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The COBUILD is one of the largest and most ambitious lexical research projects ever undertaken. COBUILD stands for Collins Birmingham University International Language Database and is largely funded by the publisher William Collins (now HarperCollins). It is based in the School of English at the University of Birmingham under the direction of Professor John Sinclair who is, in addition to having major responsibility for lexical and lexico-grammatical research, editor-in-chief of the major lexicographic and other related publications of COBUILD, which began with the publication in 1987 of the ground-breaking Collins COBUILD English Language Dictionary (CCELD). The latest edition is the Collins COBUILD English Dictionary (CCED), published in 1995. The COBUILD corpus – previously termed the Birmingham Collection of English Text (BCOET) – was re-named The Bank of English in 1991 and at the time of writing (1997) stands at 320 million words.

The principal aim underlying COBUILD research is to investigate in as much detail as possible how the English language is actually used at a given moment in time in both speech and writing, and to allow such evidence to inform publications aimed at learners of the English language. As the project developed through the 1980s, it became clear that such evidence could only be made available by building a multi-million-word corpus and CCELD (1987) draws on a core database of 7.3 million words and makes supporting refer-ence to a general corpus of 20 million words. For an account of early COBUILD corpus development see Renouf (1987).

Because most of the publications produced by COBUILD are for non-native users of English, there has been less interest in the kinds of specialized

one-off uses of language which are often of major interest in dictionaries for native users of English. There has been greater interest in the most central and typical uses of the language. Evidence in COBUILD dictionaries is, therefore, usually given by illustrating meaning and usage by way of citations taken from the most typical, and sometimes even the most banal, examples of language. The examples cited are corpus-based and therefore include real uses of English attested in actual, naturally-occurring usage. They are not, therefore, the made-up examples and citations of lexicographers which had characterized foreign language lexicography before 1987. (For a discussion of lexicographic evidence, see Sinclair, 1985 and a range of papers in Sinclair (ed.), 1987a.) In pre-corpus days, evidence about the language used in some dictionaries relied on hand-collected data. This is evidence, of course, and is to be preferred to intuition and introspection but it cannot provide a picture of relative frequencies of usage. Computer-assisted word-searches are inevitably faster and can also provide data on the syntactic and collocational properties of words. This can be instrumental in differentiating different senses of a word or word unit.

The main innovations of this first COBUILD dictionary (CCELD, 1987) and its latest edition (CCED, 1995) can be summarized – with reference to sample entries – as follows:

1 Citations are examples of real English and do not involve made-up examples. The citations selected have been attested with reference to corpus evidence.

2 Linguistic and stylistic differences between spoken and written usage, and British-English and American-English usage can be separately stored and marked accordingly in dictionary entries. Pragmatic informa-tion concerning use in context, level of formality and related features is also provided, where appropriate.

3 Most crucially, relative frequencies of occurence are indicated and, most innovatively, in entries for individual lexical items, the order of senses in multi-sense words corresponds to their frequency order in the corpus. See the entry for mug in Figure 6.1.

4 Concordancing techniques (see the sample concordancing lines for decline in Figure 6.2) allow illustration of the main collocational and colligational properties of a word. Such properties can be made part of the explanation of a word’s meaning (see also Chapter 3, especially Sections 3.5 and 3.6). Significant lexical patterns and grammatical behaviour are separately highlighted in CCELD and CCED in a separate column which is positioned in parallel with the relevant entry.

5 Explanations are written in complete sentences (not in abbreviated phrases or codes), follow a strategy of clear, accessible language (without recourse to a defining vocabulary), and involve a use of natural syntactic formulae. For example, ‘if-clauses’ are used for purposes of explanation, just as they frequently are in everyday discourse. Thus, lexical items are 164 Lexis and lexicography

defined in context, often using the most frequent patterns which sur-round them in actual use, rather than as disembodied entities. A defining vocabulary is not employed but a note in CCED (1995, p. xviii) states that

‘most words in our definitions [are] amongst the 2,500 commonest words of English’.

6 The COBUILD emphasis on the most frequent words in the language does not foreclose on the pragmatic or discourse functions of some of these frequent words. Thus, discourse markers (such as now, well and right) and ‘content-less’, propositionless words (see Section 4.5), which have been largely ignored in previous dictionaries of this type, are also accorded illustration and explanation.⁶ A word such as fine, for example, is explained in a range of different senses, but its meaning and function in conversational replies and as a marker of conversational boundaries (as in: ‘How are you? I’m fine thanks’ or ‘Is there anything anyone wants to

Figure 6.1 A dictionary entry for mug.

Source: CCELD, 1987.

Declined – Concordance 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40.

its contribution to national student politics has ts, did they not, Clay Jones? Jones: They rapidly spiral could get worse, as the level of activity ntries–real (P 67) disposable spending power has licy towards the west, her active involvement has know that the sort of lot of people generally has In 1966. But since 1971 the WPPE’s influence has ian Defence, the Muzio Gambit, the Queen’s Gambit nt, and in that one Month, the crime rate sharply attlefield, as distinct from the rear areas, soon izon became level and blue and clipped as the sun t that our industrial performance has relatively made her an importer. The value of her currency he had not read the report. Slowly, the industry 5, pressure in the United States since prices have he Second World War, modernist Fine Art in France es also miners or railway workers, for so long in psychology and so on, and they’ve certainly not workers in the total working population actually p’s own interest in the physical side of marriage from 18 to 9 percent of the market; Lucky Strike d so far, and had been told so often that she had number of paddy holdings, and their average size he share of the rural areas in total population in terms of seats; the number of Congress Members ain’s share of world shipbuilding had as a result rship has stagnated and its electoral performance in March (and a revision discovered they had not farms and farm families in New England has not instead. Surprisingly, however, this tendency has per head of population has in some cases actually oded messages received by the ordinary person has t, let alone against a Labour government. The RCP —is this still the case, or have social sciences t the British Aircraft Industry is defunct; it’s ited range fires. But the number of prairie fires ehaves in imagination. It may be that Britain had nization. With many thousands in jail, membership it is true that the authority of parliament has rate. “The average age of dwellings has steadily declined. declined, declined, declined. declined. declined. declined. declined. declined. declined. declined. declined declined, declined, declined declined declined declined declined declined, declined declined declined declined declined declined declined declined declined declined declined declined declined declined declined declined declined declined declined, declined, Attempts to launch an Alternative left o Bill Sowerbutts. Often, they would disa But, on Keynesian arguments, this could But for how long will the trade unions a But in the visits of British Maoists to ((C)) Oh, it has. There are figures to p Frequent changes of address, the failure Most of them are not only learned for t Our Political Opponents and other Bodies Refugees were posing an acute and growin That was another time of comparative coo against that of other countries. If along with the purchasing power of her and its members took up other activities and costs have gone up,” explained a GE and fell; in Britain it barely survived and troubled industries. Many varied moti as a whole. Our numbers of applications e between 1911 and 1941’ Class divisions w but he persuaded himself that this was o even more sharply, from 14 to 6 per cent. even further, that she eagerly adopted th from four-fifths to half an acre. Many from an average of 84 percent in 1950 to from 371 to 361; the CPI stayed steady at from 50% in 1914 to under 10% in 1964. In further, a whole range of new organisatio in February after all). Wage settlement in 1970, and the average age of farmers in the mid-1970s, and savings have remain in the last ten years among the developin in favour of coded messages. We may guess in spirit and in numbers and in 1949 diss in undergraduate popularity? Well, first of course: the Americans are the leaders sharply with the white man’s arrival. As so far, and had been told so often that s to half a million by late 1936, and the a with the growth of the great producer in writes E. F. Carter of the Stanford Res Figure 6.2Example from BCOET corpus: Extract from concordance for declined. Source: BCOET, 1987.

add to this? OK, fine. Let’s move on’) are also indicated. Figures 6.3 and 6.4 illustrate in this respect differences in the treatment of now as a dis-course marker in both CCELD and the Longman Dictionary of Con-temporary English (LDOCE, 1987).

In the years following the publication of CCELD, great efforts were invested in further corpus development as it was realized that lexico-grammatical description could be even better using a corpus with more words and broader coverage from more varieties of the English language. For example, Clear et al. (1996) note that in the 7.3-million-word core corpus (1987) there is only evidence that the word taciturn is used predicatively, but the general 20-million-word corpus (as of 1987) reveals that it is also used as a premodifier and regularly with another negative adjective as in taciturn and unfriendly. Descriptions were modified in the light of this further evidence.

The COBUILD corpus has informed work on grammar (see Section 3.6) and on idioms, including the Collins COBUILD Dictionary of Idioms (1995).

The latter gives unique guidance concerning both the frequency of different idioms and the different patterns which idioms form in varying degrees of fixedness. The corpus has also informed work on a dictionary of collocations – Collins COBUILD English Words in Use (1997) – which describes over 100,000 collocations in a range of lexical patterns. This is supported by attested examples from the corpus. Parallel publications include a series of concordance samplers for use in the classroom and CD-ROMs giving a wide variety of linguistic profiles of word usage. Simultaneously, the corpus is being continually updated to include a wider variety of spoken forms and data from other Englishes around the world.

The most substantial insight to have been generated by COBUILD research is, as explored in Chapter 3, that grammatical and lexical patterns are co-selected and mutually interdependent. Clear et al. (1996) have expressed this as follows:

Particular grammatical patterns tend to co-occur with particular lexical items, and – the other side of the coin – lexical items seem to occur in only a limited range of patterns. The interdependence of grammar and lexis is such that they are ultimately inseparable, working together in the making of meaning.

(Clear et al., 1996, p. 313) It is likely that future developments in lexicography will follow such insights; in the meantime it is worth reflecting that the publication of the first COBUILD dictionary in 1987 was greeted as idiosyncratic and unproven but that in the ten years which have ensued corpus-based lexicography following COBUILD lines has been adopted as standard practice in research, linguistic description and publishing.

now /nau/: 1 Now is used 1.1 to refer to the present time, often in contrast to a time in the past or the future. You may be talking about what is actually happening at the moment or about the present stage of your life or about the present stage of history.  It is now just after one o’clock ... What if a shark came along right now?... I’m going home now ... Calcu- lators are now owned by a high percentage of school children... She has three children now... ... a now historic production of Under Milk Wood.
use J as the subject of a verb, or after a preposition.  Now is the time to find out... Goodbye for now ... From now on, you are free to do what you like. 1.2 to specify the length of time that something has lasted, from the time it started until the present time,  ‘How long have you been keeping bees?’–‘For five years now’... It’s two weeks now since I wrote to you... How long have you lived here now? 2 Now is also used with the past tense, especially in novels and stories, to refer to the parlicular time in the past that you are speaking or writing about, as opposed to any later or earlier time.  It was ten o’clock now... They were walking more slowly now... By now the country had changed dramatically. 3 Just now means a very short time ago.  I apologize for my outburst just now... I was talking to him just now. 4 If you say ‘It’s now or never’, you mean that something must be done immediately, because if it is not done immedi- ately there will not be another chance to do it. 5 You can say ‘Now for...’ when you are going to change the subject and talk about something different,  ... and now for some more of your letters... Now for the question of your expenses. 6 If you say that something will happen any day now, any moment now, or any time now, you mean that it will happen very soon.  Any day now, the local authority is going to announce a major housing scheme... They should arrive any time now. 7 If you say that something happens now and then or every now and then, you mean that it happens sometimes but not very often or regularly.  Now and again my method appears to work... Every now and then there is a confrontation.

ADV = at present ADV WITH VB: AFTER NG/A. ADV WITH VB: ALSO AFTER PREP PER: USED AS AN A I recently CONVENTION PER+NG PER: USED AS AN A PER: USED AS AN A = occasionally

8 Now also means as a result of what has recently happened.  I was hoping to see you tomorrow. That won’t be possible now... It’s the most beautiful city I have ever seen. Now I understand why you come back so often. 9 Now that or now is used when you want to say that the effect of something that has happened is that something else takes place.  Now that she’s found him, she’ll never let him go ... Now that I am old, I can read all the books I’ve always meant to read ... I like him a lot now he’s older. 10 Now is also used 10.1 at the beginning of a sentence, to introduce information which is relevant to the part of the story or account that you have reached and which needs to be known before you can continue.  Daisy’s only dangerous fault was her willingness to kick. Now, a camel can kick you in any direction, within a radius of six feet ... Now this king had three daughters. 10.2 in spoken English, to introduce a con- trast,  I don’t know anything about car engines. Now, if Richard was here, he’d be able to help you. 10.3 in informal spoken English, as something to say while you think of what to say next.  Well now. I’ve got the following suggestions ... Now, let’s stop for a moment there ... I’ve got her address somewhere. Now let me see. 10.4 to give a slight friendly emphasis to a request or command.  I must get back to work. Run along, now ... Be very careful now ... Give me the gun. Quick now! 10.5 in spoken English, as a friendly way of trying to calm or comfort someone.  There now, don’t cry ... Now, come on. Be sensible. 11 Now, now is used in spoken English 11.1 as a friendly way of trying to comfort someone.  ‘Now, now,’ the doctor said, taking her gently by the hand. ‘You mustn’t get so upset.’ 11.2 as a friendly way of introducing a warning to someone not to behave in a particular way.  Now, now, there’s no need to be nasty. 12 Now then is used in spoken English to attract people’s attention when you want to say something to them.  Now then, sleepyhead! It’s time to go to bed ... Now then, who’s for a cup of tea?

ADV WITH VB CONJ SUBORD I because ADV SEN = well ADV SEN = however CONVENTION = there there CONVENTION = right Figure 6.3A dictionary entry for now. Source: CCELD, 1987.

now1 nau. adv 1 a at this time: at present: I had a headache this morning, but I’m all right now. | We used to live in Bristol but now we live in London. | A journey that used to take several weeks can now be made in a few hours. b at the time just men- tioned, e.g. in a story or an account of past events: He opened the door. Now the noise was very loud. 2 at the time just follow- ing the present: at once: We’ve finished our dinner so now let’s have some coffee. | Now for ( = now we will have) the next question. | They’ll be here any time now. 3 a (used to introduce a statement or question): Now, I don’t know if you’ll agree with this, but I’d like to make a suggestion. b (used to add force to a command, warning. etc.): Now then, what’s going on here? | Be careful now! | Now, now, stop crying! –compare 3 4 (used pafter an expression of time) calculating from or up to the present: It hasn’t been working properly for three weeks now. | It’s now 27 years. It’s 27 years now since he died. 5 (every) no and then/now and again at times: sometimes: She meets her old boyfriend for a drink now and then. | I like to visit ar galleries now and again. 6 now ... now sometimes ... and sometimes: The market is very unstable, with prices now rising now falling. now2 n [U] the present time or moment: Now is the time to tell him the truth: | The time for action is now! | Up to/Until no we’ve had no problems. | He should have finished by now. | As of now From now on ( = starting now) the bank will close at 3.30 pm. | Goodbye for now. now3 also now that–cont because (something has happened): Now (that) John’s arrived, we can begin. Figure 6.4A dictionary entry for now. Source: LDOCE, 1987.

With such a database considerable potential exists for innovative diversi fi-cation into areas such as: the construction of lexically graded syllabuses appropriate to textbooks for foreign-language learners; frequency counts for language learning purposes, especially for the design of more ‘lexically authentic’ materials;⁷ dictionaries of collocations; lexicons with field-specific semantic groupings; fuller specification of style levels (see case study in Chapter 9). This is all-in-all a movement towards the kind of ‘associative lexicon’ advocated by Makkai (1980)⁸ and all of which would contribute substantially to the teaching and learning of English.⁹