A12) "Backwards" or "backward" in the Corpus of Global Web-based English (BYU interface)

Corpora: Corpus of Global Web-based English (GloWbE)

Programs: BYU interface

Tasks:

• While the adjective is nearly always backward, the adverb can be backward or backwards. GloWbE is a Part-of-Speech-tagged corpus. Exploit the tagging to disambiguate and compare percentages of backward (Adv) and backwards across all GloWbE varieties.
• Carry out spotchecks to find out to what extent the POS-tagging is adequate.
• Can you find evidence for the claim that British and American English represent the two extremes and other World Englishes take an intermediate position that can be explained by the countries' historical ties to Britain and the US?

Notes:

• The corpus and the BYU interface can be accessed on the Internet: http://corpus.byu.edu/glowbe/
• After a few searches you will have to create a username and password (free of charge).

• Users taking part in the course "Methods and Theories in Linguistics" can use the password metheling to join the account for the University of Bamberg: In order to do so, make sure the [Organization] in the form under "Personal Information" at the bottom of that page matches the name Universität Bamberg (exactly), and click [Update]. Then enter the password metheling and click on [Join Group], after which you will then be added to the group account for our university. You will then have increased access and advanced features.

• Try out the different display modes (upper left corner).
• If you want to save your results, the best idea seems to be highlighting and copying/pasting of content.
• The website itself includes a help function and ample documentation.