LING30230 Corpus Linguistics

Academic Year 2024/2025

This module will introduce students to the study of corpora in linguistics:
- it examines the notion of a corpus (differences between general/specialised, oral/written corpora, multimodal corpora, etc.),
- it discusses the theory and especially the practice of the construction of corpora (design criteria) and
- assesses tools (concordancers, frequency lists, collocates, etc.) for the exploitation of corpora.

The module will explore different approaches to analysing corpora, providing many hands-on exercises in the exploration and construction of linguistic corpora.

Examples of topics analysed through corpus-based approaches:
- Gender
- Linguistic variation (Irish English, US English, etc.)
- Words evolution (diachronic approach)
- Sentiment analysis (exploring language in social networks)
- Political speeches (Brexit, etc.)
- Linguistic politeness
- Media bias, etc.

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Curricular information is subject to change

Learning Outcomes:

On completion of this module, you should be able to:
- critically examine the notion of a corpus
- understand the uses of text corpora in language research
- explore corpora with simple to more complex tools
- use a concordance program to extract data from a corpus
- understand how to analyse corpus data through statistical and discourse analysis methods.

Indicative Module Content:

- Corpus Linguistics theory & applications
- Types of corpora
- Corpus design
- Corpus tools
- Investigating a corpus (textual markers, collocates, word lists, etc.)

Student Effort Hours: 
Student Effort Type Hours
Specified Learning Activities

20
Autonomous Student Learning

56
Lectures

12
Computer Aided Lab

12
Total

100
Approaches to Teaching and Learning:
Combined approach between theoretical content and many hands-on activities (computer-lab activities) 
Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations

Not applicable to this module.


Module Requisites and Incompatibles
Not applicable to this module.
 
Assessment Strategy  
Description Timing Component Scale Must Pass Component % of Final Grade In Module Component Repeat Offered
Practical Skills Assessment: Practical exercise (investigating a corpus) Week 6 Graded No

30

 No
Individual Project: Discursive analysis of a corpus (several topics will be made available to students) Week 12 Graded No

70

 No

Carry forward of passed components
No
 
Resit In Terminal Exam
Spring No
Please see Student Jargon Buster for more information about remediation types and timing. 
Feedback Strategy/Strategies

• Feedback individually to students, post-assessment
• Group/class feedback, post-assessment

How will my Feedback be Delivered?

Class feedback, hands-on activities, individual feedback (summative assessment form and comments)