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Words and Phrases: Corpus Studies of Lexical Semantics. Michael Stubbs. Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishers, 2001. 267 pp.
In this valuable and useful book Michael Stubbs sets out to explain and illustrate how the tools and techniques of corpus analysis can be applied to semantics. His book Words and Phrases can be characterized as a "textbook plus." That is to say, it is a well-developed textbook but it frequently goes beyond what could be expected of a textbook, with thoughtful insights into the implications and theoretical ramifications of the basic material.
Among its useful textbook features are careful introductions to basic concepts, many well-chosen and graded examples, summaries at the end of chapters, lists of background and further readings, and exercises and projects suitable for further study. The book is well-crafted, with a logical and balanced three-part structure. Part I (Introduction) has one chapter of introductory examples and another on basic concepts (collocates, spans, nodes, lemmas, and so on). Part II (Case Studies) has pairs of chapters exploring, successively, "Words in Phrases," "Words in Texts," and "Words in Culture." Part III (Implications) reflects on the implications for lexico-grammar and on the theoretical place of corpus studies in linguistics. In the remainder of this review I will identify a number of themes and issues which I expect will be of particular interest to readers of this journal.
Because corpus studies are quantitative and reliant upon computers, they can come across as somewhat clinical...