'Patterns and Meanings' consists of case studies which make use of corpora and concordance technology. Each case study elaborates a problem area, makes reference to both the descriptive and applied literature thus far, and then suggests ways of exploiting corpus data to shed light on the problem. Language phenomena investigated include word sense, phraseology and syntax, metaphor and creative use, text reference, idiom, and translation. Emphasis is given to information that usually cannot be found in dictionaries, grammars, language textbooks or other resources, but which the study of corpus data makes available. This work is particularly important not only for its language description insights, but also for pedagogical application. Further useful suggestions are included on setting up a medium-sized corpus on a personal computer. (Publisher John Benjamins) Introduction 1 1.Collocation and phrase patterns 15 2.Collocation and synonymy 29 3.True and false friends 48 4.Connotation and semantic prosody 65 5.Syntax 79 6.Cohesion in texts 89 7.Metaphor 107 8.“Unusuality” 121 9.General conclusions