The purpose of this paper is to graphically represent semantic domain networks of maritime English near-synonyms as such displays can provide insights into semantic relations. A specialised corpus from international maritime communities was used. Keywords are extracted by comparing the Maritime English Corpus with the BNC Baby. Among keywords within the top 20 ranks, we focus on ship-vessel and maritime-marine. We use the MI3 score to identify collocates of the two pairs of near-synonyms and the Wmatrix web interface program to tag semantic domains. We create key semantic domain networks using the social network analysis tool NetMiner 4.0. The results show that some semantic domains are connected between the two pairs of near-synonyms, while others are not connected. The findings of the study indicate how semantic domain networks of keyword collocates and simple collocates help to distinguish near-synonyms through graphical representations of a corpus. The paper found that semantic domains with keyword collocates have a stronger tendency to connect two pairs of near-synonyms than those with simple collocates.

This paper investigates the compounding propensity in Maritime English under the theoretical framework of Synergetic Linguistics. It focuses on the dependence of compound number on the properties of length, frequency and polylexy of word stems. A maritime English corpus was used and a set of Visual Foxpro programs were specifically written for processing the corpus and obtaining the data automatically. The results confirm the respective hypotheses of dependence and show that the more frequent and polysemous a word stem is, the more compounds it produces, but the shorter a word stem is, the more frequently it occurs in compounds. The Köhler’s model y=αχb captures this propensity.

Most previous linguistic studies of web language have focused on the ‘new’ internet registers, like blogs, instant messages, and tweets. As a result, we know surprisingly little about the patterns of linguistic variation among the full range of registers found on the searchable web. The present paper provides an overview of a project that begins to fill this gap. Rather than collecting texts from only the ‘new’ web registers, the project is based on a large corpus representing a random sample of the entire searchable web. The first analytical step in the project was to analyze the types of documents found in that corpus, providing an empirical description of the composition of the searchable web. Then, Multi-Dimensional (MD) analysis was applied to describe the patterns of register variation found on the searchable web. The MD analysis first identified the sets of co-occurring linguistic features -- the ‘dimensions’ -- in this discourse domain. Then, those dimensions are used to document the similarities and differences among web registers. In conclusion, we compare our results here to previous MD studies, identifying patterns peculiar to the web versus linguistic patterns found across discourse domains.

This paper explores ways that research in corpus linguistics can be directly applied to inform English language instruction for non-native speakers of English. The primary goal of this brief paper is to highlight the need for a strong connection between research and teaching practice. This goal is achieved by using corpus research on vocabulary and lexical bundles and highlighting resources and activities that incorporate research from these two areas of corpus linguistics directly into language classes without increasing the demands on teachers.

The analyses of collocations in the existing collocation programs have often been based on the repetition of ‘N-gram’ patterns rather than a specific collocation list. In comparison, ColloGram bases its analysis on a collocation list from the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) (1990-2015), a 5 hundred-million-word corpus. For the development of ColloGram, the corpus compiled during the period of 1990-2009 (a 4 hundred- million-word corpus), which became available in 2014 to the public, was utilized for the program. ColloGram is a collocation analysis program named from the compound, Collocation and N-gram or Program. The functions of this program benchmarked those of the RANGE, the vocabulary analysis program, by Heatley and Nation (2002).

Using data from the 400-million-word Corpus of Historical American English (COHA) and the 450-million-word Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA), this study investigates both diachronically and synchronically the use of the -free compound and its counterparts, the free of/from phrases. A close examination of the frequency, distribution, and structural and semantic functions of the constructions yields the following key findings. First, frequency-wise, free of has exhibited a steady slow growth, and free from has declined dramatically; in contrast -free has increased enormously, although its archaic use in the senses of ‘free to’ and ‘free with’ disappeared by the 1940s. Second, the -free compound boasts a high potential productivity index. Third, while both the compound and the phrasal constructions may be used as predicative and postnominal adjectives, objective complements, and adverbials, only the -free compound is used as a prenominal (attributive) adjective. Fourth, whereas the -free compound is used almost exclusively nonreferentially, the free of/from constructions are used significantly more referentially. Fifth, even in the contexts where the constructions may all be used, often only one is allowed or preferred due to certain internal structural and semantic factors. Finally, condensation of information along with changes in language and life styles appears to have driven the increased use of the compound over its phrasal counterparts, although the phrase free of charge has resisted the change: its high frequency likely has blocked its *charge-free compound counterpart.

In recent years, much research has been carried out on body-part terms in expressing metonymic and metaphorical notions in terms of embodiment in cognitive linguistics. Among the terms, heart-centered expressions have been widely explored in English and other languages to show the significance of our bodily experiences in expressing our emotions as well as interpersonal or social relationships. However, little research has been carried out on the metaphoric expressions of chest or breast (cf. Kövecses 2002, Lakoff & Johnson 1980). The purpose of this research is to explore literal and metaphoric meanings of kasum ‘chest/ breast’ in a Korean written corpus in terms of corpus linguistics and conceptual metaphor (Perez 2008, Berendt, et al. n.d.). This research analyzes 2,373 tokens of kasum, 114 ces-kasum ‘milk-breast’ and 355 simcang ‘heart’ from the Sejong Project Corpus. Cognitive linguistic research has shown that the head is usually related to mind/reason but the heart to emotion/feelings in many languages. However, examination of the Korean data shows that simcang is used literally in most cases as a technical term in medical contexts, and that ces-kasum is used literally in most cases to refer to a woman’s breast. Unlike these two body-part terms, kasum is used as a cover term to express not only the upper body part literally but also an entity as a locus and perceiver of emotion/ feelings metaphorically. Examination of the corpus data shows the following major findings: (i) 819 tokens (34.5%) are used to refer to the body part chest literally, 1,512 tokens (63.7%) metaphorically (Deignan 2005), (ii) 921 tokens (38.8%) are used to show physiological responses in expressing emotion/feelings, using such terms as “the chest is aching, pounding, choking/being blocked, trembling, sinking, etc.”, (iii) 412 tokens (17.4%) are used to show kasum is a locus for emotion. As these findings show, in Korean, as folk knowledge contrary to the scientific knowledge about the roles of the brain, kasum is viewed as a locus or perceiver for emotional feelings in response to physical/ physiological stimuli. The findings show that the folk knowledge forms the basis for conceptual metaphor for kasum: (i) a locus for feelings, (ii) a container of emotions, (iii) an entity/a material, (iv) a storage/hiding place, etc. Finally, this research shows that in Korean, unlike in English and some other languages, kasum plays an important role in expressing emotional feelings, displaying conceptual metaphorical meanings derived from folk knowledge.

This study examines collocates of two near-synonyms safety and security, drawing data from two general corpora (BNC Written and COCA Written) and one self-built specialized corpus (IMO Corpus). Collocates are extracted by Wordsmith 6.0; then a network analysis is given on some interesting collocates. Firstly, diachronic analysis exhibits a stable usage of safety whereas two big leaps of security in 1920-1930 and in 2000. In addition, it has been discovered that some generalizations made by industrial and information fields cannot be applied to the maritime-related words in a specialized corpus. Specifically, non-maritime-related general collocates tend to show very clear preference on safety and security in IMO corpus whereas maritime-related words have various behaviors when collocating with safety and security. Thirdly, network analysis by Netminer 4.0 is given on some shared interesting collocates such as maritime and ship, providing the brokerage role analysis for the differences between safety and security. At last, a semantic domain network analysis is displayed to explain how near-synonyms are different and similar based on their common and exclusive semantic domains.