BL Riccio - Didattica delle lingue moderne - Lezione 1

Summary

This video lesson delves into the contributions of linguistic sciences to language education, focusing on corpus linguistics and lexicography. It covers the role of corpora in analyzing language structure and context, highlighting the significance of authentic texts and the relationship between words within these contexts. The lesson also examines the theoretical foundations of corpus linguistics and its historical development, including the creation of the first electronic corpora. Through practical examples, it demonstrates how corpora provide insights into word behavior, including morphological, syntactic, and semantic profiles, enhancing language teaching and learning.

Takeaways

• 😀 The video lessons focus on the contributions of language sciences to linguistic education, particularly corpus linguistics and lexicography.
• 😀 Corpus linguistics studies language based on its structure, while lexicography examines the relationship between structure and context.
• 😀 Two main video lesson groups: one focused on corpus linguistics and the other on lexicography, specifically electronic lexicography.
• 😀 The goal of corpus linguistics is to analyze authentic linguistic data—words and phrases used by speakers without controlled conditions.
• 😀 The definition of a corpus emphasizes a systematic and balanced collection of authentic texts, which can be written, spoken, or multimedia.
• 😀 Authentic texts in a corpus are collected based on linguistic and non-linguistic criteria and are digitally available for computer manipulation.
• 😀 A key feature of corpus linguistics is that the meaning of a word is determined by the contexts in which it is used, showing its morphosyntactic and semantic profile.
• 😀 The corpus example provided (Khôris corpus) shows how searching for a word like 'libro' can reveal its usage in various authentic linguistic contexts.
• 😀 The second definition of a corpus focuses on the dichotomy between 'langue' (the social language system) and 'parole' (individual speech acts).
• 😀 The historical development of electronic corpora traces back to the 1940s, with projects like the Index Thomisticus initiated by Father Roberto Busa, marking the beginning of corpus linguistics as it is understood today.
• 😀 The electronic corpus movement gained significant traction in the 1960s, with the creation of the first English-language corpora and spoken corpora, laying the groundwork for modern computational linguistics.

Q & A

What is the main focus of the video lessons discussed in the transcript?

The video lessons focus on the contributions of language sciences to the study of linguistic education, particularly through corpus linguistics and lexicography, with a specific emphasis on electronic lexicography.

What are the two main groups in which the video lessons are organized?

The video lessons are organized into two groups: the first group focuses on corpus linguistics, and the second on lexicography, particularly electronic lexicography.

How does corpus linguistics contribute to language education?

Corpus linguistics contributes by analyzing authentic linguistic data, providing insights into language usage, morphosyntactic structures, and the meaning of words based on the contexts in which they appear.

What is the definition of a 'corpus' as explained in the transcript?

A corpus is defined as a systematic and coherent collection of authentic texts, which can be written, spoken, or multimedia. These texts are selected and organized based on linguistic and non-linguistic criteria and are available in digital format, allowing for computer-based manipulation.

What is the significance of the term 'authentic text' in the context of corpus linguistics?

An authentic text refers to linguistic data produced naturally by speakers, without external control, ensuring that the corpus reflects genuine language use in real contexts.

How does the KHORIS corpus illustrate the concept of corpus linguistics?

The KHORIS corpus, a digital reference corpus of written Italian, allows users to search for words like 'libro' (book) and view the contexts in which they appear. This showcases how corpus linguistics helps analyze the morphosyntactic and semantic behavior of words based on real language usage.

What theoretical principle underlies corpus linguistics, according to the transcript?

The core principle of corpus linguistics is that the full meaning of a word emerges from its usage in context, specifically how it combines with other words, and how these combinations shape its syntactic and semantic profile.

How does the transcript describe the debate between corpus linguists and generative linguists?

Generative linguists criticize corpora for being incomplete and unable to predict all possible linguistic phenomena. They argue that corpora only attest to actual linguistic occurrences, not to potential linguistic possibilities. However, corpus linguists believe corpora offer valuable, authentic data that complements the generative model.

What historical context is provided regarding the development of electronic corpora?

The development of electronic corpora began in the 1960s, with projects like the Index Thomisticus, which was initiated in 1946 by Father Roberto Busa. The electronic corpora grew from traditional philological tools to digital collections of authentic texts, particularly in English, starting in the 1960s.

What role did Father Roberto Busa play in the development of corpus linguistics?

Father Roberto Busa, an Italian linguist and computer scientist, initiated the Index Thomisticus project in 1946, creating a concordance of all words in the works of Thomas Aquinas. This project, which began with collaboration from IBM, laid the foundation for the development of electronic corpora in linguistics.