Course: Introduction to Corpus Linguistics

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Course title Introduction to Corpus Linguistics
Course code KAJ/PKOLB
Organizational form of instruction Lesson
Level of course Bachelor
Year of study not specified
Semester Winter and summer
Number of ECTS credits 2
Language of instruction Czech
Status of course Compulsory-optional
Form of instruction Face-to-face
Work placements Course does not contain work placement
Recommended optional programme components None
Course availability The course is available to visiting students
Lecturer(s)
  • Peldová Petra, Mgr. Ph.D.
  • Haupt Jaromír, Mgr. Ph.D.
Course content
Week 1, 16 September: Introduction to the course, basic terms, history of corpus linguistics, types of corpora, Week 2, 23 September: Type, tokens, lemmata, concordances Week 3, 30 September: Frequencies, collocations, colligations Week 4, 7 October: Distribution, wordlists, keywords Week 5 14 October: Coca findings Week 6, 21 October: CQL Week 7, 28 October: NO LESSON BANK HOLIDAY Week 8, 4November: Corpus building Week 9, 11 November: Corpus paper reading Week 10, 18 November: Analysing a corpus Week 11, 25 November: Czech national corpus Week 12, 2 December: Presentations 3 people - test Week 13, 9 December: Presentations - 4 people Week 14, 16 December: Presentations -5 people

Learning activities and teaching methods
Monological explanation (lecture, presentation,briefing), Active metods (simulation, situational contingency methods, drama,acting, namagerial acting ), Practicum, E-learning, Task-based study method, Students' self-study
  • Contacts hours - 28 hours per semester
  • Preparation for credit - 28 hours per semester
  • Presentation preparation (report in a foreign language) - 10 hours per semester
  • Preparation for formative assessments - 10 hours per semester
  • Class attendance - 28 hours per semester
Learning outcomes
The aim of the subject is to introduce students to the fundamental aspects of corpus linguistics. Students will work with the already existing corpora, plus they learn how to create corpora for their teaching, learning, or researching purposes. Students will further get acquainted with basic tools, platforms and methods used when creating and analysing corpora. Each seminar includes a theoretical and practical part, where the students first learn about the given issue/concept and then they apply their knowledge in practice.
Acquired competencies: Knowledge of corpora, the ability to create a corpus and to use corpora while learning, teaching or researching ( especially in bachelor theses).
Prerequisites
Threshold B2 level of English. The subject is taught in English.

Assessment methods and criteria
Student's performance analysis, Student's linguistic performance analysis, Oral presentation of self-study, Written assignment, Test

Requirements: A mini-research corpus study presentation - present your own created corpus, find frequencies, collocations, and colligations (25 per cent of the overall grade); the presentation does not mean just clicking on word sketch and presenting the information in this tool; one must dig more in the corpus to identify a notable finding about the corpus. An example will be given. A part of the presentation is an active preparation via a Google document, where the teacher will see the progress of the research and will guide the student throughout the whole process. Passing a theoretical test at the end of the semester (20 per cent of the overall grade) Writing a paper on your corpus (25 per cent of the overall grade). COCA finding - self-study -15 per cent Active attendance (15 per cent of the overall grade). To pass, you need to achieve 70 %. No second changes will be given
Recommended literature
  • Baker, Paul, Andrew Hardie, and Tony McEnery. A Glossary of Corpus Linguistics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2006.
  • Baker, Paul, Costas Gabrielatos, and Tony McEnery. Discourse Analysis and Media Attitudes: The Representation of Islam in the British Press. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013.
  • Baker, Paul. Sociolinguistics and Corpus Linguistics. Edinburg: Edinburgh University Press, 2010.
  • Baker, Paul. Using Corpora in Discourse Analysis. London / New York: Continuum, 2006.
  • Čermák, František et al. InterCorp: exploring a multilingual corpus. Praha: NLN, 2010.
  • Čermák, František. Korpus a korpusová lingvistika. Praha: Karlova univerzita, 2017.
  • Gablasova, Dana, Vaclav Brezina, and Tony McEnery. Collocations in Corpus-Based Language Learning Research: Identifying, Comparing, and Interpreting the Evidence. Language Learning, 67(S1). 2017.
  • Garside, Roger, Geoffrey Leech, and Tony McEnery. Corpus Annotation. Harlow: Longman, 1997.
  • Hunston, Susan. Corpora in Applied Linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
  • Love, Robbie, Clair Dembry, Andrew Hardie, Vaclav Brezina, and Tony McEnery. The Spoken BNC2014: designing and building a spoken corpus of everyday conversations.. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 22:3. 2017.
  • McEnery, Tony and Andrew Hardie. Corpus linguistics: method, theory and practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012.
  • Reppen, Randi. Using Corpora in the Language Classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.


Study plans that include the course
Faculty Study plan (Version) Category of Branch/Specialization Recommended year of study Recommended semester