Research on Usages and Meanings of English Vocabulary using Newspaper Archives and Corpora

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 23720255
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: English linguistics
• Research Institution: Kyoto Sangyo University
• Principal Investigator: KANO Makimi 京都産業大学, 文化学部, 准教授 (90352492)
• Project Period (FY): 2011-04-28 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: メタファー / 意味変化 / 語法変化 / BNC / COCA / OED / SketchEngine / AntConc

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This project aimed to establish a methodology of lexical analyses using newspaper archives and corpora, and to carry out some analyses using the methodology. The analyses include: comparing an English corpus with a Japanese equivalent to reveal the differences in the metaphor use of certain lexical items, analyzing the changes in meanings and usages of words over the years using the etymology information from unabridged dictionaries and the data from newspaper archives, and compiling two different kinds of reader corpora and comparing their vocabulary levels and the variety and complexity of some basic words. We also carried out surveys on their familiarity with and preference regarding ICT devices and software, to investigate the ICT use of the potential corpus tool users (university teachers and students).

Free Research Field

英語コーパス言語学