Naïve use of a Corpus: A Tale of Three Tries

Paul Davis

Paul Davis is a freelance teacher, teacher trainer and author.
E-mail: Paul25Davis@hotmail.com

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Background
Dealing with a "difficult customer"
Dealing with an "easy customer"
My own personal grammar rule
Conclusion

I really, really, really like the information that comes out of research using Corpus Linguistics. But I don't keep a computer in the house (I don't drive or have a TV either). I go to a friend's house or the library to use email or book airline tickets. I really don't like computers much - I love bikes.

I do, however, really like corpus linguistics - the lexical approach, chunking, spoken grammar and all the insight the published research give us. But I read bits of books and articles and pick up ideas from colleagues rather than use the corpus itself. But I have found a corpus useful on three occasions which I want to outline; the when and how.

As I said I like the lexical approach. I was doing an old exercise in class on collocations with "bus". One person offered "double-decker bus". I rejected it saying that it was "double-decker" as a noun on its own. He was a stroppy one (C.L. - you know who you are) and argued (a lot) and then sulked.

He was also one of those people who carry a lap-top around with them all the time. At the end of the class we exchanged glares. I suggested he do a bit of extra homework - connect his computer, search a corpus and get data. (I had only a vague idea how this might be done but I guessed that he would know.)

The next time I saw him he had a grin on his face. I asked him - and, yes, he had found instances of "double-decker bus" in the corpus. Luckily, I had my wits about me and asked him how many instances of "double-decker" on its own he had found. He went away to check but never raised the subject again!

I have since checked. There were only two instances of "double-decker bus" in the corpus but there were many more of "double-decker" standing alone as a noun.

In this second example again I was doing a lexical chunking type class. This time on "irreversible binomials" i.e. things like now and then, fish and chips, here and now, ladies and gentlemen. According to my reading these are said to be statistically the most common type of fixed expression/idiom used in English. During the class I happened to mention that these could be found and/or checked on a corpus. But none of the students were computery and it was a bit of a throwaway comment.

Some weeks later after that particular course had finished I got an email from one of the students (Birgitt Schweirert - we know who you are). She had remembered and said she had tried to access a corpus, couldn't do it and was too lazy to find out how to do it. I had to put my money where my mouth was; I looked up a corpus on the computer. It didn't take long to find and I searched for "lazy and ". I stored my email when I replied:

This was the reply:

I'm so proud. I have discovered a new grammar rule. I've looked in books but never found it so I claim it as my original discovery. Before I tell how I discovered it I want to say that I have friends who are English teachers who are obsessed with grammar and will spend hours discussing it. I'm definitely not like that. I'm a bit interested in grammar, that's all. The story is as follows:

I phoned a married couple I know well(M and S - you know who you are). S. answered the phone and I asked for to speak to M. S. put down the phone and went to get him. I waited …..and waited and waited. I heard S. shout "mad, mad, mad - everyone is mad in this house". Obviously they had been in the middle of an argument when I phoned and interrupted the flow but when S had put down the phone to get M she had promptly forgotten about me and continued the argument. She said:

I waited; I didn't mean to hear but I did (they were shouting after all). And it went on for some time:

Mad, mad, mad, mad, mad.

Eventually, I got bored even though it was a great argument and so put the phone down. But while I was bored I was noticing the grammar rule.

1. You can repeat a single syllable word (or a shortish two syllable one like Okay).
2. You say it twice, three times, five times, seven times or (maximum) nine times.
3. You tend to avoid repeating it four, six or eight times. Not very English.
4. When it is four it's really two twos i.e. mad, mad…slight pause…mad, mad
5. Some words are likely in this form e.g., well, well, well or yeah, yeah, yeah, or sh*t, sh*t, sh*t.
6. The stress pattern is important

I tried to check in grammar books but no help. I teach the rule in class when I do fixed expression/idioms. Specifically I teach:

Well, well.
Well, well, well.
Well, well, well, well, well.
Well, well, well, well, well, well, well.
Well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well.

And do a quick drill with the students. It seems to me to be quite useful and versatile for the students. If they don't know an appropriate fixed expression/idiom they can always say well, well, well.

Now as I said I couldn't find any confirmation of my discovery in any grammar book I consulted. But when I typed in well, well, well, well, well in to a corpus search I got the following:

Not a lot of data and not thorough scientific research but good enough for me. (Incidentally, I found lots of examples of well, well and of well, well, well too). Good old corpus.

1. Some students, if made aware, will use a corpus.

2. The "difficult customers" are often the ones who relate to computers. Asking them to look up stuff keeps them usefully occupied.

3. Although I hate computers I can successfully use a corpus and it's becoming kind of fun and even a bit interesting.

4. I probably am writing this because I think my colleagues would enjoy using a corpus on occasion and to show it's kind of easy

5. I can get data and discover proof for an "original" grammar rule from my friend's computer.

6. If I can do that then think what the guys in the universities who have big ones and lots of time will be coming up with.

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