CorpusMate

Introduction

CorpusMate is a powerful corpus platform developed by Dr. Peter Crosthwaite (University of Queensland) and Dr. Vit Baisa. A prominent feature of CorpusMate is its convenience in generating a concordance for a specific discipline (e.g., science, culture, arts, music, chemistry, law, etc.). In this chapter, we will explore some basic functions offered by this user-friendly corpus platform specialised for younger (L2) learners who use English as a second language. The streamlined interface of CorpusMate will afford language data analysis and exploration even for beginners or novice English learners.


Overview of CorpusMate interface


Pre-requisites for using CorpusMate

Web browsers

♦ Any web browsers should be acceptable

Registration

♦ No registration is required


Video tutorial

In the following video tutorials, the corpora comprising CorpusMate will be briefly introduced, including some simple statistical information such as their sources, and the number of tokens each corpus contains. The tutorials will then demonstrate some simple basic search functions and other convenient functions featured in CorpusMate, making it a wonderful, smart, and user-friendly tool for novice users. Be sure to make use of the bookmark icon at the bottom left of the video to jump to different sections .

 

1. Basic searches

In CorpusMate, similar to other corpus tools, it offers basic searches with a single word or words and phrases. Simply enter the word of interest, then specify in which discipline you would like to know how the words or phrases are used in the dropdown menu of “in topic”. Finally, in the dropdown menu  of “in mode”, i.e. the spoken or written genre. For example, type in “corpus” in the search box, and we limit the search results by selecting “English language and Literature” and “written” mode. The concordance displayed will show concordance lines specifically demonstrating how the word “corpus” is used in sentences related to the “English language and Literature” in the written mode. Click on the info button for more information .

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2. Concordance view (KWIC)

In the concordance viewing page, users will be able to see all concordance lines with the node (the search word or phrases) aligned at the centre. CorpusMate offers two different modes to view the concordance: 1) the “pattern view” mode and 2) the “sentence” mode.

The “pattern view” mode is similar to most KWIC tools. On the other hand, the “sentence” mode will display the concordance lines in the form of a sentence, without aligning the search word at its centre but showing where it is used exactly in the sentence.

Two modes of concordance view

By clicking on the node of any concordance lines, users will be able to obtain the full context of the sentence, such as the title of the text, the source, the topic it is categorised into, and citation.

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3. Convenient functions in “All results” tab

Besides switching viewing modes, CorpusMate also offers other very convenient functions such as filtering by topics, the spoken or written corpus. Hiding the KWIC is a function to hide the node and users can make use of this function for other purposes, e.g. creating gap-filling exercise for learning materials that feature authentic language. All the above functions can be located in the “All results” module, immediately below each tabs. Click on the info button for more information

In addition, users can also expand each concordance line by clicking the icon at the end. By default, CorpusMate collapses concordance lines having similar patterns (i.e. the context to the right or left are the same). 2x or 3x means that two or three similar sentences are having the same pattern.

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4. Compare results, Pattern Finder, and Distribution by topic

Apart from the conventional KWIC view, three other useful functions are offered by CorpusMate, they include the “Compare Results” which compares occurrences of different forms of the keyword, the “Pattern Finder”, which summarises the popular patterns of the keyword, and lastly the “Distribution by Topic”, which displays the distributions of the keyword in different topics.

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Interactive tasks

Try out the exercises below and see how much you have understood about CorpusMate (https://corpusmate.com/). Find your answers by using some searching skills you have learned just now!

1. Which three nouns are most likely to appear after the adjective ‘pivitol’?

2. Which phrase is more frequently used: ‘differentiate between’ or ‘differentiate from’?

3. Suggest how to help students correctly learn that ‘staff’ has no plural form when it refers to a group of people who work for an organisation or a company.

 

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