Corpus Library Print-it-out

Here you find a collection of helpful tools and things to remember from this material. You can use them as you work in the Corpus Library, or you can print them out or use the browser options for sending them to your e-mail for later use.

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Google search options

Symbol

Search option

Explanation

Examples and notes
" "

Phrase search

To search, as a phrase, the string enclosed in double-quotation marks

"depend on"; "rain cats and dogs"

+ -

AND and NOT parameters

This enables you to find a source where all of the search terms are included, and none of the words preceded by - can be found

+writing +"oral presentations" -essays
Leave no space after the search parameters!

OR,
(      )

"OR" search

Finds sites that include any of the search terms separated by OR

 dog OR dogs  "solar (car OR cars)"
Be sure to use capitalized OR.

*

Wild card

Replaces any one word or words in a phrase

"play a * part in"

~

Synonyms and close meanings

Helps you to find synonyms and sites with words that are related to your search term

~language
~course --> course, tutorial, classes, training..

site:.com

Domain/Site search

Limits the search to a designated site, for example .edu or ac.uk

"concerned with" site:.edu
Leave no space between the : and .!

define:X

Definition

Looks up definitions for a search term

Define:corpus
Notice that there is no space between the : and search term

For even more search options and useful Google tips take a look at the Google cheat sheet.

NEW! Try also a search for literature, articles, and abstracts from a variety of disciplines at Google Scholar.

BNC/COCA query syntax: summary of possible search strings.

You can find the up-to-date search syntax in the BNC/COCA interface through the More information menu, under the title Query syntax. In BNC, the links in the Examples -column take you to search results with the search string in question, and enable you to edit the search to suit your own interests.

Syntax

Meaning

Examples

Sample matches

word1
word1/word2
word1 word2
* word
* word *

One exact word
Either word (no space)
Multiple exact words
Words + undefined "slots"
    "        "       "

mysterious
who/whom
good time
* point
* point *

mysterious
who/whom
good time
the point / starting point / my point
no point in / starting point for

*xx
*xxx*
x?xx

Wildcard: * = any # letters

Wildcard: ? = one letter

*icity
*cover*
b?t?er

publicity / multiplicity / eccentricity
covers / discovery / covert
better / batter / bother

[pos]
[pos*]

Part of speech (exact)
Part of speech (wildcard)

[vvi]
[v*]
white [n*]

get / stand / jump
were / giving / industrialise
white paper / white wine

[=word] [word]

Synonyms
Lemmas

[=develop]
[be]

extend / grow / elaborate
was / being /has been / were

word*.[pos]
word*.[pos*]
[pos*] word
[pos] * word

Wildcard with exact POS
Wildcard w/ wildcard POS
Wildcard POS + word
Exact POS + any word + word

*ise.[vvi]
un*ed.[aj*]
[vv*] less
[vvi] * way

recognise / organise / prioritise
unemployed / unnoticed / undisclosed
become / spend / grew less
pave the way / find some way

Note on POS-tags.
In a corpus every word is assigned with a POS-tag according to the part of speech or word class it represents. The POS-tags enable more accurate searches and allow for treating the words within the same word class as a whole. From a learner's perspective, the POS-tags have three functions:

  1. They can be used for defining the word class of the search word itself, and are linked to the search term with a dot. No space is left between the search term and the POS tag: research.[n*].
  2. POS-tags can be used as special wildcards indicating the class of the word that is "missing" from the search string: white [n*]. Notice that there is a space between the search term and the POS tag, as there would be if the POS tag was a real word.
  3. POS-tags can also be used as search strings alone, for example when comparing the frequency of a specific word class across registers, or looking up the most frequent words in a particular word class.

If you want to, you can take a look at a list of the POS-codes used for the BNC. Don't be intimidated by it being legthy and complicated, as only a few of the most common tags will be used for the exercises in the Corpus Library.

 

The following items may also be helpful

Prefixes

Suffixes

Transitional devices

Useful language items