Use a Language Corpus to Improve Your Vocabulary
2023-07-23
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1A language corpus is a huge collection of texts taken from print, video, audio and other sources.
2It is a powerful tool that can help you learn more about English words and phrases.
3In today's article, we look at the most widely used corpus: the Corpus of Contemporary American English, or COCA.
4COCA contains more than one billion words from 1990-2019.
5And it has many ways to help learners find out more about how words are used.
6Take the adjective profound as an example.
7In a dictionary, you will find that one meaning of profound is the adjective deep.
8So, you might think English speakers will say that a body of water is profound.
9But English speakers never say that.
10A corpus like COCA shows that the most common words that follow profound are effect or ability.
11And the most common words that follow the adjective deep are breath or water.
12For example, we will say:
13Her teaching has a profound effect on students' learning.
14You need to be a strong swimmer to swim in deep water.
15COCA makes it easy to read and hear examples of how to use vocabulary correctly.
16First, you will need to register with COCA to use the collection.
17You can register for two kinds of accounts.
18A free account limits you to 20 searches for words within any 24-hour period.
19A paid account will give you 200 searches within any 24-hour period.
20Here are the steps for using COCA to find examples of how a word is used.
21We will use the word profound to show this.
22On the home page, type the word profound in the white search box on the left side of the screen.
23Click "find matching strings" just below the search box. This will take you to a new webpage.
24On this new page, you will see the word profound in blue. Click on it.
25You will now see a page with 100 examples using the word profound, and the word profound is shown in green. The source of each example is shown on the left side.
26If you click on the source on the left, COCA will show you a larger part of the text containing the example.
27If you want to see more examples, click the two forward page arrows >> at the top or bottom left. This brings you to the next 100 examples. In this way, you might find more kinds of sources for the examples.
28COCA also has a tool that lets you see many useful things about a word on one page.
29We will show this with the word deep.
30On the COCA homepage, click on "Word" in blue just above the white search box.
31Type the word deep in the search box.
32Click on the "See detailed info for the word" just below the search box.
33Now you will see a page with definitions, audio pronunciation, links to translations, synonyms, links to videos with the word, and more. This page is called the "Word homepage".
34Scroll down the page. You will see another long list of example sentences, with words in many colors. The adjective deep is in green and the nouns that follow it are in blue.
35You will see that in these examples, the noun breath occurs the most after the adjective deep.
36You may wonder, how can we know for sure that the most common words that follow deep are breath or water?
37Scroll back to the top of the "Word homepage" for deep.
38On the right, you will see the word COLLOCATES in blue.
39(A collocation is a word or phrase that is often used with another word or phrase.)
40Clicking on COLLOCATES will show you lists of words that follow deep.
41And you will see that breath and water are the first two words on the list.
42Knowing what words sound the best together can be hard for people learning English.
43A corpus can be helpful because it shows you ways that words are used together.
44See if you can learn to use COCA by searching for the adjectives utter and diverse.
45Utter is both a verb and an adjective, so you must tell COCA to only search for adjectives.
46Here is how to do that:
47Just to the right of the white search box, click on the [POS] letters in grey.
48Next, click on POS again and then select "adj. ALL". This makes COCA search only for adjectives.
49In the search box, delete the letters ADJ and type the word you want to search.
50Now follow the steps shown above for profound and deep, but this time, use the words utter and diverse.
51If you find on the "Word homepage" for utter that COCA has searched for the verb form, you can change it to adjective.
52To do this, click on ADJ in blue just below the word utter on the top left area of the page.
53When you perform a search, what do you notice about the nouns that follow utter?
54About the nouns that follow diverse?
55Write to us and let us know what you found.
56Learning how to use a corpus can take some time.
57COCA has a guide showing you the many ways to use it.
58You can also find tutorials on YouTube.
59Just remember that a corpus is a tool that can help you deepen your understanding of vocabulary and the ways to use it.
60And in another Education Tips, we will explain more about the importance of collocations and how a corpus can help you learn them.
61I'm Andrew Smith. And I'm Jill Robbins.
1A language corpus is a huge collection of texts taken from print, video, audio and other sources. It is a powerful tool that can help you learn more about English words and phrases. 2In today's article, we look at the most widely used corpus: the Corpus of Contemporary American English, or COCA. 3COCA contains more than one billion words from 1990-2019. And it has many ways to help learners find out more about how words are used. 4Take the adjective profound as an example. In a dictionary, you will find that one meaning of profound is the adjective deep. So, you might think English speakers will say that a body of water is profound. 5But English speakers never say that. 6A corpus like COCA shows that the most common words that follow profound are effect or ability. And the most common words that follow the adjective deep are breath or water. For example, we will say: 7Her teaching has a profound effect on students' learning. 8You need to be a strong swimmer to swim in deep water. 9COCA makes it easy to read and hear examples of how to use vocabulary correctly. 10How to use COCA 11First, you will need to register with COCA to use the collection. You can register for two kinds of accounts. A free account limits you to 20 searches for words within any 24-hour period. A paid account will give you 200 searches within any 24-hour period. 12Here are the steps for using COCA to find examples of how a word is used. We will use the word profound to show this. 13On the home page, type the word profound in the white search box on the left side of the screen. 14Click find matching strings just below the search box. This will take you to a new webpage. 15On this new page, you will see the word profound in blue. Click on it. 16You will now see a page with 100 examples using the word profound, and the word profound is shown in green. The source of each example is shown on the left side. 17If you click on the source on the left, COCA will show you a larger part of the text containing the example. 18If you want to see more examples, click the two forward page arrows >> at the top or bottom left. This brings you to the next 100 examples. In this way, you might find more kinds of sources for the examples. 19COCA also has a tool that lets you see many useful things about a word on one page. We will show this with the word deep. 20On the COCA homepage, click on Word in blue just above the white search box. 21Type the word deep in the search box. 22Click on the See detailed info for the word just below the search box. 23Now you will see a page with definitions, audio pronunciation, links to translations, synonyms, links to videos with the word, and more. This page is called the Word homepage. 24Scroll down the page. You will see another long list of example sentences, with words in many colors. The adjective deep is in green and the nouns that follow it are in blue. 25You will see that in these examples, the noun breath occurs the most after the adjective deep. 26You may wonder, how can we know for sure that the most common words that follow deep are breath or water? 27Scroll back to the top of the "Word homepage" for deep. On the right, you will see the word COLLOCATES in blue. (A collocation is a word or phrase that is often used with another word or phrase.) Clicking on COLLOCATES will show you lists of words that follow deep. And you will see that breath and water are the first two words on the list. 28Why the corpus is helpful 29Knowing what words sound the best together can be hard for people learning English. A corpus can be helpful because it shows you ways that words are used together. 30See if you can learn to use COCA by searching for the adjectives utter and diverse. Utter is both a verb and an adjective, so you must tell COCA to only search for adjectives. Here is how to do that: 31Just to the right of the white search box, click on the [POS] letters in grey. 32Next, click on POS again and then select adj. ALL. This makes COCA search only for adjectives. 33In the search box, delete the letters ADJ and type the word you want to search. 34Now follow the steps shown above for profound and deep, but this time, use the words utter and diverse. 35If you find on the "Word homepage" for utter that COCA has searched for the verb form, you can change it to adjective. To do this, click on ADJ in blue just below the word utter on the top left area of the page. 36When you perform a search, what do you notice about the nouns that follow utter? About the nouns that follow diverse? 37Write to us and let us know what you found. 38Learning how to use a corpus can take some time. COCA has a guide showing you the many ways to use it. You can also find tutorials on YouTube. 39Just remember that a corpus is a tool that can help you deepen your understanding of vocabulary and the ways to use it. 40And in another Education Tips, we will explain more about the importance of collocations and how a corpus can help you learn them. 41I'm Andrew Smith. And I'm Jill Robbins. 42Andrew Smith wrote this article for VOA Learning English. 43____________________________________________________ 44Words in This Story 45corpus -n. a large collection spoken or written texts that are used for language research. 46pronunciation -n. the way a word or phrase is pronounced. 47translation -n. the meaning of a word in a different language 48synonym -n. a word that means the same, or is very close in meaning, to another word 49We want to hear from you. 50We have a new comment system. Here is how it works: 51Each time you return to comment on the Learning English site, you can use your account and see your comments and replies to them. 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