Structured Corpora Homework

The idea behind this homework is to get you more familiar with the corpora search engine we'll be using in class for homework assignments and for the final project. First go to the Time corpus http://corpus.byu.edu/time/. (BTW, after you've done a few searches it will ask you to register before you can continue. Just do it, it's free.)

The bottom right-hand window is entitled Overview: Introduction. As you read it, scan your cursor across the text and you will see that it is full of examples of what it is explaining. When you click on one of the examples it's important that you pay attention to what is happening in the boxes in the left-hand window. That shows you how to do the searches and answer the questions below. This window is essentially your cheat sheet for how to do searches on the BNC and Time Magazine.

1-What decade was the term new age fashionable in?

2-How many times does it appear in Time in that decade?

3-How many times per million words?

4-How many million words are there in Time in that decade?

5-When you click freak out in the Overview: Introduction it puts “freak* out” in the WORD(S) box. What does “*” mean?

6-What would you put in the WORD(S) box if you wanted to find the time period in which all cases of these words was most common: rebuild, building, rebuilder, rebuilds, build, builder?

7-What difference does it make to have the radio button Table versus Chart marked?

8-What would you put in the WORD(S) box if you wanted to find cases of a verb followed by around at the end of a sentence?

9-I found that skyjacker(s) and Fawcett-Majors were two nouns who usage had declined significantly since the 70s. What did I have to do to the settings on the left panel in order to find this out?

10-How many times did the word web appear within 5 words of browser in the 1990s?

11-How many times do they appear within 5 words of each other in Time?

12-In what decade did students and radical appear most often within five words of each other? (Click on list rather than chart and make sure sections=yes).

13-How about within 9 words of each other?