Claudia Claridge

Constructing a corpus from the web: message boards

This paper investigates the challenges and chances involved in creating a corpus of message board (or internet forum) language, in particular one that also reflects the regional varieties of English. Message boards as an asynchronic and public form of computer-mediated communication function as an ‘electronic agora’ (Largier 2002: 287), in so far as they are used for a variety of functions ranging from the more private to the more public, including the discussion of highly topical socio-political subject-matter. Thus, content orientation, evaluation and interactive argumentation are potential characteristics of this text form. Firstly, the technical aspects of corpus compilation will be highlighted, examining such matters as how to transform the web interface into a suitably annotated corpus, how to adequately represent the sequencing/relatedness of messages and how to establish regional speaker identities. Secondly, a pilot study on interaction and stance markers will examine how these are realized and distributed in this genre, and whether there are any regional differences in their use.

The superlative in spoken English

The paper deals with the use of the superlative degree in spoken British English on the basis of the demographic part of the British National Corpus. The aspects investigated include the distribution of the morphological types (inflectional vs. periphrastic), the types of adjectives used in this construction and the syntax of the superlative (attributive, predicative and nominal use; determiner usage). Special attention is being paid to the semantics (relative, absolute, intensifying meanings) and the corresponding functions of the superlative, where it is noticeable that absolute and intensifying readings are much more common than expectable from the extant literature. Together with the usage of generalising modification structures, this points to the conclusion that the superlative may be less a means of factual comparison than rather a means for (often vague) evaluation and the expression of emotion.

Developments in English : expanding electronic evidence

1. English in the digital age. General introduction Irma Taavitsainen, Merja Kyto, Claudia Claridge and Jeremy Smith Part I. Linguistic Directions and Crossroads: Mapping the Routes Merja Kyto: 2. Corpus-based and corpus-driven approaches to linguistic analysis: one and the same? Charles F. Meyer 3. Quantitative corpus approaches to linguistic analysis: seven or eight levels of resolution and the lessons they teach us Stefan Th. Gries 4. Profiling the English verb phrase over time: modal patterns Bas Aarts, Sean Wallis and Jill Bowie Part II. Changing Patterns Claudia Claridge: 5. On the functional change of desire in relation to hope and wish Minoji Akimoto 6. From medieval to modern: on the development of the adverbial connective considering (that) Matti Rissanen 7. Spoken features of interjections in English dialect (based on Joseph Wrights English Dialect Dictionary) Manfred Markus Part III. Pragmatics and Discourse Irma Taavitsainen: 8. Interjection-based delocutive verbs in the history of English Laurel J. Brinton 9. Uh and um as planners in the Corpus of Historical American English Andreas H. Jucker 10. Religious discourse and the history of English Thomas Kohnen Part IV. World Englishes Jeremy Smith: 11. History, social meaning and identity in the spoken English of postcolonial white Zimbabweans Susan Fitzmaurice 12. Singapore weblogs between speech and writing Andrea Sand 13. Mergers, losses and the spread of English Raymond Hickey 14. Complex systems in the history of American English William A. Kretzschmar, Jr.

‘Upon these Heads I shall discourse’: lexicographical and corpus evidence for senses and phrases

This paper uses the set of body part terms to investigate the use and the treatment of transferred senses in Early Modern English. The data basis is provided by four eighteenth-century dictionaries (Kersey 1715, Bailey 1730, Martin 1749, Johnson 1755) and by EModE corpora such as the CED, CEEC, and ZEN. Points to be investigated for the dictionaries are the kinds, the number and the ordering of transferred senses listed, the presence of accompanying usage notes, as well as the differences and similarities between the dictionaries. The corpus analysis will provide evidence about the kinds and relative frequencies of senses in real language use, as well as about their typical contexts and collocations. Finally, the degree of overlap between the dictionaries and the corpora will be discussed.