The breadth and spread of corpus-assisted discourse studies (CADS) indicate its usefulness for exploring language use within a social context. However, its theoretical foundations, limitations, and epistemological implications must be considered so that we can adjust our research designs accordingly. This Element offers a compact guide to which corpus linguistic tools are available and how they can contribute to finding out more about discourse. It will appeal to researchers both new and experienced, within the CADS community and beyond.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/37A2C82178A5554D9EB2BAF43FBBA74D/9781009168151AR.pdf/corpus-assisted-discourse-studies.pdf

Corpus-Assisted Discourse Studies

Building a corpus entails the principled collection of a dataset, and corpora designed for general purposes commonly require the submission of that data to an annotation process whereby each item is ‘tagged’ according to its part of speech (POS). In some cases, a ready-made tag-set is applied to the data, and in other cases a bespoke tag-set is required. Corpora require a host infrastructure; building or sourcing this is the other essential element of corpus design. The creation of these components, along with a semantic tagger (to mark up the data for meaning as opposed to part of speech) and its own tag-set, plus the bespoke pedagogic toolkit (Y Tiwtiadur) constituted the CorCenCC construction plan. Decisions relating to the user-driven infrastructure and the collection and processing of data, in particular, present some specific challenges in the context of minoritised languages. In this chapter we outline how these challenges were addressed in the CorCenCC project.

1.3 Designing a National Corpus in a Minoritised Language

Fel y nodwyd ym Mhennod 2.1, roedd dwy egwyddor arweiniol i weledigaeth CorCenCC: yn gyntaf, dylai’r data iaith a gipiwyd yn y corpws gynrychioli cystal â phosibl y ffyrdd y mae’r Gymraeg yn cael ei defnyddio a’i chanfod ar hyn o bryd. Yn ail, dylai seilwaith y corpws ymdrin ag anghenion y grwpiau amrywiol o ddefnyddwyr cymunedol sy’n gweithredu yn Gymraeg neu sy’n ymgysylltu â’r Gymraeg. Yn y bennod hon, rydym yn gwerthuso i ba raddau y cynrychiolir yr egwyddorion hyn yng nghanlyniadau’r prosiect. Yn gyntaf, rydym yn adfyfyrio ar weledigaeth cynrychioldeb CorCenCC, drwy ystyried maint a chwmpas y corpws, a tharddiad y data o ran testun, cyd-destun, genre a modd iaith ar y naill law, a phroffiliau cyfranwyr ar y llaw arall. Wedyn rydym yn cofnodi rhai o’r heriau penodol, gan gynnwys rhai nas rhagwelwyd, y daethpwyd ar eu traws yn ystod y prosiect, a’r camau a gymerwyd i liniaru ar eu heffaith. Nesaf, rydym yn ystyried i ba raddau y mae’r prosiect wedi nodi anghenion penodol cymunedau o grwpiau defnyddwyr ac wedi ymdrin â nhw. I wneud hyn, mae angen ystyried sut buom yn ymgysylltu â grwpiau o ddefnyddwyr posibl y corpws drwy gydol y prosiect ac yn cyfathrebu â nhw. Yn olaf, rydym yn crynhoi’r offer a’r adnoddau technegol a ddatblygwyd i gefnogi gwireddu gweledigaeth CorCenCC. Drwy gydol y bennod rydym yn adrodd ar y gwneud penderfyniadau dynamig o ran dull ac ymagwedd a luniodd y prosiect wrth iddo fynd rhagddo.

2.4 Adfyfyrio: A Wireddwyd y Weledigaeth?

As noted in Chap. 1.1, CorCenCC’s vision rested on two guiding principles: first, the language data captured within the corpus should be as representative as possible of the ways in which Welsh is currently used and encountered. Second, the corpus infrastructure should address the needs of the multiple community user groups operating in and/or engaging with the Welsh language. In this chapter we evaluate the extent to which these principles are represented in the project outcomes. First, we reflect on CorCenCC’s vision of representativeness, by considering the size and scope of the corpus, and the provenance of data in terms of language topic, context, genre and mode on the one hand, and contributor profiles on the other. We then document some of the specific challenges, including unanticipated ones, encountered during the project, and the steps taken to mitigate their impact. Next, we consider the extent to which the project has identified, and addressed, the specific needs of user group communities. This necessitates a reflection on our engagement and communication with potential corpus user groups throughout the project. Finally, we summarise the technical tools and resources developed to support the realisation of the CorCenCC vision. Throughout the chapter we report on the dynamic decision-making regarding method and approach that shaped the project as it progressed.

1.4 Reflections: The Vision and the Realisation

Mae creu corpws yn cynnwys casglu set data ar sail egwyddorion, ac fel arfer yn achos corpora a gynlluniwyd at ddibenion cyffredinol, mae’n rhaid cyflwyno’r data hynny gan ddilyn proses anodi lle mae pob eitem yn cael ei ‘thagio’ yn ol ei rhan ymadrodd (RhY). Mewn rhai achosion, cymhwysir set barod o dagiau i’r data, ac mewn achosion eraill mae’n ofynnol cael set bwrpasol o dagiau. Mae’n rhaid i gorpora gael seilwaith i’w lletya; mae creu neu ddod o hyd i hwn yn un o elfennau hanfodol eraill cynllunio corpws. Creu’r cydrannau hyn, ynghyd â thagiwr semantig (i ddynodi ystyr y data yn hytrach na’r rhan ymadrodd) a’i set o dagiau ei hun, yn ogystal â’r pecyn cymorth pedagogaidd pwrpasol (Y Tiwtiadur) oedd cynllun creu CorCenCC. Mae’r penderfyniadau ynghylch y seilwaith wedi’i yrru gan ddefnyddwyr a chasglu a phrosesu data, yn benodol, yn cynnig heriau arbennig yng nghyd-destun ieithoedd lleiafrifoledig. Yn y bennod hon rydym yn amlinellu sut aeth prosiect CorCenCC i’r afael â’r heriau hyn.

2.3 Cynllunio Corpws Cenedlaethol mewn Iaith Leiafrifoledig

This book aims to provide a micro-level, working model of a methodological approach and practical guidelines for building a corpus, informed by the work on the CorCenCC project (Corpws Cenedlaethol Cymraeg Cyfoes - the National Corpus of Contemporary Welsh). It focuses specifically on the development of detailed design frames for corpora across communicative modes (spoken, written and e-language), and the practical processes involved in the planning, collection, transcription, collation and (re)presentation of language data. The book is designed to be of significant value and relevance to those interested in critically engaging with corpus methodology. Although Welsh is the language under discussion, the processes and approaches discussed in the building of CorCenCC can be applied to a lesser or greater extent to other language contexts. This book provides a working model, and an account of how to build a corpus dataset from which step by step guidelines for creating other linguistic corpora in any language can be easily extrapolated. It will be of value to students and scholars of minority languages and corpus linguistics.

Building a National Corpus: A Welsh Language Case Study

CorCenCC is an interdisciplinary and multiinstitutional project that is creating a large-scale, open-source corpus of contemporary Welsh. CorCenCC will be the first ever large-scale corpus to represent spoken, written and electronicallymediated Welsh (compiling an initial data set of 10 million Welsh words), with a functional design informed, from the outset, by representatives of all anticipated academic and community user groups.

Creating CorCenCC (Corpws Cenedlaethol Cymraeg Cyfoes - The National Corpus of Contemporary Welsh)

The book aims to provide a micro-level, working model of a methodological approach to, and practical guidelines for, building a corpus informed by the work on the CorCenCC project. This first chapter provides the context to the work and lays foundations for the first step of corpus building, that is, the examination of the context of the language. It begins with an exploration of what can be considered distinct about a ‘national’ corpus, and then examines how context affects the nature of a national corpus, including the differences between national corpora of major languages (both well-resourced and under-resourced) and those in under-resourced and/or minoritised languages. Following these discussions, the chapter overviews some existing language corpora created in under-resourced languages and explains the status of the Welsh language within this landscape.

Understanding the Language Context

Together with a consideration of the general types of text/data to be included in a corpus (as examined by the development of the design frames in Chapter 2), attention needs to be given to who will contribute data and how they will be recruited. This chapter focuses specifically on the stages of participant recruitment and (meta)data collection when building a corpus. Drawing on our experience in sourcing and collecting the (meta)data for CorCenCC, the contents of this chapter are scaffolded by some important central generic questions that are relevant to anyone wanting to build a corpus in a minoritised/under-resourced, or indeed any, language.

Meta)Data Collection

This chapter details the final composition of each of CorCenCC’s sub-corpora, reflects on some of the practical issues and challenges faced when compiling these sub-corpora, and assesses the relative similarity (and differences) of the released corpus in comparison to its initial design (as presented in Chapter 2). The chapter effectively presents the ‘results’ of our approach to building a corpus, by critically evaluating the final dataset. The presentation of these results helps to signpost some of the key lessons learnt from our experiences of building CorCenCC, lessons that can be adapted for use in other language contexts. This chapter and book end with some examples of the sorts of questions that a national corpus like CorCenCC might be used to answer.

Results, Reflections and Lessons Learnt

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