Article published in:
Patterns, meaningful units and specialized discoursesEdited by Ute Römer and Rainer Schulze
[International Journal of Corpus Linguistics 13:3] 2008
► pp. 271–295
Starting with the small words
Patterns, lexis and semantic sequences
Susan Hunston | University of Birmingham
This paper proposes a concept of ‘semantic sequences’, that is, series of meaning elements that can be demonstrated to occur regularly either in a general corpus or in one comprising specific types of text. Semantic sequences may be identified by examining the co-text of a lexical item such as make sure, but are also recognisable if grammatical words such as prepositions are treated as the object of investigation. It is argued that semantic sequences are useful for characterising discourses of particular kinds.
Keywords: pattern grammar, epistemology, modal meaning, semantic sequence
Published online: 17 September 2008
https://doi.org/10.1075/ijcl.13.3.03hun
https://doi.org/10.1075/ijcl.13.3.03hun
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