CADS

Corpus-Assisted Discourse Studies


The principal endeavour of corpus-assisted discourse studies (see Wikipedia entry) is the investigation, and comparison of features of particular discourse types, integrating into the analysis the techniques and tools developed within corpus linguistics.
These include the compilation of specialised corpora and analyses of word and word-cluster frequency lists, comparative keyword and key-cluster lists and, above all, concordances. The aim of the CADS approach is the uncovering, in the discourse type under study, of non-obvious meaning, that is, meaning which might not be readily available to naked-eye perusal. Though the term was first coined and formulated by Partington (2004, 2008), the practice of using corpora in discourse analysis dates from the pioneering work of Hardt-Mautner (1995) and Stubbs (1996, 2001).