Reflection 7: Corpus Linguistics

Date   : 2nd April 2013
Day    : Tuesday
Topic  : Corpus Linguistic

Assalamualaikum and may all readers in the state of pink of health. Do you know how a dictionary can be produced? How such a book can happen to have so many words inside of it with the meanings and usage of the words in appropriate situation and condition? The answer is corpus linguistic. So what is corpus linguistic actually? It is a study of language and a method of linguistic analysis which uses a collection of natural or real word texts known as corpus. It deals with both spoken and written texts. It is a sample of a particular varieties or use of languages that are presented in machine readable form. What makes it more interesting is that it comes with description and explanation of nature, structure and use of language with particular matters. In addition, it highlights possible words, structures or uses in a language and shows probable occurrence in a language. It is not only restricted to one language instead several languages. Hence, it is applicable to language learning. Among roles of corpus linguistics are:

1) To store huge amount of text.

2) To quickly retrieve huge amount of texts.

3) To retrieve words, phrases or whole texts in context.

4) To sort out linguistics items.

5) To increase reliability and validity in searching, counting and sorting linguistics items.

6) To provide accurate probability of occurrence of specific linguistic items.

      All in all, corpus linguistics is a useful study that has been developed and can be used to guide students to learn languages more efficient. After learning this topic, we believe it has given us a fresh view about computer application in language studies.

          In addition, Corpus Linguistic provides more objective view about the analysis of language. By using computer, it gives proper analytical tools to analyze the words or sentences. We believe this field is very useful for classroom activities.

Reflection 8 : Concordancer

Date   : 4th April 2013

Day    : Thursday

Topic  : Concordancer

Assalamualaikum Wbt everybody!

           Alhamdulillah today we have learnt something new in the field of Corpus Linguistics which is Concordancer. To be frank, we haven’t know much about this tool before and we have not been exposed to this tool before. Alhamdulillah, after learning this topic, we now have the basic idea about concordancer.

Firstly, what is concordancer? From our lecture, we learnt that it is a basic tool for Corpus Linguists to construct a concordance. It has been used for the text analysis. How it works? It turns the electronic texts into databases which can be searched. Therefore, it offers the possibility of searching for word combination within a specified range of words and looking up parts of words.

The example for sample concordancer can be seen by visiting this link:

http://www.webcorp.org.uk

          The corpora hat can be searched for this concordancer are text files, websites and emails.

Another example for concordancer program are TEXTSTAT, WordCruncher, AntConc, MnoConc, and WordSmith that can make indexes and word lists, count word frequencies and compare different usages of words.

If you are interested to try a concordancer program, you can check this:

http://www/Papyr.com/applets/concordancer

         In today’s class, we have look at this link and try to search for the lists of the words. Well, it is quite interesting because it can provide how many of that words are used (in the internet, for example) and what are the sentences before and after the words. It is helpful indeed!

        We feel glad to share this information and hopefully we can utilize this software in our learning. We believe that concordancer is very important tool for Corpus Linguistics and it can be used in many areas.

Reflection 9 : Lexicography

Date   : 9th April 2013
Day    : Tuesday
Topic  : Lexicography

Lexicography is a scholarly discipline that involves compiling, writing or editing dictionaries. It is divided into two related areas: practical and theoretical lexicography.

1.       Practical lexicography: The basic concern of lexicography is ‘word’ which is studied in different branches of linguistics, phonetics, grammar, stylistics and etc. lexicography focuses on the design, compilation, use and evaluation of general dictionaries.

2.          Theoretical lexicography: is the analysis or description of the vocabulary of a particular language, and the meaning that links certain words to others in a dictionary.

Relevance or application of lexicography to language learning/language research.

·         Giving definitions to avoid ambiguity

·         As a main source for record keeping in preserving the collection of words

·         Served as a guideline on how words are changing

·         New words are been introduced and old words die out

·         Give status labels for example: slang, jargon, taboo, etc

Reflection 10: Computational Stylistics and Forensic Linguistics

Date    : 11th April 2013
Day     : Thursday
Topic   : Computational Stylistics and Forensic Linguistics

 

          Last April 11^th, we learnt about Computational Stylistics and forensic Linguistics in class. Computational Stylistics is the study of stylistics characteristics of texts, authors and genres using the computer. This study is quite interesting as we can look further at the style of a particular work such as literary field, social sciences nor humanities. 

The scope of computational stylistics vary as they look into common words, rare words, writing style attitude and tone of authors and the unique characteristics of an author’s writing.  For instance, Slyvia Plath; her depressing and dark poems can be a production of her family background where she is not close with her father and the fact that she commits suicide also can be seen in her poems. However, there are risks as the authors may change their style over time and the possibility of two authors writing alike.

           

Forensic linguistics on the other hand is a linguistics field that closely related to law. Forensic linguists work under forensic and legal firms where their job is to understand the language of the written law, understand language use in forensic and legal processes and the condition of linguistics evidences. There are quite a number of corpuses in forensic linguistics such as ransom notes, anonymous letters, threatening letters, plagiarism, suicide notes, examination fraud, missing person and others. We just knew the fact that plagiarism and examination fraud are considered as a criminal! 

TQ^^

Overall Reflection

Assalamualaikum Wbt..

     12 weeks learning Computer Application in Language Studies were full of great moments in which we have received various input, multiple knowledge and numerous advantages. Alhamdulillah, praise be to Allah with His help and blessing we finally managed to create a blog and posted our tasks here. The assignments and tasks are challenging because this field of CALL is still new to us, as we have to adapt with many technical terms and study the research about CALL and CMC. However, day by day we learn new knowledge and we can broaden our perspective about language learning.

      As far as blog making is concerned, well - we actually enjoy working together and making this blog. Once the entries are multiplied, we feel very satisfied looking at our own blog and reading our own writing. Most of the time we use Whatsapp application to discuss about the tasks and the blog. We have created our own Whatsapp group to ease us for discussion so it will be faster, easier, and efficient. Definitely we learn from each other and we learn new things upon the blog making process.

       Besides, learning Computer Application in Language Studies empower our minds about various methods and software for teaching and learning language. As far as Degree in English is concerned, we believe many of us will venture into teaching field and by knowing all the software mentioned in this class, we can utilize it in teaching our students in future. Well, knowing about CALL has widened a broad possibility for us to pursue our Master Degree related to this area. Apart from that, our knowledge about Islamization of Knowledge can be applied not only in this field but also in another scope.

        As for suggestions, how about making video and post it in YouTube, as this popular site is the largest video-sharing websites. Students can create a video about Islamization of knowledge or 'Life as a Student' or any other topic which is relevant. We also would like to suggest for students to attend workshop for AdobeFlash as this software is very useful and interactive, that provides beneficial usage for teaching language. By using AdobeFlash, we can create animated pictures or animated words and even making own games! If students master this software, they can create their own English Quizzes' Game which is interactive and fun.

        Last but not least, we would like to thank our lecturer, Dr Rozina for her kind commitment and guidance, assisting us throughout this semester. We also would like to express our gratitude to our fellow classmates for their encouragement, our readers for their support, our family for their Du'a and all people that involve in this journey of Computer Applications in Language Studies. Alhamdulillah and Thank You.