
Horse of a different color
Take the bull by the horns
Let the cat out of the Bag/ Spill the beans
Horse around
Cat got your Tongue?
Get in someone's hair
Pay through the nose
All thumbs
Leave someone high and dry
Hit the hay
Hit the ceiling
Go fly a Kite
Kick the bucket

And many others. Also, include the ones that you have been seeing with Miss Cecilia in class.

This is due on Wednesday September 16th at midnight.

Corpus

• CORPUS
From Corpus to Classroom

WHAT IS CORPUS?

• What is Corpus?
A corpus is a collection of texts, written or spoken, which is stored on a computer.
A corpus is a principled collection of texts available for qualitative and quantitive analysis.
It must represent something and its merits will often be judged on how representative it is.

WHAT CAN WE USE FROM IT?

• COLLOCATIONS
Words that collocate with another and no other:
Depend on
Look up
Wooden box (ADJECTIVE+NOUN)

• WORDS/CHUNKS
A SMALL COMPONENT OF LANGUAGE:
I
YOU
I DON’T KNOW
A LOT OF
ONE OF THE
I MEAN
THE

• DISCOURSE MARKERS
OPENINGS AND CLOSINGS
YOU KNOW
I MEAN
ANYWAY
MIND YOU
WELL

• FREQUENCY
THE RANGE IN WHICH A WORD IS REPEATED IN CERTAIN DISCOURSE
S1—S2—S3
W1—W2—W3

• REGISTER
FORMAL/INFORMAL/COLLOQUIAL
TECHNICAL

Task 2

Write a 150-300 words entry answering the following questions. Use different sources (Video seen in class, class notes, web pages, texts, etc) to give a complete answer.

• What is the English Profile?
• Do you think the English Profile will/should be adopted in learning/teaching English in Chile? Give reasons.
• What is the Common European Framework? How does it relate to the English Profile?
• Do you think the Common European Framework should be implemented in Chile? Explain why.