BNC at Oxford
http://www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/
Look up ‘more information’
http://www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/using/index.xml.ID=simple
Note that all the words in the BNC are tagged for Part-ofspeech > POS
Now look for these words:
ask, asking, asked
demand, demanding, demanded
Now look for these words according to their POS
demand=NN1
demand=VVB
demanding=VVB
demanding=AJ0
Look up parts of speech codes http://www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/docs/userManual/codes.xml.I
D=codes#c5codes OR here
Search for the following words and then demonstrate how
they can act as different POS and how the meaning
changes:
Pretty, hard, fast, horse, abstract, living;
Running, coming, offering, exciting;
Call/s, row/s, rowing, use/s, move/s, moving, pad/s,
padding, pass/es, passing, lie/s, lying, lay/s, laying;
need/s, needing, needy, must, musty, dare, daring
BYU version of the BNC
http://corpus.byu.edu/bnc/
The BYU version is prepared for searching for
COLLOCATIONS
Now look up:
ask*
ask, asking, asked
demand*
demand, demanding, demanded
and then ask for a word + POS taken from the POS menu
on the left:
e.g. Ask + pronoun >>>> ask him/her etc
e.g. Ask + preposition >>> ask for/about
BNCWeb – CQP
http://bncweb.info/
Sign on - see Access to the BNC via BNCweb
at Lancaster University
You can try out combinations of grammar
usage (like BNC Oxford) and collocations (like
BNC-BYU). The search syntax is complex but
the results rewarding.
COMPARA
http://www.linguateca.pt/COMPARA/
This is a parallel corpus - original text + translation - in
English and Portuguese
EXERCISES
Use all the corpora to find examples of lexical and
grammatical structures:
 Verbs:
o Present Perfect
 Suggestion – look up have/has + -ed verbs
in COMPARA; note the PT version;
suggest similarities and differences
between the Present Perfect and the
o Present continuous
 Look up examples in COMPARA and
compare to PT
o Future / ‘going to’
 Look up examples in COMPARA and
compare to PT
o Modal verbs
 Look up examples in COMPARA and
compare to PT
 Can, could, may, might, shall, should etc
 Find examples of the PT conjuntivo





o Phrasal verbs
 Find verbs or prepositions and see how
they combine
Nouns
o Countable v. Uncountable o Find nouns or prepositions and see how they
combine
Adjective + noun combinations
o Look at collocations of young, old, new, cold,
wet, bright, clear, little, small ..... etc
o Try these adjectives to see how they work in
combination with other adjectives
Determiners
o Definite article use in EN and PT
o Possessives – my, your, his, her, etc
Adverbial Phrases
o Ending in –ly, multiword phrases
o Adverbs at the beginning and end of sentences –
use punctuation markers
Idioms, clichés etc
COLLOCATIONS:
look up the following groups of synonyms (don’t forget to
use –ed and –ing forms)
Agree
Be in agreement
Share the view that
Subscribe to
concur
Go along with
Fall in with
Compromise
Understanding
Agreement
Disagree
Differ
Contradict
Not see eye to eye
Take issue with
Agree to differ
Be at loggerheads
Be at odds
Fall out with
Play devil’s advocate
Accept
Jump at the chance
Take on
Welcome
Take on board
Embrace
Give in
Back down
Now to
Accede to
Refuse
Decline
Shake your head
Flatly refuse
Refuse point-blank
Dig your heels in
Deny
Withhold
Draw the line at
Shake your head
Fail
Come to grief
Not make it
Get nowhere
Draw a blank
Go wrong
Come to nothing
Fall through
Not come off
Backfire
Succeed
Be successful
Manage
Make a go of
Pull off
Turn up trumps
Pay off
Without a hitch
Make it
Breakthrough
Look
Look at
Stare
Gaze
Gape
Eye
Look over
Take/have a look
Glance
Take a peek
See
Set eyes on
Witness
Spot
Scene
Spectacle
Catch a glimpse of
Make out
Observe
Dazzle
Hit
Strike
Bash
Thump
Slap
Beat
Beat somebody up
Batter
Club
Knock out
Punch
Blow
Smack
Spank
Whip
Whack
Tap
Rap
Hammer
Crash into
Fall
Fall off
Tumble
Be thrown
Have a fall
Collapse
Topple over
Go head over heels
Trip up
Stumble
Drop
Plunge
Plummet
Tip over
Fall down
Cave in
Knock over
Bring down
Upset
overturn