BNC at Oxford

BNC at Oxford

http://www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/

Look up ‘more information’ http://www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/using/index.xml.ID=simple

Note that all the words in the BNC are tagged for Part-of-speech POS

Now look for these words:

ask, asking, asked

demand, demanding, demanded

Now look for these words according to their POS

demand=NN1

demand=VVB

demanding=VVB

demanding=AJ0

Look up parts of speech codes - http://www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/docs/userManual/codes.xml.ID=codes#c5codes OR here

Search for the following words and then demonstrate how they can act as different POS and how the meaning changes:

Pretty, hard, fast, horse, abstract, living;

Running, coming, offering, exciting;

Call/s, row/s, rowing, use/s, move/s, moving, pad/s, padding, pass/es, passing, lie/s, lying, lay/s, laying;

need/s, needing, needy, must, musty, dare, daring

BYU version of the BNC http://corpus.byu.edu/bnc/

The BYU version is prepared for searching for COLLOCATIONS

Now look up:

ask*

ask, asking, asked

demand*

demand, demanding, demanded

and then ask for a word + POS taken from the POS menu on the left:

e.g. Ask + pronoun > ask him/her etc

e.g. Ask + preposition > ask for/about

BNCWeb – CQP

http://bncweb.info/

Sign on - see Access to the BNC via BNCweb at Lancaster University

You can try out combinations of grammar usage (like BNC Oxford) and collocations (like BNC-BYU). The search syntax is complex but the results rewarding.

COMPARA

http://www.linguateca.pt/COMPARA/

This is a parallel corpus - original text + translation - in English and Portuguese

EXERCISES

Use all the corpora to find examples of lexical and grammatical structures:

·  Verbs:

o  Present Perfect

§  Suggestion – look up have/has + -ed verbs in COMPARA; note the PT version; suggest similarities and differences between the Present Perfect and the

o  Present continuous

§  Look up examples in COMPARA and compare to PT

o  Future / ‘going to’

§  Look up examples in COMPARA and compare to PT

o  Modal verbs

§  Look up examples in COMPARA and compare to PT

§  Can, could, may, might, shall, should etc

§  Find examples of the PT conjuntivo

o  Phrasal verbs

§  Find verbs or prepositions and see how they combine

·  Nouns

o  Countable v. Uncountable -

o  Find nouns or prepositions and see how they combine

·  Adjective + noun combinations

o  Look at collocations of young, old, new, cold, wet, bright, clear, little, small ..... etc

o  Try these adjectives to see how they work in combination with other adjectives

·  Determiners

o  Definite article use in EN and PT

o  Possessives – my, your, his, her, etc

·  Adverbial Phrases

o  Ending in –ly, multiword phrases

o  Adverbs at the beginning and end of sentences – use punctuation markers

·  Idioms, clichés etc

COLLOCATIONS:

look up the following groups of synonyms (don’t forget to use –ed and –ing forms)

Agree / Go along with
Be in agreement / Fall in with
Share the view that / Compromise
Subscribe to / Understanding
concur / Agreement
Disagree / Agree to differ
Differ / Be at loggerheads
Contradict / Be at odds
Not see eye to eye / Fall out with
Take issue with / Play devil’s advocate
Accept / Embrace
Jump at the chance / Give in
Take on / Back down
Welcome / Now to
Take on board / Accede to
Refuse / Dig your heels in
Decline / Deny
Shake your head / Withhold
Flatly refuse / Draw the line at
Refuse point-blank / Shake your head
Fail / Go wrong
Come to grief / Come to nothing
Not make it / Fall through
Get nowhere / Not come off
Draw a blank / Backfire
Succeed / Pull off
Be successful / Turn up trumps
Manage / Pay off
Make a go of / Without a hitch
Make it / Breakthrough
Look / Eye
Look at / Look over
Stare / Take/have a look
Gaze / Glance
Gape / Take a peek
See / Spectacle
Set eyes on / Catch a glimpse of
Witness / Make out
Spot / Observe
Scene / Dazzle
Hit / Beat
Strike / Beat somebody up
Bash / Batter
Thump / Club
Slap / Knock out
Punch / Whack
Blow / Tap
Smack / Rap
Spank / Hammer
Whip / Crash into
Fall / Collapse
Fall off / Topple over
Tumble / Go head over heels
Be thrown / Trip up
Have a fall / Stumble
Drop / Cave in
Plunge / Knock over
Plummet / Bring down
Tip over / Upset
Fall down / overturn