Query Details

Query Subject:	WebCorp Concordance Counts
Author:	Jerry Kurjian
Submitter Email:	click here to access email

Linguistic LingField(s):	Computational Linguistics Text/Corpus Linguistics

Query:	Hi all, I have a question about the concordance counts produced by the WebCorp site: http://www.webcorp.org.uk/wcadvanced.html For example, if I search ''suggest you don't'' vs. ''suggest that you don't'' using WebCorp (via Google) I get, at the bottom of the page, a concordance count of 187 vs. 96 kwics respectively. However, if I search the same two terms, in quotes, on Google, I get 34,200 vs. 16,200 hits. The ratios are similar though not the same. Does anyone have insight into how WebCorp calculates/filters its concordances or why these two engines are so different in the number of hits they return? In fact, it is nice to have the more manageable number produced by WebCorp, and the external collocate counts it creates. But if I am interested in the frequency of ''I'' collocating with the two search terms based on WebCorp, I'd like to be clearer how those two counts are derived. Jerry
LL Issue:	16.1291
Date posted:	22-Apr-2005
Back

Sums main page

New from Cambridge University Press!