A corpus-based tool

Elisabet Comelles (elicomelles@ub.edu)Natàlia J. Laso (njlaso@ub.edu)

Isabel VerdaguerEva Giménez

Grup de Recerca en Lexicologia i Lingüística de Corpus (GReLiC)

Clause Pattern DB

LayoutIntroduction. Our projectAims of the Clause Pattern DBMethodologyClause Pattern DBConclusionsFuture venues

IntroductionFew empirical studies on the use of corpus in an L2 teaching context (Laso & Giménez 2007, 2008)

Use of Corpora in EFL context learners focus on:Naturally-occurring utterancesHighly frequent combination of words

(Tsui 2004)

Our projectCompilation of specific sub-corpora (7,675.181

words) from mystery novels in order to:Show large quantities of real language in useDraw learners’ attention more easily

Use of a corpus-based approach in our classes (English Studies & English Philology)

Our studies focus on Clause Patterns in context.

Development of a Database

Aims of the Clause Pattern DatabaseSystematize and organize the

information provided by the corpusInterrelate the contents of different

subjectsDesign teaching/learning materials

based on corpusEnhance collaborative work

between discussion groups

MethodologySelection of prototypical verbs, illustrative of

the 5 canonical patterns (i.e. SV, SVC, SVO, SVOC, SVOO) [Huddleston & Pullum 2002].

Further searches with: syntactically & semantically related verbs (e.g. buy/sell)

other verbs semantically-related but syntactically different (e.g. give/donate)

WordSmith Tools 5.0

Analysis of new examples

Clause Pattern DBLayout:

The sentence extracted from corpus

The pattern of the sentenceThe lexeme of the main verbThe verb valence

Clause Pattern DB

Clause Pattern DB

Clause Pattern DB (demo)

ConclusionsThe utility of the Clause Pattern DB

is twofold:

1. it allows to organize & systematize corpus data

2. it provides users with user-friendly query tools

Conclusions

Query tools:To draw users’ attention on the

interrelation of syntax & semantics semantically-related verbs tend to be associated with certain grammatical patterns

ConclusionsSearching for lexemes / patterns /

valencesgive donate

I was given this watch by my father(SV[pas.]OObl[by])

She gave the lecture despite her illness (SVO)

You never should have donated defective sperm in the first place (SVO)

You’ve given Harry plenty of information (SVOO)

Pat gave your phone number to Martin (SVOObl)

The old professor donated all his books to the library (SVOObl)

Bodies are donated to the body farm (SV[pas]Obl[to])

Future venues

Production of classroom materials based on the Clause Pattern DB

To what extent does the application of corpus for the designing of classroom activities is helpful to SLA / FLA? Further empirical studies are needed (Conrad 2005)

Future venues

Addition of tree structures connected to the sentences of the database.

Information about the frequency of occurrence of the different patterns of a given lexeme.

BibliographyÄdel, A. & Reppen, R. (Eds.). (2008). Corpora and

Discourse. The challenges of different settings. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

Aijmer, K. (Ed.). (2009). Corpora and Language Teaching. Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

Conrad, S. (2005). Corpus Linguistics and L2 Teaching. In E. Hinkel (Ed.), Handbook of Research in Second Language Teaching and Learning (pp. 393-409). New York: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Huddleston, R. & Pullum, G.K. (2002). The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. Cambridge: CUP.

Hunston, S. & Francis, G. (2000). Pattern Grammar. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

Hunston, S. (2002). Corpora in Applied Linguistics. Cambridge: CUP.

BibliographyLaso, N. J. & Giménez, E. (2007). Bridging the Gap between

Corpus Research and Language Teaching. In C. Periñán (Ed.), Revisiting Language Learning Resources.(pp. 49-64). Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Laso, N. J. & Giménez, E. (2008). Exploring the Impact of Concordancers in the Teaching of English Lexicology and Morphology. In L. Pérez, I. Pizarro & E. González (Eds.), Estudios de Metodología de la Lengua Inglesa (IV) (pp. 281-290). Valladolid: Universidad de Valladolid, Secretariado de Publicaciones e Intercambio Editorial.

Lüdeling, A & Kytö, M. (Eds.). (2008). Corpus Linguistics. An International Handbook. (Vol. 1). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

Tsui, A. B. M. (2004). What Teachers Have Always Wanted to Know – and How Corpora Can Help. In J. Sinclair (Ed.), How to Use Corpora in Language Teaching (pp. 39-61). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

Acknowledgments

AGAUR Programme (2008MQD00020)

Programa d’Innovació Docent of the University of Barcelona (2009PID-UB/06)

Technical support provided by temuevo.com

THANKS FOR YOUR ATTENTION!