Syllabus

Title
1111 Methods in Corpus Linguistics
Instructors
Univ.Prof. Almut Köster, M.A.,Ph.D.
Contact details
Type
PI
Weekly hours
2
Language of instruction
Englisch
Registration
09/26/22 to 10/04/22
Registration via LPIS
Notes to the course
Dates
Day Date Time Room
Monday 10/10/22 02:00 PM - 05:00 PM D2.2.228
Monday 10/17/22 02:00 PM - 05:00 PM D2.2.228
Monday 11/07/22 02:00 PM - 05:00 PM D2.2.228
Monday 11/14/22 02:00 PM - 05:00 PM D2.2.228
Monday 11/21/22 02:00 PM - 05:00 PM D2.2.228
Monday 12/05/22 02:00 PM - 05:30 PM D2.2.228
Monday 12/12/22 02:00 PM - 06:00 PM D2.2.228
Contents

This course will provide an overview of methodology used in Corpus Linguistics. A corpus is a collection of electronically-stored texts, and Corpus Linguistics combines quantitative and qualitative methods to analyse such collections of texts. The course should thus be of interest to any doctoral or PhD students using written or spoken language data in their research, such as texts collected from the internet or transcriptions of interviews. The sessions will involve seminar participants in practical activities and introduce them to tools for exploring and interrogating corpus data. Techniques, tools, and software packages commonly used in corpus analysis will be practically employed throughout the course. Students who successfully complete this course will develop strategies and practices for the inspection, analysis and interpretation of language data, as well as for data selection, collection and storage.

Learning outcomes

After attending this course, students will:

  • understand the principles of Corpus Linguistics;
  • be able to use a range of corpus methods and tools, including frequency lists, keywords and concordances;
  • be familiar with a range of corpora and corpus types;
  • be able to select and collect data for corpus analysis;
  • be able to interpret corpus data and combine corpus analysis with other methods.
Attendance requirements

Attendance required through the entire course. In exceptional cases you may miss one (1) seminar unit.

Teaching/learning method(s)

Seminar with practical exercises and class discussion

Assessment

1) Analysis task (written): 30%

2) Individual project combining several corpus methods (oral presentation): 60%

3) Participation: 10%

Prerequisites for participation and waiting lists
  • Excellent written and spoken command of English equivalent to C2 on the Common European Framework
  • Participants are expected to have very good knowledge of English grammar
  • A degree in English would be an advantage
Readings
1 Author: Hunston, Susan
Title:

Corpora in Applied Linguistics                                                    


Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Year: 2002
Content relevant for class examination: Yes
Recommendation: Strongly recommended (but no absolute necessity for purchase)
Type: Book
2
Title:
Further readings will be distributed in class

Availability of lecturer(s)

Please refer to the homepage of the Institute for English Business Communication: https://www.wu.ac.at/en/ebc/

Unit details
Unit Date Contents
1 1

Introduction:

  • Corpus linguistic methods
  • Survey of available corpora
  • tools and software
2 2

Frequency and keywords

3 3

Concordance

4 4

Collocation

5 5

N-grams/ Chunks/ Clusters

6 6

Building a corpus
Student presentations

7 7

Student presentations

 

Last edited: 2022-04-22



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