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BASIC FREQUENCY AND DISTRIBUTION In terms of basic queries, you can search by exact words (misterioso), lemma [forms of words] (correr), phrases (libro abierto or noun + suave), wildcards (*temp* or b?t?), and more complex searches such as des* verbs or forms of le/les + form of hacer + infinitive. Notice that the basic "table" listing shows you the frequency in each century from the 1200s-1900s, as well as the frequency in four different registers from the 1900s. You can sort by the frequency in any period or register (e.g. forms of hacer sorted by the 1200s or the 1900s-Spoken). You can also see a chart display that shows the frequency in each historical period and in each dialect and register. For example, find the frequency and distribution of soldado, claro (in the sense of 'claro, pero...'), (superlative) forms like *simo, or forms of estar + NDO (e.g. estaba cantando, están pensando).
You can also search for collocates (words nearby a given word),
which often provides insight into the meaning of a given word. For
example, you can search for the most
nouns near
caballo,
verbs near
papel,
or
adjectives near mujeres.
You can also easily compare the collocates of different words (e.g.
adjectives with
mujeres and hombres, or
nouns with
esquina and rincón), or the collocates of the same word
in different sections (e.g. nouns near cadena in
FICTION and ACADEMIC, or in the
1900s vs the 1800s). VARIATION (HISTORICAL / REGISTER / DIALECT) You can easily limit the searches and sort the results by register (genre). This allows you to see how words and phrases vary across speech and many different types of written texts. For example, find -miento nouns in academic, adjectives with mujeres in fiction but not academic, verbs in the slot [yo * que] in spoken, or synonyms of inteligente in fiction compared to academic. (More...)
Finally, in terms of comparisons, you can also compare across different
historical periods. For example, you can find the frequency of
caballeros over time (table /
chart), the overall frequency of words
with the pattern
des*mento over time
(click on the bars in the chart to see the most frequent words from each
century),
nouns with duro
in the 1900s compared to the 1800s, or
adjectives with mujeres in the 1800s compared to the 1900s. SEMANTICALLY-ORIENTED SEARCHES One of the most powerful features of the corpus is the ability to carry out semantically-oriented searches. You can see the frequency and distribution of all of the synonyms of a given word (such as limpio [all forms] or fuego [all forms]), or all of the words that occur with each of these synonyms (e.g. nouns with synonyms of sagrado or adjectives with synonyms of imagen). (More...) In terms of semantically-oriented searches, you can also easily compare the words (collocates) that occur with contrasting words, which often gives insight into meaning differences between these words. For example, you can compare the most frequent nouns that appear with absoluto and completo, the most frequent nouns with limpio or puro, or the most frequent nouns with escuchar and oír. (More...) Finally, you can create your own lists of words and phrases, and then re-use these in subsequent searches. For example, you can create your own wordlists for colors, clothing, or emotions, and then use these as part of more complex queries, such as [ estoy emotions ] or [ ropa + colores ]. You can also save entire results lists for complex searches, and then retrieve these at a later date. (More...) Hopefully this short five minute overview of the corpus has been helpful. Now feel free to look at more examples of the types of possible searches, including word/phrase, collocates (surrounding words), synonyms, word contrasts, and customized/user-defined lists. Find also more info on how to include detailed information on historical periods or modern registers into the queries, and how to refine your searches with certain search options. |
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