COBUILD
Encyclopedia
COBUILD, an acronym for Collins Birmingham University International Language Database, is a British research facility set up at the University of Birmingham
in 1980 and funded by Collins
publishers.
The facility was led by Professor John Sinclair
. The most important achievement of the COBUILD project has been the creation and analysis of a corpus
of contemporary text (the Bank of English
), and the production of the monolingual learner's dictionary
Collins COBUILD English Language Dictionary (1987, 2nd edition 1995, 3rd edition 2001, 4th edition 2003, 5th edition 2006), based on the study of the COBUILD corpus.
A number of other dictionaries and grammars have also been published, all based exclusively on evidence from the Bank of English
.
University of Birmingham
The University of Birmingham is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Birmingham Medical School and Mason Science College . Birmingham was the first Redbrick university to gain a charter and thus...
in 1980 and funded by Collins
HarperCollins
HarperCollins is a publishing company owned by News Corporation. It is the combination of the publishers William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd, a British company, and Harper & Row, an American company, itself the result of an earlier merger of Harper & Brothers and Row, Peterson & Company. The worldwide...
publishers.
The facility was led by Professor John Sinclair
John McHardy Sinclair
John McHardy Sinclair , Professor of Modern English Language at Birmingham University, 1965 – 2000. He pioneered work in corpus linguistics, discourse analysis, lexicography, and language teaching....
. The most important achievement of the COBUILD project has been the creation and analysis of a corpus
Text corpus
In linguistics, a corpus or text corpus is a large and structured set of texts...
of contemporary text (the Bank of English
Bank of English
The Bank of English is the name of the COBUILD corpus, a collection of English texts. These are mainly British, but American and Australian data are also included....
), and the production of the monolingual learner's dictionary
Monolingual learner's dictionary
A Monolingual learner's dictionary is a type of dictionary designed to meet the reference needs of people learning a foreign language...
Collins COBUILD English Language Dictionary (1987, 2nd edition 1995, 3rd edition 2001, 4th edition 2003, 5th edition 2006), based on the study of the COBUILD corpus.
A number of other dictionaries and grammars have also been published, all based exclusively on evidence from the Bank of English
Bank of English
The Bank of English is the name of the COBUILD corpus, a collection of English texts. These are mainly British, but American and Australian data are also included....
.
See also
- Advanced learner's dictionaryAdvanced Learner's DictionaryThe advanced learner's dictionary is the most common type of monolingual learner's dictionary, that is, a dictionary written for someone who is learning a foreign language and who has a proficiency level of B2 or above according to the Common European Framework...
- Text corpusText corpusIn linguistics, a corpus or text corpus is a large and structured set of texts...
- Corpus linguisticsCorpus linguisticsCorpus linguistics is the study of language as expressed in samples or "real world" text. This method represents a digestive approach to deriving a set of abstract rules by which a natural language is governed or else relates to another language. Originally done by hand, corpora are now largely...