The corpus and society Michaela Mahlberg Corpus Linguistics

The corpus and society Michaela Mahlberg Corpus Linguistics Summer Institute 30 June - 3 July 2008

A corpus theoretical framework (cf. Mahlberg 2005) 1) Language is a social phenomenon. 2) Meaning and form are associated. 3) A corpus linguistic description of language prioritises lexis. 2

yesterday: characterising meanings of words word out of textual context KWIC word in a specific text

. . . Have you read any good books lately? " he said. Oh, for God's sake. I racked my brain frantically to think when I last read a proper book. The trouble with working in publishing is that reading in your spare time is a bit like being a dustman and snuffling through the pig bin in the evening. I'm halfway through Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus, which Jude lent me, but I didn't think Mark Darcy, though clearly odd, was ready to accept himself as a Martian quite yet. Then I had a brainwave. "Backlash, actually, by Susan Faludi, " I said triumphantly. Hah! I haven't exactly read it as such, but feel I have as Sharon has been ranting about it so much. Anyway, completely safe option as no way diamond-pattern-jumpered goody-goody would have read five-hundred-page feminist treatise.

. . . Have you read any good books lately? " he said. Oh, for God's sake. I racked my brain frantically to think when I last read a proper book. The trouble with working in publishing is that reading in your spare time is a bit like being a dustman and snuffling through the pig bin in the evening. I'm halfway through Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus, which Jude lent me, but I didn't think Mark Darcy, though clearly odd, was ready to accept himself as a Martian quite yet. Then I had a brainwave. "Backlash, actually, by Susan Faludi, " I said triumphantly. Hah! I haven't exactly read it as such, but feel I have as Sharon has been ranting about it so much. Anyway, completely safe option as no way diamond-pattern-jumpered goody-goody would have read five-hundred-page feminist treatise.

. . . Have you read any good books lately? " he said. Oh, for God's sake. I racked my brain frantically to think when I last read a proper book. The trouble with working in publishing is that reading in your spare time is a bit like being a dustman and snuffling through the pig bin in the evening. I'm halfway through Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus, which Jude lent me, but I didn't think Mark Darcy, though clearly odd, was ready to accept himself as a Martian quite yet. Then I had a brainwave. "Backlash, actually, by Susan Faludi, " I said triumphantly. Hah! I haven't exactly read it as such, but feel I have as Sharon has been ranting about it so much. Anyway, completely safe option as no way diamond-pattern-jumpered goody-goody would have read five-hundred-page feminist treatise.

. . . Have you read any good books lately? " he said. Oh, for God's sake. I racked my brain frantically to think when I last read a proper book. The trouble with working in publishing is that reading in your spare time is a bit like being a dustman and snuffling through the pig bin in the evening. I'm halfway through Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus, which Jude lent me, but I didn't think Mark Darcy, though clearly odd, was ready to accept himself as a Martian quite yet. Then I had a brainwave. "Backlash, actually, by Susan Faludi, " I said triumphantly. Hah! I haven't exactly read it as such, but feel I have as Sharon has been ranting about it so much. Anyway, completely safe option as no way diamond-pattern-jumpered goody-goody would have read five-hundred-page feminist treatise.

. . . Have you read any good books lately? " he said. Oh, for God's sake. I racked my brain frantically to think when I last read a proper book. The trouble with working in publishing is that reading in your spare time is a bit like being a dustman and snuffling through the pig bin in the evening. I'm halfway through Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus, which Jude lent me, but I didn't think Mark Darcy, though clearly odd, was ready to accept himself as a Martian quite yet. Then I had a brainwave. "Backlash, actually, by Susan Faludi, " I said triumphantly. Hah! I haven't exactly read it as such, but feel I have as Sharon has been ranting about it so much. Anyway, completely safe option as no way diamond-pattern-jumpered goody-goody would have read five-hundred-page feminist treatise.

Collocation well-known concept § § § "Collocation is the occurrence of two words within a short space of each other in a text. ” (Sinclair 1991: 170) becomes visible in a concordance can be calculated characterises the meanings of words may not be easy to introspect 9

Collocation and meaning Example: blind • • • blind baby, man, people, students blind-date, blind date, Blind Date blind alley turn a blind eye blind fury, ignorance, lust 10

Implications of collocational findings for language descriptions § dictionaries (Cobuild) § descriptive unit ‘lexical item’ (Sinclair 1996) § Pattern Grammar (Hunston & Francis 2000) § Lexical priming (Hoey 2005) 11

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Corpus and society Texts in corpora as evidence of social practice. • cultural key words sustainable development • textual key words move • computer key words Examples from Textual priming project 13

Cultural key words: Sustainable development • greenwash, ‘conveniently meaningless’ (Alexander 2002) • ‘[d]evelopment that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’ (Brundtland 1987: 43) • Agenda 21, Rio 1992 • World Summit, 26 August to 4 September 2002 in Johannesburg • “With our carton manufacturer we are committed to sustainable development and wherever possible use materials from renewable resources” 14

Corpus and method • SDC Guardian 2002 368 occurrences of SD 211 articles approximately 150, 000 words • functional groups and ad hoc categories 15

Group G 1 Conferences Examples 61 G 2 Organizations G 3 Education 22 13 G 4 Approaches G 5 SD requires G 6 Working towards SD 58 24 74 G 7 Leading in SD G 8 The need for SD G 9 Talking about SD G 10 SD means G 11 And SD Other 10 12 21 33 35 5 Total 368 16

G 1 Conferences and the world summit the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) the Earth summit on sustainable development in Johannesburg the Johannesburg summit on sustainable development 17

G 2 Organizations Business Action for Sustainable Development (BASD) The World Business Council for Sustainable Development the Western Partnership for Sustainable Development the International Institute for Sustainable Development the UK Sustainable Development Commission and 18

1 subject to a "sustainable development" test 2 subject to a sustainable development review, 3 up with a sustainable development framework, 4 , and sustainable development projects 5 annual sustainable development report 6 to introduce sustainable development criteria 7 the agenda for sustainable development - not 8 plan for sustainable development, with 9 declared policy on sustainable development, it was 10 a new approach to sustainable development. Natural 11 principles of sustainable development. But 12 to the EU's own sustainable development strategy. 13 http: //www. sustainable-development. gov. uk ) in G 4 Approaches to SD 19

1 duty to promote sustainable 2 to promote sustainable 3 , promoting sustainable 4 commitment to sustainable 5 set off towards sustainable 6 work towards sustainable 7 aim of "sustainable 8 to achieve sustainable 9 progress on sustainable 10 to support sustainable development and development. But development of development", development. In development. G 6 Working towards SD 20

The text as a unit: SD in newspaper articles 21

“News features tend to contain more comment, analysis, colour, background, and a greater diversity of sources than news stories and explore a larger number of issues in greater depth. It is the external length that accounts for many of the distinguishing elements of features. ” (Keeble 2006: 219) 22

Link between meaning and section: Education MSc in Sustainable Development education for sustainable development 23

G 9 Talking about SD 1 in the debate about sustainable development. 2 debates around sustainable development were 3 a message about sustainable development to 4 a speech about sustainable development in 5 To talk about sustainable development in 6 issues around sustainable development have 24

SD means (1) Sustainable development means managing growth in the world's economies during the next century in a way that avoids disaster for the environment, and reduces the intolerable gaps between the haves and the have-nots. 25

SD means (2) The idea is to improve social, environment and economic advancement all in one go, under the catch-all phrase of sustainable development. (3) Sadruggin Aga Khan, the former UN Commissioner for Refugees, was unhappy about the prospects for the natural world, and dismissed the phrase “sustainable development”. He said it had been adopted as a convenient mantra, but it was a delusion. (8) As the world prepares for next month's world summit on social development (WSSD) in Johannesburg, the Rio rhetoric is back on the airwaves. Northern governments are treating us to painful cover versions of the old sustainable development classics, and marketing them with more hype than that surrounding the launch of Will Young. 26

SD and evaluation • negative semantic prosody of ‘SD means’ G 7 Leading in SD: The US is a world leader in sustainable development. . Britain leading the world in sustainable development. . seen as the Crystal Palace of sustainable development… 27

obituaries (1 a) Anil Agarwal, who has died aged 54 of cancer, was one of the world's most important environmentalists, campaigning from a developing country - India - at a time when many of the international debates around sustainable development were dominated by the west. (1 b) … he was one of the first campaigners to talk about what became known as sustainable development. (2) Under his leadership, the trust spearheaded the setting up of LSx, the London Sustainability Exchange, promoting sustainable development and dedicated to improving the environment of London. (3) Barraclough became head of UNRISD, specialising in “sustainable development”. 28

textual key words: move 29

move 3 -word clusters in a move that the move is such a move which the move follows 30

move 3 -word clusters in a move that the move is such a move which the move follows 31

Guardian 2002 move follow* Texts Leading articles Home Overseas news Business Sport Obituaries Features Letters total 586 Tokens average hits text length (per 1000 articles) 280791 479 0 14470 6328337 3684 1790795 7330 2878352 11281 5470297 975 758941 31359 18786358 4189 499456 73874 36793327 437 486 393 485 778 599 119 498 28 (1. 9) 6 (2) 23 (3. 1) 3 (0. 3) 0 8 (0. 3) 0 68 (0. 9) 32

(The) move follows/followed news values (1) authorities a call by the Palestinian parliament earlier in the day a decision by US authorities to bring criminal charges a report by the justice ministry which singled out Britain a warning by Andy Gilchrist, leader of the Fire Brigades Union comments in the Guardian by the CNN founder, Ted Turner, 33

(2) legal and institutional issues a case involving a clergyman in Stoke who… a fingertip forensic search of the alley between a series of mass trespasses, notably in the Peak District, an investigation into the fatal accident in November, 1999 an unreported 10 -week pre-trial hearing at Liverpool crown court 34

(3) facts and figures industry figures this month which revealed 61% of the 10. 2 m the introduction of Abbey branches into 18 Costa Coffee shops last year's charity commission guidance on "programmerelated investment information that the 1 st Class Post Paid Impression service is 20% a thorough review that had taken into account investment market 35

(4) negative evaluation a furious round of contacts between the TUC, the firemen's leaders, a spate of embarrassments for ministers as a result of the data act an outcry prompted by insurer Prudential's decision to use policyholders last year's acrimonious court room battle between MLIM, formerly growing questions about the safety of rail maintenance in the light of 36

(the) move follows/ followed 37

(the) move follows/ followed 38

Orbital structure (White 1997) Nucleus Specification 1 Specification 2 Specification 3. . . 39

Abbey National sets up shop in Homebase Abbey National is attempting to buck the trend among high- street banks of closing branches by opening outlets in Homebase DIY stores. S 1 The move follows the introduction of Abbey branches into 18 Costa Coffee shops and several Safeway stores and. . S 2 Andrew Pople, managing director of Abbey's retail bank, said the project with Homebase would begin with a pilot store in Liverpool on Good Friday - a time when. . . S 3 While the first pilot store will not have facilities for business banking, Mr Pople said this would S 4 Abbey is one of the banks looking to take on the "big four" who have been accused by the government of ripping off small businesses. . S 5. . 40

Table 2: Business, Home, and Overseas News: 57 Nucleus Not nucleus n/a 44 (of which 20 paragraph initial AND paragraph 2) 9 4 41

Mallon feud to end as police chief rival retires One of the most bitter feuds within Britain's police is finally to end, with the decision of Cleveland's chief constable, Barry Shaw, to retire. </P><P>The move follows years of duelling with Ray "Robocop" Mallon, whose progress from disgraced detective to elected mayor of Middlesbrough has placed Mr Shaw in an embarrassing position. . . 42

Ministers consider restrictions on data access rights The government has slipped out proposals to curb citizens' rights to obtain access to files kept on them, including credit card information, under the Data Protection Act. </P><P>The move follows a spate of embarrassments for ministers as a result of the data act; including the Tory peer, Lord Ashcroft, obtaining embarrassing documents on him from the Foreign Office, and Liberal Democrat MPs being able to prove that ministers hid information from parliament. 43

Local textual functions and criteria that characterise (the) move follows/followed • distribution across sections of newspaper (cf. SD) • average texts length of these sections (cf. SD) • position at beginning of paragraph • paragraph 2 preferred paragraph • reference to (part of) nucleus, textual organisation of information • emphasizing news values (cf. SD, but. . ) 44

Computer key words e. g. with Word. Smith (Scott 2008) comparing frequencies in corpus A and corpus B 45

Textual functions of lexical items § Textual priming project AHRC Project, Michael Hoey Michaela Mahlberg Matthew Brook O’Donnell Mike Scott 46

Textual Priming Project: Aims • • • to investigate how many (and what types of) lexical items are primed to appear in text-initial or paragraph-initial position to identify lexico-grammatical patterns and see how these patterns can be functionally interpreted in the textual contexts. to relate these lexical and corpus-driven facts to current textual descriptions of (hard) news stories that might provide explanations for the positive primings of relevant lexis. 47

The nucleus pattern (work from Mahlberg & O’Donnell forthcoming) Words § § § TISC NTISC Total 3, 122, 037 49, 922, 632 53, 044, 669 TISC = Text initial sentence corpus NTISC = Non-text initial sentence corpus headlines are excluded 48

Key words § § § 1905 positive TISC vs NTISC key words key means here: statistical tendency to be found in first sentence of Guardian Home News article examples: yesterday, after, according, emerged, jailed, police, accused, woman, death, controversial 49

example: fresh TISC NTISC Occurrences 923 3984 Per million words Per 1000 sentences 295. 6 79. 8 8. 1 6. 2 from difference in frequency we cannot yet draw conclusion about differences in functional behaviour 50

fresh row/controversy (all three words key in TISC vs NTISC) Downing Street ran into a fresh row over "cronyism" yesterday when the multimillionaire New Labour economist Gavyn Davies was appointed vice-chairman of the BBC. The ‘nucleus pattern’ (cf. Mahlberg & O’Donnell forthcoming)

rday at the centre of a fresh education row after dismissing national te e Tory leadership contest faced a fresh row over dirty tricks yesterday when the overnment was last night facing a fresh row about the future of selective gramma environment minister, is facing a fresh row over a London incinerator's toxic as Tony Blair yesterday ignited a fresh row over the issue of privatisation as h al-Qusaibi, became embroiled in a fresh row last night for defending Palestinian h Museum has become involved in a fresh row with the Greeks and a leading Britis ry, Robin Cook was embroiled in a fresh row over arms sales yesterday after givi Labour was engulfed in a fresh row last night after a panel headed by t The government was embroiled in a fresh row with the BBC yesterday after a Forei ty of bullying, is embroiled in a fresh row with the beleaguered professional bo Downing Street ran into a fresh row over "cronyism" yesterday when the m ancellor, has been plunged into a fresh row over cronyism after it emerged that ry Irvine, will be plunged into a fresh row over cronyism this month as damning was yesterday at the centre of a fresh row over its admissions, when the mother n Prescott was at the centre of a fresh row with the Tories last night over whet was yesterday at the centre of a fresh row over plans for a shake-up in the way was last night at the centre of a fresh row over rigging the party's national ex el Sharon, threatens to provoke a fresh row with the Palestinians today by warni ts released today have provoked a fresh row about the credibility of the "gold s Tony Blair yesterday sparked a fresh row over "cronyism" when he appointed Da rof schools, yesterday sparked a fresh row about the teaching of morality by bl KENNETH CLARKE triggered a fresh row over racism within the Tory party ye government last night triggered a fresh row about selective education when it si Introduction and evaluation

Distribution of row and controversy across 43 articles with fresh row in sentence 1 (Numbers refer to articles)

Distribution of row and controversy across 40 articles with fresh controversy in sentence 1 (numbers refer to articles)

Row over u-turn on arms sales to Sahara war zone The foreign secretary, Robin Cook was embroiled in a fresh row over arms sales yesterday after giving the go-ahead for a pounds 3. 5 m contract to supply artillery spare parts to a north African war zone. (insert source) Mc. Connell in cash row Jack Mc. Connell, Scotland's first minister in waiting, has become embroiled in a fresh controversy over claims that he asked MPs for cash to keep his lover in her job as a press officer for the party.

Cohesive devices linking to nucleus (1) The row emerged a day after … (2) Disability rights organisations waded into the row, claiming that … (3) The row hits close to home because …

‘another’ - contextualisation (1) Earlier, the chief inspector had triggered a row by … (2) He also stoked controversy over his handling of … (3) Said is no stranger to controversy: he … (4) In a bitter row which echoed the controversy over Laura Spence …

Fury at pounds 100, 000 bill for Prescott's official apartment (1) THE DEPUTY Prime Minister, John Prescott, was facing fresh controversy yesterday when it was revealed that his official residence in central London was refurbished for pounds 100, 000. (2) The bill includes pounds 13, 000 for a carpet, thought to be a luxurious handwoven Balmoral Wilton at a cost of pounds 38 a square metre. (3) The controversy over the cost of modernising Prescott's apartment in Admiralty House has echoes of the row that engulfed Derry Irvine, the Lord Chancellor, who was criticised after it was revealed that his office had spent pounds 59, 000 on wallpaper for his official residence in the House of Lords. (4) Prescott's bill brings to pounds 1. 8 million the amount cabinet ministers have spent on improvements to their official accommodation since Labour came to power. (5) Critics estimated that the amount of new carpet in Prescott's apartment was enough to cover 'an average-sized municipal swimming pool'. (6) 'That's an awful lot of carpet, ' said the Conservative's environment spokesman, Archie Norman. (7) 'It's just typical of somebody who is making the most of the trappings of office. ’ (8) The refurbishment bill is the latest in a long line of rows about Prescott's lifestyle. (9) The deputy prime minister was nicknamed 'Two Jags' after it was revealed that he had use of two such cars and he has also been teased about his five-bedroom house in his Hull constituency, which is known locally as Prescott Towers. (10) But a government spokesman defended the refurbishment, saying […]

Expectations about what makes news: BBC and Foreign Office clash over euro screening The government was embroiled in a fresh row with the BBC yesterday after a Foreign Office official was ejected from a special screening of a television documentary which takes a hard-hitting look at Britain's stance on the euro. […] “We value our editorial independence and have to protect that principle in the same way that newspapers do”. […]

Conclusions • language as a social phenomenon and the basis of corpus work • cultural key words (cultural and textual context most visible) • textual key words (functions in texts, text has purpose, link between function of word and text not so obvious) • computer key words help study of both types of key words • value system of society in texts, news values