Before you watch the lecture, create two short dictionary definitions: One is for the word ‘threadbare’ the other is for the word ‘luckily’. Do not consult a dictionary or other reference resource – just use your own intuitions. If you do not think you know either word, just make a list of words that you think may be associated with each. Then watch the lecture.
Threadbare: A condition in which clothes are worn through, nearly to rags.
Luckily: Where a situation could have gone wrong, but the outcome was positive.
VIDEO MATERIAL: History & Development of Corpus Linguistics.
Use large corpora to identify the words that are most frequently used. The most efficient form of language learning ties to the words that people use most frequently. Studies are corpus based in their philosophy.
Early – most was written rather than spoken data, and much was not on contemporary texts (e.g. 19th Century novels and the Bible). By end of 1950s from teaching words to teaching rules (grammar). Verbs = 60% of what we use, but are hard to teach, + irregular verbs. Look for the popular/typify speech words.
Listening to these videos as a piece of history, as the studies have developed over time, identifying various elements of text, speech, and how focus on the words that people actually use etc – a very small number, with a large number of common lexical bundles (less common in academic writing). Developments of dictionary – large numbers of words, especially rare words is not helpful – that’s is required for [e.g. Countdown]. Writing definitions – need examples of how the word is used in context… I like what https://www.wordnik.com/ is able to do with this in making the dictionary digital.
I’m not a linguist (but wanting to interrogate tweets), so I’m multi-tasking on this material and taking fewer notes!
