Searching American National Corpus with the Help of AntConc

Step: 1 Check if you have Java Runtime Environment on your computer p?detect=jre&try=1 If not, Install Java Runtime Environment (7.5) ?locale=en

Step 2: Download OANC (Open American National Corpus) 326 MB  4.8 GB, 14,623,927 words, Tagged Download the Open ANC in GrAF format: The download will take some time depending on your internet speed. After download is complete, right-click on the zip file and unzip it to a location that you would remember.

Step 3 Download the ANCTool zip file from tool tool After the download is completed right-click on the file and unzip it to a location that you would remember.

Step 4 Create a corpus from OANC using ANC Tool in a way that AntConc can search through it. Double Click on the folder “AncTool-2.0.0” Double Click on the file “AncTool jar” The program will start.

Step 4 Browse the folder for the sub-corpus you would like to convert through “Input directory” window. Create the folder for your new sub-corpus that can be processed by AntConc through “Output directory” window. Select GrAF as your input format. Click on “MonoConc” tab Put a check in the box next to “Hepple Part of Speech Tags”

Step 5 See the files you just created and understand the organization of tagged corpus Check for mistakes! Know the tags for the annotations. (You can do this by reading the guides on OANC’s website)

Step 6 Open AntConc Adjust the settings in AntConc according to the patterns in your corpus files

Step 6 Global Settings  Tag Settings Put a dot in the radio button, “Hide Tags” Tag Start = _ Tag End = ↔#

Step 7 Load your corpus And considering the tags search through the corpus!

Scenario 1 What kinds of “verb + that clause” patterns occur in spoken American English? Example: “I knew that her father said ‘Do not touch.’” First: Pick a sub-corpus Second: Remember the tags in the sub-corpus processed by ANCTool Third: Remember the searching conventions of AntConc And start your search! Analyze: sort, check the patterns, and record what you found.

Scenario 2 You want to know what kind of verbs are common before “possesive NP + ing-clause” patterns Example: “I recall her talking about how she cared for him”

Scenario 3 You want to know how travel guides use existential there with modals. Example: “There might have been 8 to 10 of us.”

Scenario 4 You want to know what kind of transitive phrasal verbs are there in government documents. Look for patterns that have the pronoun between verb and particle. Example: “He did not point it out.”

Scenario 5 You come up with a question.