English general nouns : a corpus theoretical approach
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
English general nouns : a corpus theoretical approach
（Studies in corpus linguistics, v. 20）
J. Benjamins, c2005
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Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [197]-203) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
This book proposes an innovative approach to general nouns. General nouns are defined as high-frequency nouns that are characterised by their textual functions. Although the concept is motivated by Halliday & Hasan (1976), the corpus theoretical approach adopted in the present study is fundamentally different and set in a linguistic framework that prioritises lexis. The study investigates 20 nouns that are very frequent in mainstream English, as represented by the Bank of English Corpus. The corpus-driven approach to the data involves a critical discussion of descriptive tools, such as patterns, semantic prosodies, and primings of lexical items, and the concept of 'local textual functions' is put forward to characterise the functions of the nouns in texts. The study not only suggests a characterisation of general nouns, but also stresses that functions of lexical items and properties of texts are closely linked. This link requires new ways of describing language.
Table of Contents
- 1. Acknowledgements
- 2. Introduction
- 3. 1. The attention they have been getting
- 4. 2. The corpus linguistic point of view
- 5. 3. Minimal assumptions in practice: interpreting corpus data
- 6. 4. Time nouns
- 7. 5. People Nouns
- 8. 6. World nouns
- 9. 7. Re-examining the minimal assumptions
- 10. 8. Developing the corpus linguistic theory
- 11. Appendix 1: Pattern codes
- 12. Appendix 2: 'Longer examples in Chapter 5'
- 13. References
- 14. Index
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