CORPUS LINGUISTICS

The module aims at providing a practical introduction to statistical procedures in corpus linguistics, i.e. a discipline that uses computers to analyse language, organized according to linguistic topics (ranging from vocabulary and grammar to sociolinguistics, discourse analysis and historical investigations of language).

The main goal of the module is to help students understand key principles of statistical thinking in order to be able to make informed decisions about the applications of particular statistical techniques.

Lectures and workshops, which will be held in English.

After introducing basic notions about corpora and corpus construction, the module, and the continuous hands-on sessions, will focus on the use of software for the statistical analysis of the English language including: a) for the analysis of lexis, with particular emphasis on collocation, keywords and lexical density, b) a lexico-grammatical approach to language description; c) the analysis of language variation, focusing on registers; d) sociolinguistic and stylistic studies; e) Diachronic comparisons.

- Brezina, Vaclav, 2018, Statistics in Corpus Linguistics. A Practical Guide, Cambridge University Press, pp. 296.

- Baker, Paul, 2010, “Will Ms ever be as frequent as Mr? A corpus-based comparison of gendered terms across four diachronic corpora of British English”. In: Gender and Language. 4/1, pp. 125-149.

Teaching materials for the practical workshop on corpus querying software will be available on STUDIUM.

Please remember that in compliance with art 171 L22.04.1941, n. 633 and its amendments, it is illegal to copy entire books or journals, only 15% of their content can be copied.

For further information on sanctions and regulations concerning photocopying please refer to the regulations on copyright (Linee Guida sulla Gestione dei Diritti d’Autore) provided by AIDRO - Associazione Italiana per i Diritti di Riproduzione delle opere dell’ingegno (the Italian Association on Copyright).

All the books listed in the programs can be consulted in the Library.