Corpus Pattern Analysis and Sense Disambiguation. A Case Study

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2018 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 2,3, University of Hannover, language: English, abstract: The aim of the present paper is to figure out if and how the target words of this study, verbs derived from adjectives with the suffix -ify that were selected from the NOW Corpus, differ in use and show different meanings in context. In order to analyse the target words to prettify and to vivify this paper will utilise of the technique promoted by Patrick Hanks. His theory of norms and exploitation (TNE) investigates meaning under the aspects of the mental lexicon and collocations. The target words will be analysed in the manner of Patrick Hanks Pattern Dictionary approach as well as the model of extended lexical units by John Sinclair in order to give an appropriate overview of the different aspects and nuances of their meaning.