Collins ELT

An Insight into Corpus: Identifying New Words and Meanings

An Insight into Corpus: Identifying New Words and Meanings

Neologisms and the constant evolution of language fascinates dictionary editors and users alike. For lexicographers, the use of corpora is essential to the way in which new words are identified, monitored and recorded. Let’s start with a little...

5 min

Are Print Primary Dictionaries Still Relevant for Young Learners?

Are Print Primary Dictionaries Still Relevant for Young Learners?

Today’s language learning environment offers a wealth of information for all ages and levels of learner, with everything available online at the click of a mouse. However, even for adults, this abundance of information can be overwhelming and difficult...

5 min

Exploring new phrasal verbs: drilling down and dialling it up (part 1)

Exploring new phrasal verbs: drilling down and dialling it up (part 1)

With new phrasal verbs continuing to proliferate in the English language, we at COBUILD surveyed a variety of news and other media sources to identify the most frequent new phrasal verbs for the Collins COBUILD Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs.

5 min

COBUILD: The Evolving Corpus – How corpus use has changed over the years

COBUILD: The Evolving Corpus – How corpus use has changed over the years

Size matters when it comes to corpora. At 220 million words of text, the corpus used to create the second edition of the COBUILD dictionary in 1995 was over ten times the size of the one used for the first...

4 min

COBUILD: Shifting senses – How the meanings of words change

COBUILD: Shifting senses – How the meanings of words change

In the 30 years since the publication of the first COBUILD dictionary, a whole flurry of new words has come into the language and as they’ve caught on and become part of everyday usage, they’ve been added to the dictionary.

2 min

COBUILD Part 2: The Early Years – A dictionary from a corpus

COBUILD Part 2: The Early Years – A dictionary from a corpus

By the time I arrived at COBUILD as part of the 1993 intake recruited to work on the second edition of the dictionary, the whole project had been fully computerised for several years. This meant working on screen at terminals...

3 min

COBUILD: Design and Layout – Changes over the last 30 years

COBUILD: Design and Layout – Changes over the last 30 years

Where were you 30 years ago? I was in the middle of my university studies, still to embark on my ELT career, and as such, a smidgin too late to be part of the intrepid and free-spirited COBUILD dictionary team....

4 min

COBUILD Part 1: The Early Years - Where it all began

COBUILD Part 1: The Early Years - Where it all began

I have always counted myself as incredibly fortunate to have worked as part of the COBUILD team at the time that I did, between October 1983 and the end of 1986. I was not quite 24 when I arrived in...

3 min