MA: Second Language Learning and Teaching Faculty of Education, UC

Language Acquisition Research Methodology Prof. Evelyn Gandón Chapela

NAME: VALENTINA GUZMAN ESPINOSA

Date: 27TH OCTOBER, 2022

ACTIVITIES

ACTIVITY 1: NEOLOGISMS DERIVED FROM THE WORD CORONAVIRUS IN

DIFFERENT CORPORA

a) Search for the word coronavirus* (with the asterisk) in the NOW corpus
(https://www.english-corpora.org/now/). Which are the 20 most frequent
neologisms derived from the word coronavirus? What word category do they
belong to? What are their meanings (have a guess from the examples provided
by the corpus)?

N WORD CATEGORY MEANING

1 coronavirus-related Adjective Connected with coronavirus affair

(infection, symptoms, vaccines, deaths,
etc.)

2 Coronaviruses Noun This word includes all types of

coronaviruses that cause disease, especially
respiratoy infections, in humans.

3 Coronavirus-induced Adjective It refers to the effects that coronavirus has

(e.g., work-from-home)

4 Coronavirus-hit Adjective It refers to the very high level that

coronavirus has reached in certains areas.

5 Coronavirus-positive Adjective It means that after getting a positive test,

the person is very likely to have Covid- 19

6 Coronavirus-linked Adjective A connection between an item and

coronavirus.

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MA: Second Language Learning and Teaching Faculty of Education, UC
Language Acquisition Research Methodology Prof. Evelyn Gandón Chapela

7 Coronavirus-infected Adjective Being affected by the coronavirus.

8 Coronavirus-free Adjective No positive cases of coronavirus.

9 Coronavirus-driven Adjective It refers to the situations that coronavirus

has provoked. (e.g., economic crash)

10 Coronavirus-enforced Adjective It refers to the compulsory inconveniences

that have emerged due to coronavirus and
that people must comply with (e.g.,
quarantine).

11 Coronavirus-led Adjective In my opinion, this concept resembles the

coronavirus-drive and coronavirus-
induced.

So, it is used when we want to mention a

circumstance that coronavirus has caused.

12 Coronavirus-striken Adjective It refers to what coronavirus has deeply

affected.

In my opinion, this concept resembles the

“coronavirus-infected”.

13 Coronavirus. Noun It’s a virus that cause diseases in humans.

There is a ‘dot’ (.) at the end. It means that
the sentence ends there.

14 Coronavirus-affected Adjective It refers to what coronavirus has deeply

affected.

In my opinion, this concept resembles the

“Coronavirus-striken”

15 Coronavirus-shortened Adjective It implies reduction in length or duration

of a situation due to coronavirus.

16 Coronavirus-like Adjective It refers to the similarities that coronavirus

has with other situations (e.g., symptoms)

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MA: Second Language Learning and Teaching Faculty of Education, UC
Language Acquisition Research Methodology Prof. Evelyn Gandón Chapela

17 Coronavirus-triggered Adjective This word refers to the circumstances

produced by coronavirus.

18 Coronavirus-theme Adjective It means that the main subject of a

situation is coronavirus.

19 Coronavirus/COVID-19 Adjective It is the name of a virus that cause diseases

in some people.

20 Coronavirus-era Adjective It refers to a period of time in which

coronavirus emerged and there were many
positive cases and change the daily routine
of all the people around the world.

b) Compare these results with the same search in the Coronavirus Corpus
(https://www.english-corpora.org/corona/). Do you find the same neologisms in
this corpus? What word category do they belong to? What are their meanings?

I found that almost all the neologisms were the same, have the same meaning and belong to the
same category. But the neologism “Coronavirus-enforced” was in the 25 position and the word
“coronavirus.” do not appear in the given list. Instead, it appears the following two new neologisms
in the first 20 words:

N WORD CATEGORY MEANING

1 Coronavirus-fighting Adjective It refers to an external fact that help to fight the

symptoms created by the coronavirus or even
to avoid them.

2 Coronavirus-borne adjective It is used when we want to emphasize that the

virus or illness (COVID-19) has been
transmitted or that this virus can be transmit.

ACTIVITY 2: NOUN COLLOCATES OF THE SEQUENCE CORONAVIRUS-* IN THE

NOW AND CORONAVIRUS CORPORA

Search for the sequence coronavirus-* in the NOW and Coronavirus Corpora (search
for 1 collocate to the right). Which are the 10 most frequent nouns that collocate with

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MA: Second Language Learning and Teaching Faculty of Education, UC
Language Acquisition Research Methodology Prof. Evelyn Gandón Chapela
coronavirus-* in both corpora? Are they the same? What are these collocations
telling us from nowadays’ reality?

New Corpus (News on the web) The coronavirus corpus

N Words What are these Is it the same? What are these

collocations telling us collocations
from nowadays’ reality? telling us from
nowadays’
reality?

1 Coronavirus- It refers to the deaths caused It is the same

related deaths by the coronavirus

2 Coronavirus- It refers to the restrictions It is the same

related that emerged with the
restrictions coronavirus

Coronavirus-
induced
restrictions

3 Coronavirus- It refers to the restrictions on It is the same.

enforce social contact that emerged Only it changes
lockdown with the coronavirus in order the order. It is in
to stop virus spread. fifth position
Coronavirus-
induced
lockdown

4 Coronavirus- It refers to the news about It is the same.

related news coronavirus COVID-19. Only it changes
the order. It is in
third position

5 Coronavirus- This word is the same that It is the same.

related death the first one. The difference is Only it changes
the grammatical number the order. It is in
Coronavirus-
(plural/singular form) fourth position
linked death

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MA: Second Language Learning and Teaching Faculty of Education, UC
Language Acquisition Research Methodology Prof. Evelyn Gandón Chapela

6 Coronavirus- It refers to the several times It is the same.

induced that people could not have Only it changes
lockdowns social contact because of the the order. It is in
coronavirus. tenth position.
Coronavirus-
related
lockdowns

7 Coronavirus- It refers to the people that is It is the same.

infected patients affected by the virus or have Only it changes
had covid. the order. It is in
Coronavirus-
sixth position
positive patients

8 Coronavirus- It refers to the period when This word does It emphasizes that
induced the economy was not as good not appear in the the coronavirus can
recession as it should be due to first ten words. be transmit
coronavirus. Instead, it between people.
appears:

Coronavirus-
borne illness

9 Coronavirus- It tells us about how the This word does It refers to the
battered pandemic impact the not appear in the deaths caused by
economy economy of a country or even first ten words. the coronavirus
in the world. Instead, it disease.
Coronavirus-hit
appears:
economy
Coronavirus-
related fatalities

10 Coronavirus- It refers to the people who It is the same.

positive have been in a hospital Only it changes
hospitalizations because they were deeply the order. It is in
affected by the coronavirus seventh position
Coronavirus-
symptoms.
related
hospitalizations

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MA: Second Language Learning and Teaching Faculty of Education, UC
Language Acquisition Research Methodology Prof. Evelyn Gandón Chapela

Hint: You will need to click on the Search section and select Collocates. There, you will need to
write the sequence coronavirus-* in the box called Word/phrase. Then insert the POS noun.all in
the box called collocates by simply selecting the POS noun.all from the scroll down menu (search
for only 1 collocate to the right).

ACTIVITY 3: VERB COLLOCATES OF THE WORD DATA IN THE COCA AND THE
BNC CORPORA

Take a look at the collocates of data in the COCA (https://www.english-

corpora.org/coca/) and BNC (https://www.english-corpora.org/bnc/) corpora. Does
the noun data take a verb in the singular or in the plural form in the COCA and the
BNC? (focus on the first 10 hits for each of the corpora)

Hint: You will need to follow the same steps as in Activity 2 in order to find the verb collocates of
the noun data. In this case, you just select the POS verb.all from the scroll down menu.

N Collocates of Samples The verb Collocates The verb

“data” in the is in of “data” is in
BNC plural or in the plural or
singular COCA singular
form? form?

1 Data-gathering in some schools it persisted until Singular Data-out plural

Exercises our last major data- register
gathering exercises: the 1989
questionnaires sent to primary
heads.

Before embarking upon data-

gathering exercises some of
the potential pitfalls must be
recognized

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MA: Second Language Learning and Teaching Faculty of Education, UC
Language Acquisition Research Methodology Prof. Evelyn Gandón Chapela

2 Data-file Used there are three types of data- Plural Data- plural
file used by the programs recording
began

Data-taking
began

3 Data-base need to provide a conceptual Data-* Singular

Searching framework for the machine to
attributes
assist the human in his data-
base searching and navigation
was recognized in 1987

4 Data-gathering Data-gathering provides an Singular Data-filled Singular

Provides early-warning system so that the reports
situation can be analysed

5 Data-gathering Church growth data- Singular Data- Singular

Needs gathering needs to be crunching
undertaken at least at two levels reveals

Data-mining
reveals

6 Data-sets the sample sizes needed to Plural Data-stream

Mean produce statistically meaningful went
data-sets mean that only
national survey organizations
can undertake the large surveys

7 Data-types the documents held with a full Plural Data-type- Plural

Involved abstract specification of conditional
the data-types involved and a transform
multi-level architecture similar
to that of a DBMS

8 Data-sets The precise interpretation of Plural Data-usage Singular

Employed correlation co-efficients depends Taking (according
upon the size of the data- to the use
of “is” in

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MA: Second Language Learning and Teaching Faculty of Education, UC
Language Acquisition Research Methodology Prof. Evelyn Gandón Chapela
sets employed the
context

9 Data-flow It offers a graphical user Data-stream

Diagramming interface and uses a Taken
simplified data-
flow diagramming technique

10 Data-base The existing data-base covers Singular Data-type singular

Covers over 10,000 experimental high- specifies
energy physics papers produced
worldwide in the 11 main
international journals

ACTIVITY 4: COMPARING CORPUS FINDINGS WITH THE GRAMMAR SECTION OF

THE LONGMAN DICTIONARY

Now check the grammar notes in the Longman dictionary for the noun data at
https://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/data. Does the corpus evidence from the
BNC and the COCA confirm these notes?

In my opinion, the corpus findings from both Corpus of contemporary American English (COCA)
and British National Corpus (BNC) confirm what Longman dictionary explains since the word
‘data’ can be followed by a singular or plural verb depend on the context it is used (formal or
informal).

ACTIVITY 5: CREATING A DATABASE

Invent classification parameters (similar to the ones that we saw for Post-Auxiliary
Ellipsis in our notes, 5-8 would be enough) and classify 10 of the examples found for
the neologisms derived from coronavirus in the NOW and Coronavirus Corpora (5
from each corpus).

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MA: Second Language Learning and Teaching Faculty of Education, UC
Language Acquisition Research Methodology Prof. Evelyn Gandón Chapela

CLASSIFICATION PARAMETERS – THE CORONAVIRUS CORPUS

Genre: Non-fiction Conjunction

Time Adverb
Newspaper Coordinating Subordinating
conjunctions conjunction

On July 20, Some coronavirus- Increasingly, on Thursday it was 11.4. But L.A. County recorded
1,329 coronavirus- positive patients who more coronavirus- Ferrer added that 1,329 coronavirus-
positive patients have completed positive patients are new coronavirus- positive hospitalizati
were hospitalized treatment with Paxlovid being seen in the positive hospitalizations may ons on Wednesday.
countywide are getting sick again hospital. also be leveling off a bit. Since then, the tally
has fallen by almost
10%

CLASSIFICATION PARAMETERS – NOW CORPUS (NEWS ON THE WEB)

Genre: Non-fiction Conjunction

Time Adverb
Newspaper Coordinating Subordinating
conjunctions conjunction

United States reached its Kempsey council areas among However, a vast While
all-time peak for would go into lockdown hospitalized corona majority most coronavirus-
hospitalizations on from Tuesday for seven days virus- of coronavirus- infected patients
January 6 when there after a coronavirus- infected children positive people in eventually recover
were infected essential worker nearly tripled during intensive care units their sense of smell,
132,051 coronavirus- flew from Sydney to Ballina the Omicron era. there are those who
infected patients in on Saturday and was active Young children are have yet to
hospital beds, according in the community especially
to a Reuters tally vulnerable

ACTIVITY 6: IS HOWEVER A FORMAL OR AN INFORMAL WORD IN THE

COCA?

Imagine you are trying to decide whether however is informal or formal and
appropriate to use in an essay you are writing. A quick corpus search can help us
make this decision. Perform a Chart search for the word however.

a) Where (for example, spoken, fiction, magazine, newspaper, academic) is the

word most often used? (provide the screenshot of the frequency results and
offer a description of the data)

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MA: Second Language Learning and Teaching Faculty of Education, UC
Language Acquisition Research Methodology Prof. Evelyn Gandón Chapela

The word ‘however’appers 326.096 times in COCA. This word is used more frequently in
academic English writing than in the other genres with a frecuency of 890,85 per million
words.

119.000.000 – 106.724 hits

1.000.000 – x = 890,85 per million words

b) Where is it rarely used?

The word ‘however’ is rarely used in the TV/movie subtitles with a frequency of 39,88 per
million words.

128.100.000 – 5.109 hits

1.000.000 - x = 39,88 per million words

c) What guideline could we create to help guide our language use? When is it
used? Does it appear in sentence initial, medial or final position? (provide
examples)

Tip: Click Chart and enter however in the search box. Also, click on any of the bars in the chart
to see sample sentences of the word. This can help you see how to punctuate or include a word
in your writing.

Poole (2018: 7)

When is it used? ‘However’ is a conjunctive adverb’ and is used

mainly in academic and formal writing. It
introduces a contrasting idea, and it could be at
the initial, medial or final position in a

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MA: Second Language Learning and Teaching Faculty of Education, UC
Language Acquisition Research Methodology Prof. Evelyn Gandón Chapela
sentence.

At the initial position the word ‘however’ most The No Sex subgroup had a fairly equal balance
of time means ‘but’ and should be a comma (,) of males and females. However, groups in
after it. which condoms were used inconsistently with
few partners.

In the middle of a sentence, the word ‘however’ I may have to live with it; however, I don't
must have a semicolon (;) before it and a want to.
comma (,) after it. This means that the two
parts of the sentences are stand-alone

Separate the two parts of the sentences with In the other two treatments, however, we
commas if the word ‘however’ is used as a observe a small fraction of periods
connecting adverb or to emphasize.
The department, however, was beginning to
worry that bombing and strafing rebeal areas
might lead to

After a comma, ‘however’ is put at the end of a One meeting about Fitzgerald is not
short sentence to contrast. postponed, however.

That can be sorted out later, however.

To search examples in the COCA corpora, we can write in the word/phrase part:

1. However ,

If we want to find examples with ‘however’ before a comma (,). It is necessary to have a space
between ‘however’ and the comma.

2. However .

If we want to find examples with ‘however’ before a full stop (.). It is necessary to have a space
between ‘however’ and the full stop.

ACTIVITY 7: FREQUENCIES

You are analysing two different corpora: one of native speakers (101,254 words) and
one of non-native speakers (54,589 words) to look for differences in the use of
phrasal verbs by native and non-native speakers. You come up with 654 examples in

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MA: Second Language Learning and Teaching Faculty of Education, UC
Language Acquisition Research Methodology Prof. Evelyn Gandón Chapela
the native corpus and 154 examples in the non-native corpus. Does this mean that
learners underuse phrasal verbs as compared to native speakers? Why? Why not?

Hint: Remember that you will need to normalise the frequencies per 10,000 words.

To look for differences in the use of phrasal verbs by native and non-native speakers, we should
normalise the frequencies per 10.000 word since it will help us to compare them. We can not
compare frequencies without normalizing them because the number of words/samples in a corpus
is not going to be exactly the same as the number of words/samples in another corpus.

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