使用COCA等在线语料库相关说明

1、1.Whocreatedthesecorpora?ThecorporawerecreatedbyMarkDavies,ProfessorofLinguisticsatBrighamYoungUniversityinProvo,Utah,USA.Inmostcases(thoughsee#2below)thisinvolveddesigningthecorpora,collectingthetexts,editingandannotatingthem,creatingthecorpusarchitecture,anddesigningandprogrammingthewebinterfaces.

2、EventhoughIusethetermsweandusonthisandotherpages,mostactivitiesrelatedtothedevelopmentofmostofthesecorporawereactuallycarriedoutbyjustoneperson.2.Whoelsecontributed?AllcorporaBrighamYoungUniversity(especiallytheCollegeofHumanitiesandtheDepartmentofLinguisticsandEnglishLanguage)hasprovidedgeneroussup

3、porttobuyhardwareandsoftware.AllcorporaMicrosoftgenerouslyprovidedthe64-bitEnterpriseversionofSQLServerthatisthebackboneforthearchitecture.MultiplecorporaTheCorpusdelEspa?ol,theCorpusdoPortugusandthenewCorpusofHistoricalAmericanEnglishwerefundedbylargegrantsfromtheNationalEndowmentfortheHumanities.M

4、ultiplecorporaPaulRaysonprovidedtheCLAWStagger,whichwasusedfortheCOCA,COHA,andtheTIMEcorpora.CorpusdoPortugusThiswasajointprojectwithMichaelFerreira,whohelpedselect,acquire,edit,andannotatetheoldertexts(1300s-1700s),andwhoprovidedthetranslationsofthewebinterface,amongotheractivities.COCASomestudents

5、helpedtoscanafewofthenovels.COHAManystudentshelpedtoscannovels,magazines,andnon-fictionbooks,andtohelpprocessandcorrectthefilesandlexicon.BNCTheoriginaltextswerelicensedforre-usefromOxfordUniversityPress.3. Couldyouuseadditionalfundingorsupport?Asnotedabove,wehavereceivedsupportfromtheUSNationalEndo

6、wmentfortheHumanitiesandBrighamYoungUniversityforthedevelopmentofseveralcorpora.However,wearealwaysinneedofongoingsupportfornewhardwareandsoftware,toaddnewfeatures,andespeciallytocreatenewcorpora.Becausewedonotchargefortheuseofthecorpora(whichareusedby80,000+researchers,teachers,andlanguagelearnerse

7、achmonth)andsincethecreationandmaintenanceofthesecorporaisessentiallyaonepersonenterprise,anyadditionalsupportwouldbeverywelcome.Theremightbegraduateprogramsinlinguistics,orESLorlinguisticspublishers,whomightwanttomakeacontribution,andwewouldthenspotlightthemonthefrontpageofthecorpora.Also,ifyouhave

8、contactsatafundingsourceliketheMellonFoundationortheMacArthurgrants,pleaseletthemknowaboutus(andno,werenotkidding).4. Whatsthehistoryofthesecorpora?ThefirstlargeonlinecorpuswastheCorpusdelEspa?olin2002,followedbytheBYU-BNCin2004,theCorpusdoPortugusin2006,TIMECorpusin2007,theCorpusofContemporaryAmeri

9、canEnglish(COCA)in2008,andtheCorpusofHistoricalAmericanEnglish(COHA)in2010.(Moredetails.)5. Whatistheadvantageofthesecorporaoverotheronesthatareavailable?Forsomelanguagesandtimeperiods,thesearereallytheonlycorporaavailable.Forexample,inspiteofearliercorporaliketheAmericanNationalCorpusandtheBankofEn

10、glishourCorpusofContemporaryAmericanEnglishistheonlylarge,balancedcorpusofcontemporaryAmericanEnglish.InspiteoftheBrownfamilyofcorporaandtheARCHERcorpus,theCorpusofHistoricalAmericanEnglishistheonlylargeandbalancedcorpusofhistoricalAmericanEnglish.AndtheCorpusdelEspa?olandtheCorpusdoPortugusearetheo

11、nlylarge,annotatedcorporaofthesetwolanguages.Beyondthetextualcorpora,however,thecorpusarchitectureandinterfacethatwehavedevelopedallowsforspeed,size,annotation,andarangeofqueriesthatwebelieveisunmatchedwithotherarchitectures,andwhichmakesitusefulforcorporasuchastheBritishNationalCorpus,whichdoeshave

12、otherinterfaces.Also,theyrefree-anicefeature.6. Whatsoftwareisusedtoindex,search,andretrievedatafromthesecorpora?Wehavecreatedourowncorpusarchitecture,usingMicrosoftSQLServerasthebackboneoftherelationaldatabaseapproach.Ourproprietaryarchitectureallowsforsize,speed,andverygoodscalabilitythatwebelieve

13、arenotavailablewithanyotherarchitecture.Evencomplexqueriesofthemorethan425millionwordCOCAcorpusorthe400millionwordCOHAcorpustypicallyonlytakeoneortwoseconds.Inaddition,becauseoftherelationaldatabasedesign,wecankeepaddingonmoreannotationmoduleswithlittleornoperformancehit.Finally,therelationaldatabas

14、edesignallowsforarangeofqueriesthatwebelieveisunmatchedbyanyotherarchitectureforlargecorpora.7. Howmanypeopleusethecorpora?AsmeasuredbyGoogleAnalytics,asofMarch2011thecorporaareusedbymorethan80,000uniquepeopleeachmonth.(Inotherwords,ifthesamepersonusesthreedifferentcorporaatotaloftentimesthatmonth,i

15、tcountsasjustoneofthe80,000uniqueusers).Themostwidely-usedcorpusistheCorpusofContemporaryAmericanEnglish-withmorethan40,000uniqueuserseachmonth.Andpeopledontjustcomein,lookforoneword,andmoveon-averagetimeatthesiteeachvisitisbetween10-15minutes.8. Whatdotheyusethecorporafor?Forlotsofthings.Linguistsu

16、sethecorporatoanalyzevariationandchangeinthedifferentlanguages.Somearematerialsdevelopers,whousethedatatocreateteachingmaterials.Ahighnumberofusersarelanguageteachersandlearners,whousethecorpusdatatomodelnativespeakerperformanceandintuition.Translatorsusethecorporatogetprecisedataonthetargetlanguage

17、s.Somebusinessespurchasedatafromthecorporatouseinnaturallanguageprocessingprojects.Andlotsofpeoplearejustcuriousaboutlanguage,and(believeitornot)justusethecorporaforfun,toseewhatsgoingonwiththelanguagescurrently.Ifyouarearegistereduser,youcanlookattheprofilesofotherusers(bycountryorbyinterest)aftery

18、oulogin.9. Arethereanypublishedmaterialsthatarebasedonthesecorpora?Asofmid-2011,researchershavesubmittedentriesformorethan260books,articlesandconferencepresentationsthatarebasedonthecorpora,andthisisprobablyonlyasmallfractionofallofthepublicationsthathaveactuallybeendone.Inaddition,weourselveshavepu

19、blishedthreefrequencydictionariesthatarebasedondatafromthecorpora-Spanish(2005),Portuguese(2007),andAmericanEnglish(2010).10. HowcanIcollaboratewithotherusers?Youcansearchusersprofilestofindresearchersfromyourcountry,ortofindresearcherswhohavesimilarinterests.Inthenearfuture,wemaystartaGoogleGroupfo

20、rthosewhowantmoreinteraction.11. Whataboutcopyright?Ourcorporacontainhundredsofmillionsofwordsofcopyrightedmaterial.Theonlywaythattheiruseislegal(underUSFairUseLaw)isbecauseofthelimitedKeywordinContext(KWIC)displays.ItskindoflikethesnippetdefenseusedbyGoogle.Theyretrieveandindexbillionsofwordsofcopy

21、rightmaterial,buttheyonlyallowenduserstoaccesssnippets(片段，少许)ofthisdatafromtheirservers.USFairUseLawandhowitappliestoourCOCAtexts.12. CanIgetaccesstothefulltextofthesecorpora?Unfortunately,no,forreasonsofcopyrightdiscussedabove.Wewouldlovetoallowenduserstohaveaccesstofull-text,butwesimplycannot.Even

22、whennooneelsewilleveruseitandevenwhenitsonlyonearticleoronepageoftext,wecant.Wehavetobe100%compliantwithUSFairUseLaw,andthatmeansnofulltextforanyoneunderanycircumstances-ever.Sorryaboutthat.Clickhereforanextendeddiscussionof13. Iwantmoredatathanwhatsavailableviathestandardinterface.WhatcanIdo?Usersc

23、anpurchasederiveddata-suchasfrequencylists,collocateslists,n-gramslists(e.g.alltwoorthreewordstringsofwords),orevenblocksofsentencesfromthecorpus.Basicallyanything,aslongasitdoesnotinvolvefull-textaccess(e.g.paragraphsorpagesoftext),whichwouldviolatecopyrightrestrictions.Clickhereformuchmoredetailed

24、informationonthisdata,aswellasdownloadablesamples.14. Canmyclasshaveadditionalaccesstoacorpusonagivenday?Yes.Sometimesyourschoolwillbeblockedafteranhourorsoofheavyusefromaclassroomfullofstudents.(Thisisasecuritymechanism,topreventbotsfromrunningthousandsofqueriesinashorttime.)Toavoidthis,signupahead

25、oftimeforgroupaccess.15. Canyoucreateacorpusforus,basedonourownmaterials?Well,Iprobablycould,butImnotoverlyinclinedtoatthispoint.Creatingandmaintainingcorporaisextremelytimeintensive,evenwhenyougivemethedataallreadytoimportintothedatabase.Theoneexception,Iguess,wouldbeifyougetalargegranttocreateandm

26、aintainthecorpus.Feelfreetocontactmewithquestions.16. HowdoIcitethecorporainmypublishedarticles?Pleaseusethefollowinginformationwhenyoucitethecorpusinacademicpublicationsorconferencepapers.Andpleaseremembertoaddanentrytothepublicationdatabase(ittakesonly30-40seconds!).Thanks.COCADavies,Mark.(2008-)T

27、heCorpusofContemporaryAmericanEnglish:425millionwords,1990-present.Availableonlineat/coca/.COHADavies,Mark.(2010-)TheCorpusofHistoricalAmericanEnglish:400millionwords,1810-2009.Availableonlineat/coha/.TIMEDavies,Mark.(2007-)TIMEMagazineCorpus:100millionwords,1920s-2000s.Availableonlinea