English general nouns : a corpus theoretical approach / Michaela Mahlberg.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mahlberg, Michaela.

Series:

Studies in corpus linguistics ; v. 20.

Studies in corpus linguistics, 1388-0373 ; v. 20

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English language--Noun.

English language.

English language--Discourse analysis.

Computational linguistics.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (217 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Philadelphia : John Benjamins, 2005.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This book proposes an innovative approach to general nouns. General nouns are defined as high-frequency nouns that are characterised by their textual functions. Although the concept is motivated by Halliday & Hasan (1976), the corpus theoretical approach adopted in the present study is fundamentally different and set in a linguistic framework that prioritises lexis. The study investigates 20 nouns that are very frequent in mainstream English, as represented by the Bank of English Corpus. The corpus-driven approach to the data involves a critical discussion of descriptive tools, such as patterns, semantic prosodies, and primings of lexical items, and the concept of 'local textual functions' is put forward to characterise the functions of the nouns in texts. The study not only suggests a characterisation of general nouns, but also stresses that functions of lexical items and properties of texts are closely linked. This link requires new ways of describing language.

Contents:

English General Nouns

Editorial page

Title page

LCC data

Table of contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

The attention they have been getting

1.1. Halliday &amp

Hasan's (1976) approach

1.2. The class of general nouns

1.3. The cohesive function of general nouns: Continuum and context

1.4. Corpus linguistic findings

Conclusion

Notes

The corpus linguistic point of view

2.1. Electronic corpora and the study of language

2.2. Corpus linguistics: Theory and methodology

2.2.1. Corpus-based versus corpus-driven approaches

2.2.2. Technical possibilities and descriptive tools

2.3. A lexical approach to the description of English

2.3.1. The lexical item

2.3.2. The Pattern Grammar

2.3.3. Lexical priming

2.3.4. Lexis, grammar, and text: Differences in the corpus-driven approach

2.4. A corpus theoretical approach to general nouns

2.4.1. The corpus theoretical framework

2.4.2. Minimal assumptions for the study of general nouns

Minimal assumptions in practice

3.1. The corpora of the present study

3.2. Frequency

3.2.1. What does the computer count?

3.2.2. Frequency lists and key words

3.2.3. Frequency and general nouns

3.2.4. The nouns in the corpus study

3.3. Context

3.3.1. Analysing concordance data

3.3.2. Dynamic categories and ad hoc labels

Note

Time nouns

4.1. Time nouns - an overview

Time orientation

Measurement

Investing time

Time passes

History, life

School, university

Evaluation and text organisation

Combinations

Other examples

4.2. Time orientation

4.3. Investing time

Concordance 4.2 The 15 examples in the investing time group

4.4. Evaluation and text organisation

4.5. The fuzziness of meaning.

4.6. The need for local categories of description

Appendix

100 concordance lines for time

100 concordance lines for times

100 concordance lines for year

100 concordance lines for years

100 concordance lines for day

People nouns

5.1. People nouns - an overview

5.1.1. Meanings of people nouns

Concordance 5.1 The first 25 examples of man

5.1.2. The descriptive tool `person'

5.2. man and woman

5.2.1. The introducing function

5.2.2. The characterising function

5.2.3. The continuity function

5.2.4. The meaning of a noun in its narrow context: The support function

5.3. men and women

Concordance 5.2 The 21 examples of men of category C that occur without determiners and modifiers

Concordance 5.3 The 32 examples of women of category C that occur without determiners and modifiers

5.4. people

Concordance 5.4 The 29 examples of people without determiners and modifiers

5.5. family

5.6. People nouns - the group

Concordance 5.6 Some examples of government

100 concordance lines for man

100 concordance lines for men

100 concordance lines for women

100 concordance lines for people

World nouns

6.1. The diversity of meanings of world nouns

Concordance 6.1 50 examples of part

Concordance 6.2 Some examples of way

6.2. Evaluation in discourse

6.2.1. Language use and language functions

6.2.2. Approaching evaluation

6.2.3. Corpus linguistics and evaluation

6.3. Evaluative meanings of world nouns

6.3.1. Adjective patterns with general nouns

6.3.2. Evaluative patterns of world nouns

Re-examining the minimal assumptions

7.1. Frequency

7.1.1. Meaning and paraphrase

7.1.2. Frequent nouns as characteristics of texts.

7.2. General nouns and the word class noun

7.3. Context

7.3.1. Subgroups of nouns

7.3.2. Local textual functions of general nouns

7.4. What are general nouns?

7.4.1. Quantitative and qualitative features of general nouns

7.4.2. General nouns and cohesion

7.4.3. A corpus linguistic view on general nouns

Developing the corpus linguistic theory

8.1. The methodology of the corpus study

8.2. Even more attention is needed

8.2.1. Future work

8.2.2. Applications

8.3. Describing meaning in text: A flexible approach

8.3.1. The elusiveness of meaning

8.3.2. The corpus linguistic theory - where are we now?

8.3.3. Flexible grammar

Appendix 1

Appendix 2

References

Index

The series Studies in Corpus Linguistics.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786612156236

9781282156234

1282156233

9789027293947

9027293945

OCLC:

191935328