Corpus Linguistics and Conversation Analysis at the Interface: Theoretical Perspectives, Practical Outcomes
This chapter offers, in the first instance, a theoretical perspective on the merits and potential problems associated with a combined Corpus Linguistics (CL) and Conversation Analytic (CA) (henceforth, CLCA) approach to the study of language. Secondly, th
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Introduction
In this chapter, I offer a perspective on the merits and possible drawbacks of a combined corpus linguistics (CL) and conversation analysis (CA) methodology. The first part of the chapter provides a theoretical perspective of each methodology, considering their respective epistemological and ontological origins and traditions, before moving on to discuss how they might – in spite of their very different research positions – be used together, in combination. The broad argument for combining CL with CA is that CL is unable to account for some of the features of spoken interaction which occur at the levels of utterance and turn and largely ignores context, while CA is unable to identify linguistic patterns across larger corpora, limiting itself instead to detailed descriptions of small quantities of data. Each methodology, then, has its strengths and weaknesses – in combination, they have the potential to offer enhanced descriptions of spoken interaction. Using a combined CL and CA approach (henceforth, CLCA), cumulatively gives a more ‘up-close’ description of spoken interactions than that offered by using either one on its own. A CLCA analysis provides powerful insights into the ways in which interactants establish understandings and observe how words, utterances and text combine in the co-construction of meaning.
S. Walsh (*) School of Education, Newcastle University, King George VI Building, Newcastle Upon Tyne NE17RU, UK e-mail: [email protected] J. Romero-Trillo (ed.), Yearbook of Corpus Linguistics and Pragmatics 2013: New Domains and Methodologies, Yearbook of Corpus Linguistics and Pragmatics 1, DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-6250-3_3, © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013
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Corpus Linguistics: Epistemology and Ontology
One of the key methodological underpinnings common to both CL and CA is that they make use of corpora; their point of departure is always the building of a corpus. A corpus is a collection of texts that is stored on a computer; texts may be spoken or written, but for the purposes of this chapter, we are concerned only with spoken texts. Texts are examples of spoken discourse which have been recorded and transcribed and which include conversations, phone calls, university seminars, debates, etc. Essentially, any spoken discourse, produced in context and for a genuine purpose, can be regarded as a text. A corpus therefore is a collection of real language that people use in all types of situations. The emergence of corpus linguistics goes back to the 1970s and 1980s when computers were being developed that were powerful enough to store and search large databases of stored texts. At this time, the main use of corpora was in the production of dictionaries – today, all major publishers producing dictionaries use corpora. The main advantage is clear: rather than relying on intuition, lexicographers were able to search very large databases to find examples of real language in use. The use of invented – or idealised – examples became a thing of the past. T
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