Introduction to Corpus Linguistics

Dr. Rania Al-Sabbagh

Introduction to Corpus Linguistics
Dr. Rania Al-Sabbagh
Department of English
Faculty of Al-Alsun (Languages)
Ain Shams University
rsabbagh@alsun.asu.edu.eg
1. Course Objectives

Lecture 0: Course Overview

The main objectives of this course are:

To acquaint students with such concepts as:
o the scientific method
o corpus linguistics
o hypothesis testing
o empirical analysis

To give students hands-on experience with leading online corpora and

cutting-edge corpus analysis tool so as to answer such questions as:
o what is the difference between moreover an furthermore?
o when can we use the contracted form of not?
o what is the distribution of wh-clefts?

2. Course Methods

This course is delivered into lectures and lab sessions:

For the lectures, I will do most of the work, presenting and explaining
new concepts and applications. Yet, students are expected to come
prepared to class. There will be a reading assignment from the textbook for
almost each lecture.
For the lab sessions, I will provide online tutorials to help you use the
online corpora and their analysis tools to come up with answers to multiple
questions related to morphology, syntax, and semantics.
3. Course Assessment

The course grade is divided into:

20 marks for a final group project
80 marks for a final written exam

There will be multiple ungraded in-class quizzes, however.

4. Course Textbook

Anne O'Keeffe, Michael McCarthy, and Ronald Carter. 2007. From Corpus to
Classroom: Language Use and Language Teaching. UK: Cambridge University Press.

Introduction to Corpus Linguistics

Dr. Rania Al-Sabbagh
5. Course Logistics

Times and Locations:

Tuesdays
1:00 - 3:00 PM; Room 1
Thursdays
3:00 - 5:00 PM; Room 451
Webpage: http://www.rania-alsabbagh.com/spring2016eng315.html