Spoken Corpus Linguistics

In this book, Adolphs and Carter explore key approaches to work in spoken corpus linguistics. The book discusses some of the pioneering challenges faced in designing, building and utilising insights from the analysis of spoken corpora, arguing that, even though writing is heavily privileged in corpus research, the spoken language can reveal patterns of language use that are both different and distinctive and that this has important implications for the way in which language is described, for the study of human communication and for the field of applied linguistics as a whole. Spoken Corpus Linguistics is divided into two main parts. The first part sets the scene by discussing traditional and new approaches to monomodal spoken corpus analysis, with a focus on discourse organisation and conversational interaction and with particular attention to forms of language such as discourse markers and multi-word units, areas of language not conventionally described but which are argued to be of importance to spoken language description and to spoken language learning and teaching research within the field of applied linguistics. The second part of the book moves into the multimodal domain and focuses on alignments between language and gesture in a spoken corpus, with particular reference to gestural movements of the head and the hand and to the different ways in which prosody might be used to enhance communication. A brief final chapter discusses new developments in the area of spoken corpus research, including the relationship between language and context, emerging research methods as well as discussing possible shifts in scope and emphasis in spoken corpus research in the future.

The authors of this book share a common interest in the following topics: the importance of corpora compilation for the empirical study of human language; the importance of pragmatic categories such as emotion, attitude, illocution and information structure in linguistic theory; and a passionate belief in the central role of prosody for the analysis of speech. Four distinct sections (spoken corpora compilation; spoken corpora annotation; prosody; and syntax and information structure) give the book the structure in which the authors present innovative methodologies that focus on the compilation of third generation spoken corpora; multilevel spoken corpora annotation and its functions; and additionally a debate is initiated about the reference unit in the study of spoken language via information structure. The book is accompanied by a web site with a rich array of audio/video files. The web site can be found at the following address: DOI: 10.1075/scl.61.media

This volume explores the opportunities that spoken corpora offer and the challenges of research with such corpora. The use and applications of spoken corpora are discussed from the perspective of both language analysis and language pedagogy. Twelve chapters written by corpus linguists analyse an extensive number of spoken corpora based on the oral production of speakers as varied as language learners, users of English as Lingua Franca, native speakers, or speakers of English in academic contexts. This book also highlights the growing emphasis on the use of corpus-based research by examining the implications of corpus findings in educational settings.

A key concern of researchers involved in the creation and sharing of language resources is to attain maximum usability, reliability and longevity of these resources for present and future researchers in the language sciences. The view developed in this volume is that spoken corpora construction and sharing are major research endeavours that should also be laid open to academic debate in a manner that is more visible than is currently the case in corpus linguistics. The present volume brings together multiple research perspectives to bear on the question of what constitutes best practices for the construction of spoken corpora. The book brings into closer contact scholars whose specializations have often remained in relatively different streams of scientific investigation; that is, scholars whose work falls primarily in conversation analysis, pragmatics and discourse analysis, but who are involved in spoken corpus compilation, on the one hand, and scholars who also specialize in linguistics but who have been intensively involved in developing various infrastructures for spoken corpora, on the other hand. This combination of scholars brings into better relief the concerns of data providers, data curators and data users in linguistic research. This book is thus unique in that it highlights best practices from both the perspective of assembling, annotating and linguistic analysis of spoken corpora, as well as from the perspective of processing, archiving and disseminating spoken language. In doing so, the contributions emphasise not only the considerable promise that the rapid technological changes that society continues to experience in this area offer, but also possible dangers for the unwary.

Routledge Introductions to Applied Linguistics consists of introductory level textbooks covering the core topics in Applied Linguistics, designed for those entering postgraduate studies and language professionals returning to academic study. The books take an innovative "practice to theory" approach, with a ‘back to front’ structure which takes the reader from real life problems and issues in the field, then enters into a discussion of intervention and how to engage with these concerns. The final section concludes by tying the practical issues to theoretical foundations. Additional features include tasks with commentaries, a glossary of key terms, and an annotated further reading section. Corpus linguistics is a key area of applied linguistics and one of the most rapidly developing. Winnie Cheng’s practical approach guides readers in acquiring the relevant knowledge and theories to enable the analysis, explanation and interpretation of language using corpus methods. Throughout the book practical classroom examples, concordance based analyses and tasks such as designing and conducting mini-projects are used to connect and explain the conceptual and practical aspects of corpus linguistics. Exploring Corpus Linguistics is an essential textbook for post-graduate/graduate students new to the field and for advanced undergraduates studying English Language and Applied Linguistics.

Corpus and Context explores the relationship between corpus linguistics and pragmatics by discussing possible frameworks for analysing utterance function on the basis of spoken corpora. The book articulates the challenges and opportunities associated with a change of focus in corpus research, from lexical to functional units, from concordance lines to extended stretches of discourse, and from the purely textual to multi-modal analysis of spoken corpus data. Drawing on a number of spoken corpora including the five million word Cambridge and Nottingham Corpus of Discourse in English (CANCODE, funded by CUP (c)), a specific speech act function is being explored using different approaches and different levels of analysis. This involves a close analysis of contextual variables in relation to lexico-grammatical and discoursal patterns that emerge from the corpus data, as well as a wider discussion of the role of context in spoken corpus research.

This book presents a corpus-based study of spoken learner language produced by university-level ESL students in the classroom. Using contemporary theories as a guide and employing cutting-edge corpus analysis tools and methods, the authors analyse a variety of learner speech to offer many new insights into the nature and characteristics of the spoken language of college ESL learners. Focusing on types of speech that are rarely examined, this original work makes a significant contribution to the study and understanding of ESL spoken language at university level. It will appeal to students and scholars of applied linguistics, corpus linguistics, second language acquisition and discourse analysis.

What is the best way to analyze spontaneous spoken language? In their search for the basic units of spoken language the authors of this volume opt for a corpus-driven approach. They share a strong conviction that prosodic structure is essential for the study of spoken discourse and each bring their own theoretical and practical experience to the table. In the first part of the book they segment spoken material from a range of different languages (Russian, Hebrew, Central Pomo (an indigenous language from California), French, Japanese, Italian, and Brazilian Portuguese). In the second part of the book each author analyzes the same two spoken English samples, but looking at them from different perspectives, using different methods of analysis as reflected in their respective analyses in Part I. This approach allows for common tendencies of segmentation to emerge, both prosodic and segmental.