More on TextSTAT Concordancer

Here are some tips and examples from my preliminary work using the downloadable concordancing program mentioned in an earlier posting called TextSTAT. The examples come from the ELP Reader that I created as a corpus.

TextSTAT can be downloaded for free.


TextSTAT Procedures and Notes

Creating a corpus:

1. Click on "New Corpus" icon (the icon furthest to the left) (You can pass your cursor over the icons in the menu bar to see what they do) and create a name for the corpus you want to create.
2. Click on save corpus. You will need to choose a folder where you want to save your corpora. After you save the corpus, you will be prompted to add files. Turn off the message.
3. Click the "add local file" icon (the middle cylinder-shaped icon) and browse to select any WORD file in your computer that you want to include in the corpus. You can also add web pages to the corpus by selecting the cylinder icon on the left.

Copora can have multiple files and different corpora can be added together after they are formed. For example, I created individual corpora for each ELP Reader article as well as a combined one for the whole Reader.

Using corpora:

Click the "Open Corpus" icon and select the corpus you want to look at from your folder of corpora. Click "Open" at the bottom of the dialog box. You will now see a listing of one or more files that make up the corpus you have selected.

Now click on the "show word frequencies" icon (a blue and white grid). A long list of words from the most to least frequent in the corpus will appear. You can control what range of words you see by adjusting the menu items on the far right side of the page.

Double click on any word in the list and you will see all occurrences of that word in the corpus with the words just before and just after it. You can adjust how many words on either side of the target word you want to see.

You can double click on any of these lines of text and you will then see the larger passage that that example came from.

To go back to either the concordance list or the word frequency list, click on the appropriate box just under the icons a the top of the page. These boxes can be used to move back and forth between the categories, but you need to initially go through the double clicking process before you can do this.

You can save individual lines of word lists, concordance lists or text samples to a clipboard by choosing the top right icon. You can then paste these lines into a document to save or print them. In order to get the whole list of words or concordances or text samples into a document to save or print, choose the export button at the top of the page. Note the form that the material will be exported as and choose the form that will work best for you. Here is a sample of a frequency list I exported as an EXCEL file followed by an example of a concordance list exported as a WORD file:

these	75
so	74
race	74
if	74
also	74
nonverbal	74
into	73
has	72
no	68
because	66
those	65
do	64
may	63
she	63
facts	63
about	62
her	60
been	60
new	60
meaning	59
between	58
then	58
person	57
behavior	56
blumenbach	54
information	54
even	53
own	53
two	51
time	51
language	51

reflection of reality and is therefore highly fallible and (2) the k

s geometric reformulation?and therefore becomes the key to the concep

discovered facts. Scientists therefore tend to be unaware of their o

l equality of all peoples. He therefore could not use these conventio

the originally created ideal?therefore, the most beautiful people mu

metrical geometry. Blumenbach therefore added the Malay race, not as

sufferings, and our hopes. I therefore end by returning once more to

s basis, many anthropologists therefore argue that even if one could

ilar to one another. They can therefore be grouped into a hierarchy o

the Systema Naturae of 1758. Therefore, Blumenbach?s only original c

Phrases:

One very interesting feature in the concordancing function is the Query Editor button. This opens a dialog box and allows you to put in two words that you want to look up in combination, with or without any intervening words. For example, if you put the word "for" in the first search term and "example" in the second search term and don't allow any words in between them, when you hit the search button, you will get a list of all the occurrences of "for example" in the corpus. (see below for a sample) If you used "black" and "white" as the two search terms and allowed a maximum of one intervening word, you would get a list of occurrences of the phrases "black and white" and "black or white."

ffer from culture to culture; for example, the death of a loved one may

er cultures do. The Japanese, for example, have the reverse belief that

ntercultural classroom. Here, for example, U.S. students often complain

uthor. 7 Ibid. 8 Ibid. 9 See, for example, Bryant Wedge, Visitors to th

er century perceive a TV set, for example? If they were from colonial A

ways. The case of a mistaken (for example, identity when witnesses to a

Some people are color blind, for example. Some people have hearing aid

ct. A bowl of cold spaghetti, for example, was described as the intesti

ch facts we take in. Suppose, for example, that three people, a lumberj

is less important. In speech, for example, if we say that Socrates was

ommon?the height of the tree, for example, and the size of the trunk. T

a culture. African Americans, for example, place a great deal of emphas

ricious or misconstrued. Why, for example, are political radicals calle

ength and width of the skull, for example?and plugged them into standar

geographically variable trait?for example, the retention in adulthood o

oss. Tall basketball players, for example, have an obvious advantage ov

nts also vary geographically: for example, Europeans? fingerprints tend

ion have been disappointing.9 For example, research has found that Viet

correspond to the image held. For example, a visitor who is accustomed

able to perceive any meaning. For example, we have all seen movies or T

ome slight emphasis or slant. For example, if we have in mind only two

es in making these decisions. For example, his use of the four humors r

adopted in different regions. For example, nations that compressed the

er biologists look carefully. For example, consider one of the most fam

her form in a different area. For example, northern hares and weasels d

Happy concordancing!