Home Linguistics & Semiotics Corpus linguistics: Widening the remit
Chapter
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Corpus linguistics: Widening the remit

  • Wolfgang Teubert
Become an author with De Gruyter Brill
Explore this Subject How to publish with us
Corpus Linguistics, Context and Culture
This chapter is in the book Corpus Linguistics, Context and Culture

Abstract

Language allows us to turn our experiences into meaning and share them with others. This is why linguistics, and corpus linguistics in particular, should have a strong focus on the meaning of what is said. If we accept the meaning of a lexical item such as human rights to be everything said about it (the paraphrastic content of all occurrences of this item), we’ll find that the Firthian concept of meaning (1957: 196) as an “abstraction on the syntagmatic level”, which has been the core of corpus-oriented collocation studies, does not really allow us to make sense of what has been said. Statistics is no more than a heuristic tool; it makes us aware of what may be relevant. The methodology of corpus linguistics must include paraphrase analysis. The aim is to extract, organise and present the relevant textual evidence. It is then up to the discourse participants themselves to interpret these findings and come up with new paraphrases.

Abstract

Language allows us to turn our experiences into meaning and share them with others. This is why linguistics, and corpus linguistics in particular, should have a strong focus on the meaning of what is said. If we accept the meaning of a lexical item such as human rights to be everything said about it (the paraphrastic content of all occurrences of this item), we’ll find that the Firthian concept of meaning (1957: 196) as an “abstraction on the syntagmatic level”, which has been the core of corpus-oriented collocation studies, does not really allow us to make sense of what has been said. Statistics is no more than a heuristic tool; it makes us aware of what may be relevant. The methodology of corpus linguistics must include paraphrase analysis. The aim is to extract, organise and present the relevant textual evidence. It is then up to the discourse participants themselves to interpret these findings and come up with new paraphrases.

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Contents V
  3. Introduction 1
  4. Part I: Discourse contexts and cultures
  5. Patterns of discursive urban place-making in Brooklyn, New York 13
  6. The English of current Caribbean newspapers 43
  7. Corporate identity and its variation over time 75
  8. Applying Geographical Information Systems to researching historical corpora 109
  9. Corpus linguistics: Widening the remit 137
  10. Part II: Contexts of lexis and grammar
  11. Family collocation 165
  12. Factors influencing the translation of -ing participial free adjuncts 197
  13. The diachronic productivity of native combining forms in American English 223
  14. Advise against -ing: An emerging class of exceptions to Bach’s Generalization 253
  15. Subjective progressives in the history of American English 275
  16. Part III: Learner contexts
  17. A syntactic analysis of the introductory it pattern in non-native-speaker and nativespeaker student writing 307
  18. Phraseological teddy bears 339
  19. “Dear Man men and women madam, dear xxx sir” 363
  20. Marked themes in advanced learner English 387
  21. Phrasal verbs in the spoken and written modes of Norwegian L2 learner English 409
  22. Conversational gesture corpus analysis 437
  23. Corpus research for SLA 467
  24. List of contributors 483
  25. Index 487
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110489071-006

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Contents V
  3. Introduction 1
  4. Part I: Discourse contexts and cultures
  5. Patterns of discursive urban place-making in Brooklyn, New York 13
  6. The English of current Caribbean newspapers 43
  7. Corporate identity and its variation over time 75
  8. Applying Geographical Information Systems to researching historical corpora 109
  9. Corpus linguistics: Widening the remit 137
  10. Part II: Contexts of lexis and grammar
  11. Family collocation 165
  12. Factors influencing the translation of -ing participial free adjuncts 197
  13. The diachronic productivity of native combining forms in American English 223
  14. Advise against -ing: An emerging class of exceptions to Bach’s Generalization 253
  15. Subjective progressives in the history of American English 275
  16. Part III: Learner contexts
  17. A syntactic analysis of the introductory it pattern in non-native-speaker and nativespeaker student writing 307
  18. Phraseological teddy bears 339
  19. “Dear Man men and women madam, dear xxx sir” 363
  20. Marked themes in advanced learner English 387
  21. Phrasal verbs in the spoken and written modes of Norwegian L2 learner English 409
  22. Conversational gesture corpus analysis 437
  23. Corpus research for SLA 467
  24. List of contributors 483
  25. Index 487
Sign up now to receive a 20% welcome discount
Institutional Access
How does access work?
Have an idea on how to improve our website?
Please write us.
© 2026 De Gruyter Brill
Downloaded on 26.1.2026 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110489071-006/html
Scroll to top button