International Journal of Corpus Linguistics

The present study utilizes a corpus-driven approach to identify the most common multi-word patterns in conversation and academic writing, and to investigate the differing pattern types in the two registers. The paper first surveys the methodological characteristics of corpus-driven research and then contrasts the linguistic characteristics of two types of multi-word sequences: ‘multi-word lexical collocations’ (combinations of content words) versus ‘multi-word formulaic sequences’ (incorporating both function words and content words).
 Building on this background, the primary focus of the paper is an empirical investigation of the ‘patterns’ represented by multi-word formulaic sequences. It turns out that the multi-word patterns typical of speech are fundamentally different from those typical of academic writing: patterns in conversation tend to be fixed sequences (including both function words and content words). In contrast, most patterns in academic writing are formulaic frames consisting of invariable function words with an intervening variable slot that is filled by content words.

The Translational English Corpus held at the Centre for Translation Studies at UMIST is a computerised collection of authentic, published translations into English from a variety of source languages and by a wide range of professional translators. This resource provides the basis for investigating a range of issues related to the distinctive nature of translated text, the style of individual translators, the impact of individual source languages on the patterning of English, the impact of text type on translation strategies, and other issues of interest to both the translation scholar and the linguist. Most importantly, this concrete resource allows us to develop a framework for investigating the validity of theoretical statements about the nature of translation with reference to actual translation practice.

An important component of fluent linguistic production and a key distinguishing feature of particular modes, registers and genres is the multi-word expressions referred to as ‘lexical bundles’. These are extended collocations which appear more frequently than expected by chance, helping to shape meanings and contributing to our sense of coherence and distinctiveness in a text. These strings have been studied extensively, particularly in academic writing in English, but little is known about how they may have changed over time. In this paper we explore changes in their use and frequency over the past 50 years, drawing on a corpus of 2.2 million words taken from top research journals in four disciplines. We find that bundles are not static and invariant markers of research writing but change in response to new conditions and contexts, with the most interesting changes within disciplines. The paper also discusses methodological approaches to studying bundles diachronically.