Interpreting Concordance Lines

1. Interpreting Concordance Lines Susan Hunston, University of Birmingham John Sinclair, Tuscan Word Centre

2. A corpus … • A corpus is: • A collection of texts • Spoken (transcribed) or written • In any language • Usually naturally-occurring • Stored electronically • Searched using dedicated software

3. … and concordance lines • Concordance lines show every instance of the word you have asked for (or a sample of these), with a few words before and after; • They can be sorted to put together similar co-texts; • They encourage observation of recurring patterns (‘samenesses’).

4. Cup of tea (1) a chat about old times over a cup of tea and a biscuit." <hl> Eurosta and we'll discuss it over a cup of tea." He handed back the ID and in and ask me to make her a cup of tea. When I refuse she'll say she wouldn't even accept a cup of tea because she didn't have the where to begin. I offered him a cup of tea and he blurted out: `I will trolley approaches and a cup of tea is set down on her locker. T play quietly, while I have a cup of tea, I'll cook you some chips f on the sofa enjoying a nice cup of tea. Since I've done all this on much. <p> I will have a nice cup of tea with him before the game and into my uniform, have a quick cup of tea, and then get breakfast read for a quick, or not so quick, cup of tea to return the compliment in She sat down and picked up the cup of tea I'd poured for her. She dran I sure as hell remembered the cup of tea because I mean because it ac

5. Cup of tea (2) hours on motorways is not my cup of tea, but I do like visiting new p her. `No, really, she's not my cup of tea. But the powerful deputy edi lecturers were more my cup of tea than homicidally tanked-up l of Ruby -- she's not everyone's cup of tea. By the way, I understand yo marketing may not be everyone's cup of tea. There's an old advertising two This is much more Linda's cup of tea: a three-bedroom, brand-new play. This won't be everybody's cup of tea; but you'd be hard pushed to which are not everybody's cup of tea. And the annual management c atching. But if Leo isn't your cup of tea, you might like AMERICAN BE have been here. It's more your cup of tea, as it were, with its High C was saying. `Not quite your cup of tea, isn't that what you say?" S

6. Cup of tea (3) faint when one turned up in her cup of tea. Hoping to hear fro he hadn't got much time for his cup of tea and his pipe. Castl Then he went over to his cup of tea, bowed his head ov

7. So… • The phrase cup of tea has (at least) two meanings • Each has its own distinctive grammar • ‘Mismatch’ of meaning and grammar is possible but rare (That is not my cup of tea – this is.)

8. manage • Examine the concordance lines. What three grammatical patterns does manage participate in? • Looking at each pattern in turn, how could you paraphrase manage in each? • Does the meaning align with the grammar? Are there exceptions?

9. decide • In set 1, what complementation patterns are illustrated? • In set 1, what classes of items come before the verb? • In set 2, what classes of items come before the verb? • In set 2, what meanings are expressed by the items coming before to decide whether? • What difference(s) do you see between set 2 and set 3?

10. true feelings • In what grammatical context does true feelings normally occur? Are there any exceptions? • What kinds of words occur two to the left of true feelings? What meanings are expressed by these words? • How much evidence is there that true feelings is used in the context of ‘reluctance’?

11. Conclusion 1 • Concordance lines make recurrences of pattern apparent. • They encourage us to see that: • Pattern and meaning are associated • Many words and phrases occur in a restricted set of contexts • They encourage us to make unexpected connections between items.

12. Conclusion 2 • Using concordance lines gives students control over their own investigations. • Using concordance lines is always surprising. • Concordance lines are a useful heuristic.