Rights statement: This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Edinburgh University Press in Corpora. The Version of Record is available online at: https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/abs/10.3366/cor.2018.0145
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Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - First catch your corpus
T2 - methodological challenges in constructing a thematic corpus
AU - Sealey, Alison Jean
AU - Pak, Christopher Adams
N1 - This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Edinburgh University Press in Corpora. The Version of Record is available online at: https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/abs/10.3366/cor.2018.0145
PY - 2018/8/1
Y1 - 2018/8/1
N2 - This paper describes the process by which we have constructed a corpus of heterogeneous texts about non-human animals. It aims to contribute both methodologically – in respect of the challenges of compiling a thematic corpus – and substantively – in relation to the identification of some features of discourse about animals. Having introduced the research project and its guiding questions, the article describes the principles of data selection and the procedures used in analysis. We highlight the methods we devised both to avoid the potential circularity associated with pre-determined search terms, and to overcome the limitations of a relatively small corpus containing a wide range of relevant vocabulary. We go on to report some initial findings on the most frequent animal naming terms and adjectives describing them, including a small case study of the adjectives ‘live’ and ‘dead’. The article concludes by indicating the ways in which the iterative methods we have employed are open to further extension, and points to some methodological and substantive implications of this enterprise.
AB - This paper describes the process by which we have constructed a corpus of heterogeneous texts about non-human animals. It aims to contribute both methodologically – in respect of the challenges of compiling a thematic corpus – and substantively – in relation to the identification of some features of discourse about animals. Having introduced the research project and its guiding questions, the article describes the principles of data selection and the procedures used in analysis. We highlight the methods we devised both to avoid the potential circularity associated with pre-determined search terms, and to overcome the limitations of a relatively small corpus containing a wide range of relevant vocabulary. We go on to report some initial findings on the most frequent animal naming terms and adjectives describing them, including a small case study of the adjectives ‘live’ and ‘dead’. The article concludes by indicating the ways in which the iterative methods we have employed are open to further extension, and points to some methodological and substantive implications of this enterprise.
U2 - 10.3366/cor.2018.0145
DO - 10.3366/cor.2018.0145
M3 - Journal article
VL - 13
SP - 229
EP - 254
JO - Corpora
JF - Corpora
SN - 1749-5032
IS - 2
ER -