Concordancers
A concordancer is a computer program which examines a large corpus of texts and then retrieves examples matching a particular search string. This is known as KWIC or keyword in context.
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Simple Concordancer Example
For example, you might want to know which preposition is mostly used with talk - your keyword. A concordance may produce something like this:
of salvation demands more than some simplistic talk of a woman's vocation as wife and mother. It
the monarchy has given us all something to talk about. Interestingly, we have ended up
a canny approximation of the kind of drivel men talk when they've downed one pint of lager too
to the kind of pain relief you nay want. Talk it over with your partner too, so he can be
were part of a British Colony in Kenya (and I talk for my self and about 30,000 East-African
can't afford anywhere to live. We want them to talk to their mps to find out what they're doing to
[p] You asked for it! They aren't allowed to talk to us." [p] I only wished to find out what is
to do this and I'm not going to be able to talk him out of it. [p] She saw the ground fog
another 3500 to make sure that I could talk eloquently about the need for the workers to
how he'd [128] manage to find the girl, or talk with her if she was so unwilling. As he rode
rather than just `What's for dinner?" The talk would be about books, films, reviews,
little finger held aloft. She continued with talk of far-off India, its mists and wafting
[/b] [p] THE GOVERNMENT should continue to talk to Gerry Adams despite last weekend's
Sharee's stomach while she was pregnant and talk to the baby. [p] Oh yeah - babies are big in
means by which it is achieved. [p] All this talk about aiming for 16-point wins is nonsense and
investigations. [p] It is possible we will talk to at least another two or three but if we
call her as a delay tactic. She doesn't try to talk me out of eating but just chats for a while,
the police? He doubted it; she would wait and talk to him first. Would she tell the children? He
Karen's waiting for you in Autopsy. After that, talk to Chet. After that, get to work and find a
directly with voters through televised talk shows and electronic presentations of his own
You don't know who lives there." While you all talk to the people in front, I'll run around behind
to ask her brother why, but he doesn't want to talk about it. Something happened to her they're
[p] Good morning, Scott. [p] Simon: Let's talk about the American League series first, the
story, `We can only wait for death." She would talk about the fact that she's terrified every time
White House aides said the president will talk with Perot about the plan prior to tonight's
But before we go onto that I just want to talk to you [ZF1] a a erm [ZF0] a little bit of
well. [M03] Oh thanks very much. [M01] Nice to talk to you. [M03] Okay. [M01] Cheers Phillip. Bye
[F02] Yes thank you very much. [M01] Nice to talk to you. [F02] Thank you for a nice programme
[M01] Okay Byron. Thanks for your call. Nice to talk to you. [M03] Good night John. [M01] Good
it's also very nice [ZGY] finding it out [ZGY] talk about 'cos I knew I was gonna get something at
much indeed. Erm now [ZF1] let's [ZF0] let's talk about FX shall we. Erm let me just look at
We're here until four o'clock. If you'd like to talk to us we'd love to talk to you. The telephone
MX you're Portsmouth have you got a question on Talk Radio [M10] Er well I'd like to say about the
[F01] Right. [F02] you know and people talk about hard disks and memory and [F01] Mm.
hasn't [ZGY] [F02] No [ZGY] get your mother to talk about [ZGY] do you? [F01] [tc text=laughs] Yes
across [ZF1] this er [ZF0] this studio as I talk to you [M09] Oh yes. Yes I can d I definitely
go on to talk about er as I say themselves and talk about members of their family then talk about
So you've got to give yourself a little pep talk [F02] Mm. Yeah [F01] and [ZF1] say [ZF0] say
shops [M01] Yeah [F01] and he's talk talk talk talk talk talk talk all the way until we come back
suddenly think Oh that explains why he didn't talk about the War. I'd thought Well he just had
Looking at this you will see that the most common preposition to follow talk is about.
N.B. this example was taken using the Collins Concordance (see link below) and includes several tags.
Uses
As a teacher, a concordancer is very useful as it tells us how words are used. (Compare with a dictionary which tells us what words mean.)
Do we say, for example, fill out a form or fill in a form? A concordance will help you decide.
Concordancer Software
AntConc - a freeware concordancer producing KWIC output.
TextSTAT - a freeware concordancer which handles Word files effectively.
See Also
External Links
The following are online concordancers where your students can experiment and check word usage.
British National Corpus - recommended
