English-Corpora.org

English-Corpora.org

              
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In addition to the other types of queries, it is now possible to see "concordance-like" displays. These can be (re-)sorted by up to three words left and/or the right, and they indicate the part of speech of the surrounding words. The following is an example of a partial concordance for the word fathom in COCA, sorted by the three words to the left. Notice how the words to the left express negativity or doubt.
 

1991 SPOK CNN_King people watching this program could  probably  not  even   fathom   that . Mr. SANCHEZ : I could n't believe it , either
1992 NEWS CSMonitor material , but neither man can  appreciate  or  even   fathom   Eliza 's growing sense of her own self-worth and her
2003 MAG NatGeog impatient to learn . We take pretty photos  but  ca  n't   fathom   the living landscape in our viewfinders . McIvor himself
2001 NEWS CSMonitor familiar themes and characters . Beck  Davitch  ca  n't   fathom   how she ended up the center of this needy family . All
1993 FIC HarpersMag the story of her parents ' divorce .  I  ca  n't   fathom   the connection -- at least to my mind , there 's no
2004 FIC USCatholic A folding chair has perplexed me , and  I  ca  n't   fathom   shifting the gears of a monstrous tractor . But if all I
1993 SPOK ABC_DayOne affair with a married man . But I  just  ca  n't   fathom   how having an affair with a married man has gotten me
1996 SPOK CBS_FaceNation , as the pe -- the American people  probably  ca  n't   fathom   , but they know that something is wrong . They know that
1996 FIC FantasySciFi nineteen years as a couch junkie , I  still  ca  n't   fathom   the madness of my mother 's life . # A hunched figure
1991 MAG TIME into a zebra-mussel nursery . Frankly ,  we  ca  n't   fathom   things getting any worse . " Foreign organisms have
1992 FIC BkSF:FractalMode the word , but the concept was  too  complicated  to   fathom   . Angus , however , was interested . " This is a
1992 SPOK NPR_ATC use a condom . And while it may  be  difficult  to   fathom   , the future of Puerto Rican women 's lives rests on how
1994 FIC FantasySciFi mistake . " # " Well , it  is  difficult  to   fathom   , especially in a species that would one day control
1995 FIC Bk:UntilEndTime 's the amnesia talking . " Fillingeri did  n't  try  to   fathom   that one . He just stood there stiffly for a minute .
1992 SPOK CBS_Sixty are considering such a law . I 'm  just  trying  to   fathom   what something like this does to a family , to a woman
1992 FIC Mov:Newsies as JACK and DAVID enter . They stop  ,  trying  to   fathom   the situation . Sarah smiles . EXT . STREET DAWN The
1998 MAG Smithsonian . # We spent three days at Sarif  ,  trying  to   fathom   its meaning . Multiple rows of triliths , oriented along the

(A few notes: For reasons of space on this page, the entries on this page "skip words", so that only a few of the 100 entries for each word are shown. Note also that you can click on any of the highlighted and bolded blue entries on this page to re-run the query (via those links, you'll see all entries). The default number of entries is 100, but you can change this to as many as 1000. Finally, if you have logged in with your username, you can save any KWIC/concordance list, and then provide a link to that list (as we have done here) so that others can see the same list. Just click on [SAVE LIST] in the KWIC view.)

Here are a couple more sets of concordances from COCA. The entries for end up show that it is often followed by a gerund (ends up getting), an adjective or past participle (real warped, smeared), or in or with.

1990 FIC Bk:Postmortem of these murders , like he chooses from the menu ,   ends up   getting  what  he  can afford . Sort of strange each time
2001 NEWS SanFrancisco up getting voluntary manslaughter for our guy , so he   ended up   going  to  jail  , but his sentence was lessened . I
1996 SPOK CNN_Crossfire . BARONE : Rollins does n't say that that money did   end up   going  to  Reagan  , as I understand . FERRARO : We
1995 FIC Bk:WalkingMidnight , but she figured he 'd dodge . She 'd probably   end up   in  the  drink  again that way , too . Either way
2006 NEWS USAToday about a pound of high explosives inside a suitcase that   ended up   in  the  luggage  bay under the forward cabin where it
2006 SPOK NPR_FreshAir critic . I think a lot of people feel that they   ended up   in  the  wrong  life . How did she get there ?
1990 FIC Bk:HoleLanguage she 's like some walking zombie . He says she could   end up   real  warped  from  all this . " I never heard what
2005 SPOK NBC_Dateline at the end of the day , Nancy and Jack Satter   ended up   right  where  they  would have been , if they 'd never
2010 SPOK NBC_Today I need to loosen up a little , and these kids   end up   running  a  little  bit too wild . Dr-KAISER : I think
2008 FIC SouthwestRev -- though none of it was her fault -- she still   ended up   smeared  with  a  reputation as a deadbeat. // That winter ,
1994 NEWS CSMonitor to migrate to the suburbs . Urban school districts   ended up   with  an  increasing  percentage of minority students
2004 FIC Bk:FatalError paying with some chickenshit family scolding that 'll   end up   with  my  mom  selling off the ranch to bail him out
2005 FIC Bk:LoveWalkedIn scene , but then to feel completely satisfied when they   end up   with  other  people  . Before you get the wrong impression

And the concordance for naked eye shows the common phrases to the left of the node word, including "see X with the", "(in)visible to the", and "to the naked eye, X verbs..." (the naked eye example comes from John Sinclair's work).

1991 MAG Weatherwise . Most of these are too small to  see  with  the   naked eye   and obstruct the field of view ever so slightly . But
1993 MAG Astronomy Nebula (M42 ) , which can be  seen  with  the   naked eye   as a fuzzy patch of light south of the constellation 's
2009 ACAD NaturalHist nebulae in the nighttime sky that can be  seen  with  the   naked eye   . He was able to resolve individual stars in the outer
2002 MAG Astronomy . The Small Sagittarius Star Cloud can be  spotted  with  the   naked eye   under a dark sky . The Large Sagittarius Star Cloud
1995 MAG Astronomy Epsilon Eridani , few of these stars are  visible  to  the   naked eye   . Although K-type stars abound in the night sky , nearly
2003 ACAD ChurchHistory dots that made up halftone printing were not  visible  to  the   naked eye   , so the halftones seemed to reproduce what one saw .
1995 MAG ScienceNews suggests . The elaborate branchings and spirals ,  visible  to  the   naked eye   , hint at a chemical mechanism or feedback and control of
1991 SPOK ABC_Nightline tracer bullets , but no attacking aircraft were  visible  to  the   naked eye   . Behind this curtain of light , the electronic guidance
1995 FIC Bk:Justice Also , let me posit this to you  .  To  the   naked eye   , the vaginal sex appeared to be consensual , based on
2002 MAG Money that put out something like 400 hp )  .  To  the   naked eye   , however , my dad 's car looked like every other
1999 MAG MilitaryHist Mpati , the infantry must assault Meyer immediately  .  To  the   naked eye   , the long hill appeared almost featureless , but through
2002 MAG Astronomy . The darkest area appears 15 ' across  .  To  the   naked eye   , the nebula forms part of a dark lane that runs

Remember that the corpus architecture allows you to easily focus on just a particular genre (e.g. fiction or academic in COCA or the BNC) or a time period (e.g. the 1930s in TIME or the 1800s in COHA). The following shows the concordance lines for chair in COCA in fiction (where it's someone's physical chair) and then in academic (where it often refers to the leader of a committee).

Fiction: chair

1992 FIC Bk:House1000Corpses grip and gestured with his free hand toward Mont 's  empty   chair   .  "  Please have a seat , Mr. Perry . " "
1993 FIC BkJuv:ShadowBoxer . Up on the porch there was a ratty rattan  fan-back   chair   .  The  front door was open , so we walked in .
2010 FIC Bk:PossessionPaavo himself from her grip . Then he walked to his  favorite   chair   .  He  could n't quite bring himself to sit down - he
2000 FIC Bk:CrazyForYou said . " Out with it . Quinn shifted in  her   chair   again  while  the dog watched them both . " I 'm going
2005 FIC Bk:LoveWalkedIn disaffected teenage daughter bang her fists on the arms of  her   chair   and  turn  to him crying , " with a face as open
1993 FIC Mov:SweetSweet Elaine 's and cancel our dinner reservations ? Sissy leaves  her   chair   and  wanders  about the apartment . Which is full of books and
1992 FIC KansasQ aimlessly . Suddenly , she stood up so precipitously that  her   chair   fell  over  . She rubbed her old tree-bark arms furiously up
2005 FIC FantasySciFi in a silken cloth . He did not rise from  his   chair   as  I  entered but beckoned me to sit across from him .
1997 FIC Commentary large open volume of Talmud before him . He brings  his   chair   back  to  earth and answers . Rafi asks something else . Steven
1997 FIC Bk:TotalControl " Some of it . " Sawyer shifted uneasily in  his   chair   while  Jackson  picked up for his partner . " If your husband
2005 FIC Callaloo . Marty blinks his body still , craned forward in  his   chair   ,  face  extended like a lamp in darkness . Yo , money
1993 FIC Bk:AreYouMine? decorous visit ; if Cara sat nursing Georgie in the  rocking   chair   ,  for  instance , Kato might pad in quietly , sniff the
2006 FIC DiabetesF one giant pillow ! # She went over to the  small   chair   .  "  OH . this is just right ! " she said
2010 FIC Bk:TalentVanessa " The idea sat Marv back in his big ,  squeaky   chair   .  "  Me ? " He waggled the notebook . " This
2009 FIC Bk:PrivateEye like touching a live wire . He balanced on the  swivel   chair   and  held  Teddy against his chest with both hands . He 'd

Academic: chair

2007 ACAD MusicEduc of ISME 's " Declaration of Beliefs " and serving  as   chair   of  the  Constitution Review Committee . His contributions were
1999 ACAD AgricResrch in the experiments , " he says . Rasmussen served  as   chair   of  the  committee that oversees the experiments until 1997 . He
2003 ACAD MechanicalEng Life Member for almost 30 years . He has served  as   chair   on  various  national panels , committees , and civic
2003 ACAD CommCollegeR is inhibited by weak leadership . Although an excellent  board   chair   does  not  guarantee superior governance , a poor or inadequate
2006 ACAD IndepSchool generative thinking all the time and can often help a  board   chair   frame  the  questions with which a board should wrestle . Given
2003 ACAD CommCollegeR experience as a community college board chair . As a  board   chair   ,  I  share the joy and the burden of the participants in
2003 ACAD PSAJournal : # Apr-Jun : HQ Print Display -- Central Florida  Chapter   Chair   :  Leon  Blumberg - Display Chair : John Streich , FPSA ,
2009 ACAD EnvironHealth district more sustainable . NEHA Sustainability  Committee   Chair   and  Sustainability  Technical Section Chair Tom Gonzales and
2004 ACAD TeachLibrar between individuality and social norms , " said Award  Committee   Chair   Francisca  Goldsmith  . " In the Earthsea fantasy series , young
2003 ACAD MechanicalEng Division , chair of the division ( 2001 ) ,  conference   chair   of  the  2002 CIE Conference , and an associate editor of the

Comparing historical periods, we can see the concordance lines for swell in COHA in the 1800s and the 1930s, which clearly shows the change in meaning during this time.

1800s: swell = "movement of waves, crescendo", etc

1860 FIC Areytos maiden bowers , Make thy cheek pale , and thy  bosom   swell   With  a feverish thirst ; which the mountain breeze , By the
1869 FIC PoemsMrsEmmaCatherine to tell The grateful tenderness and love that in my  bosom   swell   ?  Since thou first taught my youthful mind to know its latent
1873 FIC WetherelAffair the porker 's festive squeal . " Let Brahm and  Buddha   swell   the  song , Let Dagon thunder it along , Let Woden shout
1869 MAG NewEngYaleRev as a professed advocate of England would make them ,  can   swell   our  claims on England or come with justice into the discussion of
1876 FIC Clarel here 's not the well , But Saba in her  crescent   swell   ,  Terrace on terrace piled . And see , Up there by
1873 MAG Atlantic of ladies to roll over it , to cut down  every   swell   and  hillock where it could be done to a perfectly flat surface
1892 FIC Poems bear . O voice ! which , bringing not the  faintest   swell   Of  sound , canst in the air so crowd and dwell That
1890 MAG Century and Yankee tourists . A swell table d'hôte dinner ,  for   swell   tourists  , was carefully avoided by myself and companion ; so we
1874 NF BaddeckThatSort streams left bare by the receding tide , to a  gentle   swell   in  the ground upon which is a not heavy forest growth .
1882 FIC Poems ere her presence died Wholly away , Her voice of  golden   swell   Breathed  also a farewell . Farewell , farewell , the sylvan

1930s: swell = "great, wonderful"

1934 FIC WorkArt that 's right . " | " It 's such  a   swell   room  I was afraid-- Hate to be a tightwad , but you
1935 FIC FortuneMensEyes You , or any good architect , should turn out  a   swell   sketch  in a month ! " " They wo n't accept a
1939 FIC Harpers be the son of a millionaire . " Sounds like  a   swell   story  , " said Virginia . " Do n't you think so
1932 FIC YoungLonigan way out it was as blue as the sky on  a   swell   summer  evening . And the sun came down over it like a
1934 FIC PassionsSpinPlot . The Jew 's daughter , Forenoon said , was  a   swell   thing  to look at . He would have her in bed in
1934 MAG SatEvePost and we had a big crowd , and they had  a   swell   time  ; the only misfortune was that when they got out on
1930 FIC Harpers " Oh , " cried Elsie , " we had  a   swell   time  " That was awful good punch ! " said Lena .
1930 FIC Harpers ? .. . Gee , I 'll bet you have  a   swell   time  . Gee , bet there 's a swell bunch belong to
1931 FIC Harpers Zack would say , " I like a leg with  a   swell   to  it . " Madame Briane 's legs had n't had a
1939 MAG SatEvePost she in -- sisted she lived there and it was  a   swell   town  , said , " Doctor King is Acting , but he

 

Some other sample queries:
COCA V budge, bother ADV/C diametrically, insofar, kind of N regard, matter
COHA fathom | [end] up (1800s, 1900s), frustrating (1800s, 1900s), gay (1910s-30s, 1970s-2000s)
TIME fathom | [end] up (1920s, 2000s), swell (1930s, 1990s), war on (1920s-50, 1990s-2000s), gay (1920s-30s, 1980s-2000s)
BNC fathom | V [end] up, budge, bother ADV diametrically, kind of N regard, matter, naked eye, chair (FIC/ACAD)

Concordance vs. collocates and strings

The corpus architecture and interface already allow us to easily extract the most frequent collocates in just a couple of seconds. For example, the following are the collocates of the verb break -- sorted here in order of frequency, for those words having a Mutual Information score of 3.0 or higher, and with a span of four words left and right:

  COLLOCATE WITH BREAK   IN CORPUS % BREAK MI SCORE
1  DOWN 8511   392315 2.17 3.79
2  HEART 1799   79541 2.26 3.85
3  LAW 1542   110600 1.39 3.15
4  RECORD 1041   58972 1.77 3.49
5  SILENCE 1033   22819 4.53 4.85
6  RULES 1006   39352 2.56 4.03
7  GROUND 913   71332 1.28 3.03
8  APART 736   24147 3.05 4.28
9  LOOSE 685   14194 4.83 4.94
10  LEG 645   19600 3.29 4.39
11  LAWS 502   30364 1.65 3.40
12  BARRIERS 488   7432 6.57 5.39
13  NECK 473   25602 1.85 3.56
14  CYCLE 469   12575 3.73 4.57

You can also easily extract the most common strings for a given word or phrase, such as break the [nn*] (grouped here by lemma)

With the corpus interface, you can even do something as complicated as comparing collocates in different sections of the corpus -- such as the collocates of break in fiction vs. academic -- in just 3-4 seconds:

Fiction Academic
   WORD/PHRASE TOKENS 1 TOKENS 2 PM 1 PM 2 RATIO
1  [SMILE] 138 0 1.69 0.00 168.86
2  [STRIDE] 109 1 1.33 0.01 110.59
3  [NOSE] 100 2 1.22 0.02 50.73
4  [NIGHT] 45 1 0.55 0.01 45.66
5  [TROT] 37 0 0.45 0.00 45.27
6  [GRIN] 81 2 0.99 0.02 41.09
7  [KISS] 31 0 0.38 0.00 37.93
8  [TREE] 35 1 0.43 0.01 35.51
9  [FOREHEAD] 29 0 0.35 0.00 35.49
   WORD/PHRASE TOKENS 2 TOKENS 1 PM 2 PM 1 RATIO
1  [MONOPOLY] 30 1 0.36 0.01 29.57
2  [CATEGORY] 25 1 0.30 0.01 24.64
3  [NORM] 16 0 0.19 0.00 19.30
4  [CONFIDENTIALITY] 45 3 0.54 0.04 14.78
5  [MATERIAL] 15 1 0.18 0.01 14.78
6  [PAST] 27 2 0.33 0.02 13.31
7  [GENDER] 13 1 0.16 0.01 12.81
8  [LEVEL] 13 1 0.16 0.01 12.81
9  [SUBJECT] 10 0 0.12 0.00 12.06

As discussed, the new feature is the ability to generate concordance lines, such as the following for the verb break:

1998 NEWS Chicago Pier , Dan McLean 's MCL Co. ' s wants to   break   ground  this  spring  on the first phase of a 10-year , $
1992 ACAD RoeperReview other hand , once busy in a project , attempts to   break   his  concentration  and  redirect his efforts often end in anger
1993 NEWS CSMonitor kill the turkey , but the eagle hit the ground and   broke   his  neck  .  The Indian took home the turkey and the eagle
2006 FIC Bk:MaliciousIntent the second man , who alleged Scott had gone berserk ,   broken   his  own  computer  and attacked the two men . Brody continued ,
2007 NEWS Chicago has been living on his tugboat for eight days straight ,   breaking   ice  on  Lake  Michigan . # It 's 4 below zero ,
2001 SPOK NPR_ATCW idol worship and of iconoclasm , that is , of actually   breaking   idols  .  That  goes back to the Second Commandment , which
2008 NEWS Houston magazines on his windowsill . His reading glasses were   broken   in  the  crash  , but relatives have picked up a new pair
1999 SPOK CBS_Sixty charge then ? Mr-LANDRIGAN : Burglary . Yeah , I had   broken   into  a  neighbor  's home and pried open a little safe they
2007 FIC Esquire -- very close , now -- stopped , and then they   broke   into  a  run  . After that it all happened very , very
2004 FIC New Yorker with the blue sky . Freighters dotted the horizon . Juju   broke   into  a  run  , and his chain snapped taut , glistening in
2010 MAG NatGeog 's cracked ! Like a jigsaw puzzle , the crust is   broken   into  huge  pieces  , called tectonic plates . These plates do n't
2001 NEWS Chicago " There are different levels of this . I 'm gradually   breaking   into  it  .  I like a feminine look , " says Smith
2001 FIC Triquarterly in the hospital with a fractured skull , Mrs. Hobel would   break   into  tears  repeating  to anyone who would listen , " I could

So the question is -- what does one get from concordance lines, if the corpora can already quickly and easily generate strings, collocates, and even compare these across different sections of the corpus? There are at least 3-4 advantages of concordance lines over short 2-3 word strings or single word collocates:

  1. You can often see richer patterns in the concordance lines -- especially multiple words and phrases (which wouldn't show up in lists of collocates, which just show single words)

  2. You can see how words pattern as part of larger phrases, and which phrases are coordinated

  3. The concordance view tends to do a better job at showing "semantic prosody" -- the tendency of words and phrases to attract positive or negative surrounding words.

  4. Since the words are marked by color for part of speech (four words left and right), it's easier to scan through the list to see overall patterns with parts of speech (and thus meaning and use).

  5. Because you can quickly re-sort the entries (by left and right context words), you can more easily make hypotheses about what the important patterns are, and then test these and revise them

So even though the corpora already allowed users to quickly and easily extract useful data from the corpora, our hope is that the new concordancing feature will increase the functionality of the corpora even more.