Using Corpora in Discourse Analysis

Book excerpt: How can you carry out discourse analysis using corpus linguistics? What research questions should I ask? Which methods should you use and when? What is a collocational network or a key cluster? Introducing the major techniques, methods and tools for corpus-assisted analysis of discourse, this book answers these questions and more, showing readers how to best use corpora in their analyses of discourse. Using carefully tailored case studies, each chapter is devoted to a central technique, including frequency, concordancing and keywords, going step by step through the process of applying different analytical procedures. Introducing a wide range of different corpora, from holiday brochures to political debates, the book considers the key debates and latest advances in the field. Fully revised and updated, this new edition includes: - A new chapter on how to conduct research projects in corpus-based discourse analysis - Completely rewritten chapters on collocation and advanced techniques, using a corpus of jihadist propaganda texts and covering topics such as social media and visual analysis - Coverage of major tools, including CQPweb, AntConc, Sketch Engine and #LancsBox - Discussion of newer techniques including the derivation of lockwords and the comparison of multiple data sets for diachronic analysis With exercises, discussion questions and suggested further readings in each chapter, this book is an excellent guide to using corpus linguistics techniques to carry out discourse analysis.