Subject: Re: help with WS concordance search by syntax - msg#00076

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metaphor in discourse

(Apologies for cross-postings) 2 PhD Positions in Metaphor and Discourse Analysis f/m For 1,0 fte each Vacancynumber 1.2006.00132 The Faculty of Arts at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam is inviting applications for two PhD positions, beginning 1 September 2006 or as soon as possible thereafter, in the vici-programme ?Metaphor in discourse: linguistic forms, conceptual structures, cognitive representations.? This is a five-year research programme, awarded to Gerard Steen by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), which started 1 September 2005. It addresses the role of metaphor in discourse by examining its distribution, structure, function, and effect in four varieties of English. The hypothesis is that distinct linguistic forms and conceptual structures of metaphor display distributions and functions of their own, and that these interact with the domains of discourse in which language users employ them. The programme aims at describing and explaining these interactions on the basis of detailed corpus research on four samples from the British National Corpus, and at testing the cognitive effects of some of these interactions in their mental representation by language users. Metaphor in discourse is modelled by means of a discourse-analytical elaboration of the cognitive-linguistic approach to metaphor as a cross-domain mapping. Research involves corpus analysis of samples from the British National Corpus and psycholinguistic experiments on various aspects of metaphor processing. The vici-programme is part of one of the four research programmes of the Institute of Language, Culture, and History of the Faculty of Arts at the Vrije Universiteit, ?The architecture of the human language faculty?. This research programme investigates the modular structure of human language and cognition, with participation from formal, functional, and cognitive grammarians, and psycholinguists as well as discourse analysts. The vici-programme is also connected to the Ster research programme of the Vrije Universiteit on ?Text, cognition, and communication?, an interdisciplinary research programme between the faculties of Arts, Psychology, and Social Science, with the Faculty of Arts concentrating on ?The conversationalization of public discourse? in the usage of Dutch. Tasks The two PhD projects will complement two other PhD projects which started a year ago. The four PhD projects constitute the core of the programme. Each of the projects will eventually concentrate on the use of metaphor in one specific language variety: conversation, news texts, academic texts, and fiction. All projects are organized by an integrated timetable, and the research is characterized by a great deal of synchronized team work. During the first year, the researchers identify metaphors in samples from all four language varieties, after which each researcher will concentrate on one language variety for the rest of the programme. Each of the two PhD projects involves research training and aims at completing a dissertation within four years. As part of their training, PhD students take courses offered by the National Graduate School in Linguistics (LOT). They also present work at annual expert meetings and participate in international conferences. Candidates will also be requested to make a small contribution to the teaching programme of the School of Language and Communication at the Vrije Universiteit. Requirements Candidates should have native-speaker or near-native speaker command of (British) English. They should have an excellent MA thesis in English language and linguistics, or be able to show that such a thesis will be completed by August 31. Expertise in metaphor, discourse analysis, cognitive linguistics, and/or corpus linguistics will be regarded as an advantage. Particularities Appointment will initially be for one year, to be extended with a maximum of three more years upon positive evaluation. General conditions of employment can be found at www.vu.nl/vacatures. Non-native speakers of Dutch are expected to acquire a basic command of Dutch in the first two years of their appointment. Salary For all projects we offer a full-time four-year PhD position with gross monthly salary starting at ? 1.933,- in the first year to ? 2.472,- in the fourth year of appointment. Information A full description of the complete programme and additional information about the vacancy can be obtained from dr. G.J. Steen, phone 0031 (0)20 59 86433, e-mail address: Gj.Steen@xxxxxxxxxx Applications Your letter of application will have to be in by Saturday 1 July. Please send your application to Vrije Universiteit, Faculteit der Letteren, t.a.v. dr. B. Weltens, directeur bedrijfsvoering, De Boelelaan 1105, 1081 HV Amsterdam, or by e-mail to vacature@xxxxxxxxxx Applications (by regular mail or by e-mail) should include a curriculum vitae and the names and addresses of two referees. An MA thesis and a list of courses plus results should also be included. E-mail applications should be sent in pdf format and should specify your name and vacancy number in the message as well as in the topic, include a list of attachments in the message, and specify your name in every attachment. Interviews are planned between Monday 17 and Wednesday 19 July 2006.

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Re: Google Books, copyrights, and corpora

It's not clear to me where the needless paranoia about US copyright law, or the comparisons to Napster, are coming from. First, in regard to understanding the law, the major decisions -- Sandra Day O'Connor's 'sweat of the brow' ruling in Feist, the 'spark of creativity' ruling in Bridgeman vs. Corel, the 'broad transformative purpose' ruling in Kelly vs. Arriba Soft, the 'tell the robot' ruling in Field v. Google, etc. -- are remarkably clear, to the point, and consistent with past practice: the relevant principles are explained and then a common-sense conclusion is drawn. Reading the decisions is also quite helpful for learning to distinguish between between the claims the plaintiffs make on their websites, and the points the judges actually consider to be at issue, e.g.: Feist v Rural Telephone http://www.bitlaw.com/source/cases/copyright/feist.html Bridgeman v Corel http://www.law.cornell.edu/copyright/cases/36_FSupp2d_191.htm Kelly v Arriba Soft http://www.eff.org/IP/Linking/Kelly_v_Arriba_Soft/20020206_9th_cir_decision.pdf Field v. Google (note page 16 para (b) in particular vis a vis the Library suit) http://fairuse.stanford.edu/primary_materials/cases/fieldgoogle.pdf Secondly, in regard to comparisons with Napster, an analogously designed musical corpus might let the researcher specify a note, and then return that note's immediate 'collocates' as found throughout the corpus. Samples would be limited in duration, would not necessarily identify specific songs of origin, and might not cross arbitrary boundaries (e.g. every nth bar or measure). A visit to the 'music-corpora-list' archives would confirm bona fide research applications of such information (e.g. studying compression technology, human perception of sound, cultural bias in composition, etc.), and make the transformative purpose -- e.g. you can't dance to it -- of the corpus clear. It seems to me that such a music corpus tool could reasonably make a case as a fair-use application, regardless of any Napster- related decisions. More to the point, it seems to me that comparing compilers or users of research text corpora to Napster just doesn't make any sense -- on the contrary, what we do is much more analogous to building and/or using Google, which is clearly protected. Best, Doug Cooper

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help with WS concordance search by syntax

Dear friends, colleagues and list members, I once again need your expertise. I am using the BNC and Wordsmith (as many of probably know by now). I want to find instances of : Proper Name of Place (e.g. Linda Bawcom of Houston). At first I just tried (after finding an example in a text)<w NP0>* to get a frequency on proper names, but (eventually) got a slip stream error, so (in desperation) I tried for 'of' and also got (eventually) another slip stream error. So lastly I tried <w NP0>* [and] of (to avoid the slip stream problem) and and got no examples. I leave a space between the * and [and] and then another space before 'of'. Is it possible that there are actually no instances? Or can those of you who are experts searching by tag tell me what I'm doing wrong? Kindest regards, Linda "Any man's death diminishes me because I am involved in mankind." John Donne

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RE: help with WS concordance search by syntax

Hi Linda, You may need to use WordSmith, but in case you can consider another option, there are at least three possibilities: 1) Use Bill Fletcher's Phrase in English site (pie.usna.edu) and search for << np0 np0 of np0 >> . It's fast and you can link to KWIC entries, but it will only display those that occur three times or more in the BNC (173 / 4211 types, or about 4% of all types) 2) Use the VIEW interface to the BNC (http://view.byu.edu) and search for << [np0] of [np0] >> and then click on the entries that look like they might have another [np0] before the first [np0]. Queries with four sequential high frequency "words" are disallowed via the interface, for reasons of server load. Sorry. 3) I just ran the query directly against the BNC/VIEW database (server load doesn't matter if it's me doing the query :-), and found all cases of [np0] [np0] of [np0]. I've placed a file with all matching strings at: http://view.byu.edu/download/np0_np0_of_np0.txt. Perhaps one of these will help you. Best, Mark D. ================================================= Mark Davies Assoc. Prof., Linguistics Brigham Young University (phone) 801-422-9168 / (fax) 801-422-0906 http://davies-linguistics.byu.edu ** Corpus design and use // Linguistic databases ** ** Historical linguistics // Language variation ** ** English, Spanish, and Portuguese ** ================================================= ________________________________ From: owner-corpora@xxxxxxxxxxxx on behalf of Linda Bawcom Sent: Thu 6/15/2006 5:41 AM To: corpora@xxxxxx Subject: [Corpora-List] help with WS concordance search by syntax Dear friends, colleagues and list members, I once again need your expertise. Kindest regards, Linda "Any man's death diminishes me because I am involved in mankind." John Donne