Extraction of Semantic Domains Through Corpus Tools

Abstract

The increased interest in the techniques of corpus linguistics in the first decade of 21st century was based on the most important premises, which are valid even today – investigation of larger datasets in less time. This article compares the results of different corpus techniques employed for exploring the dominant semantic domains in a corpus. These corpus techniques include use of word clouds, frequency lists and KWIC of a text. This study uses fictional discourse by Kamila Shamsie – namely Broken Verses (2005) – to illustrate the corpus methodology. In addition to different corpus techniques, this study also compares the usability of different corpus software for this purpose such as, Antconc (3.2.4), Nvivo 11, and Sketch Engine. This article will prove to be a good beginning point for the researchers exploring a text in any field of corpus linguistics and digital humanities.