Reflection week 11 - Corpus Linguistics, Forensic Linguistic, Concordancer & Lexicography

Peace be upon you

Reflection week 11 - Corpus Linguistics, Forensic Linguistic, Concordancer & Lexicography

In week 11, we have learned yet another four interesting topics which are Corpus Linguistics, Forensic Linguistics, Concordancer and Lexicography. These four topics are very much related to one another as they both involve with data or text gathering and analysis.

Let’s start with Corpus Linguistics. Corpus linguistics is one of the branches of linguistic studies. It is the study of language as expressed in sample (corpora) or ‘real world’ text. Corpus is a huge amount of text collected as a sample either in written or spoken form that will be used to study certain aspect of language such as language acquisition, language variation and so forth. Since corpora is a large collections of readable text, it is obvious that it cannot be analysis manually by hand thus needing a machine to assist the process of analyzing.  This is the part where computer plays its major role. Computer not only capable storing huge amount texts but it also able to retrieve word or phrases very fast and efficient. Other than that, it increases reliability in searching, counting and sorting linguistic items thus making research more reliable and valid.

However what interest us the most is when we found out that there are many corpus-related researches. Some of them are very intriguing such as corpus related to forensic linguistic, cultural studies, lexicography and social psychology.

Reaction: 

Forensic linguistic is quite interesting as it deals with language used in the context of crime investigation, homicide and judicial procedure. We thinks it is fascinating to learn on how language associates to suicide note, threat letter, legal document and so forth.

Threat letter

        

Suicide letter

Despite that, the course is not very extensive here in Malaysia. Based on our research, we found out that Univeristy Malaya (UM) is the only university that offers this course. According to Professor Dr Azirah Hashim from UM, forensic linguistics in this country have not been widely established, thus requiring the cooperation of various parties to develop it. Even though forensic linguistics may help to unlock few criminal cases, its validity in solving the cases is still seen as inconvincible as it lacks of experts in the area of studies (Berita Harian, 2012). Due to this, students who are planning to further their studies or work as a forensic linguist in this country should think twice before venturing in it. It is much better to study or work outside Malaysia as the course is widely acceptable especially in the west.

Anyhow, let’s go back to corpus analysis. In order to analyze huge amount of data or texts, a special tool is needed. Concordancer is a tool that make indexes and word lists or phrases. It offers the possibility of searching word combination with a specific range of word and also provide with collocation and frequency list. Using concordancer, we are able to find translation, phrases and idioms and even count frequency of certain words.

Reaction:

Dr Rozina had asked us to go through to some of the available concordancers in the Internet and choose which one is the best. After going through a list of concordancers, we think WebCorp software is the most efficient and practical. The reason is because it is free and user friendly.  The interface of the software is not complicated for beginner to use it. Search engines like Google, Bing, FAROO and Blekko help in retrieving more result for your search. WebCorp actually visits each one of these pages, extracting concordance lines from them thus making your search more reliable and valid. Other than that, when the search has finished the Search Results page provides an option to analyse the collocates of your search term such as words which appear most frequently in its vicinity. Due to its simplicity and practically, we think WebCorp is the easiest concordancer to be used.

WebCorp

Lexicography on the hand is the editing, compiling, writing or making of dictionary. It is divided into two related discipline that is practical lexicography and theoretical lexicography. Practical lexicography deals with compiling, writing and editing dictionary whereas theoretical focuses deeper on analyzing and describing linguistics aspects such as semantic, syntagmatic and paradigmatic relationship within the vocabulary.

Reaction:

From this topic, we know that making a dictionary is not a simple task. It is not merely putting words and provide meaning but there are more to it. We need to know how to shape the dictionary according to its intended user, we have to run a test and analyze the frequency of a word to determine its place on the dictionary and so forth. This is a very tedious work and not everyone can do it. Only those who are good in dissecting and analyzing trivial matters will able to pull this off. But then, we need to bear in mind, if we believe that we can do it and we have passion in it, no matter how hard or tedious it may sound, we are going to enjot the work. Insha Allah.