Chapter 8 Overview of the results

8.1 Introduction

In this chapter the most important results of the analyses carried out on both the BEC and the PMC are presented. They show that both hypotheses under analysis are proved to be correct – lexis central to and indicative of Business English is presented, and key differences between the Business English lexis of published materials and the Business English found in the BEC are given. The amount of data generated by the corpora, however, has proved so vast that it is only possible in this chapter to give an overview and brief comments on the key results (a fuller, more detailed presentation and interpretation of the results is presented in Chapter 9). In each case, the place where the full results are stored is indicated, along with reference to the section of Chapter 9 where each result is dealt with in detail. The results of this thesis are stored in two places: in the Appendices in Vol. II, and on the CD ROM attached to this thesis inside the back cover.

This chapter, then, serves as an overview – showing examples of key results – and a guide – it designates the place where results can be found. The presentation of the results here is divided into two main sections: firstly, those results gained from analysis of the BEC, and secondly, those results gained from the PMC.

8.2 Analysis of the BEC

8.2.1 General Statistics of the BEC

Here the overall statistics for the BEC are presented using the version of the BEC categorised by macro-genres.

TABLE XV: GENERAL STATISTICS OF THE BEC

Bytes	6 496 472
Tokens (words)	1 023 021
Types (types of words)	28 232
Type/Token Ratio	2.76
Standardised Type/Token (as %)	40.01
Average word length	4.66
Sentences	43 473
Sentence length	17.18
Standard sentence length	14.75
Paragraphs	35 283
Paragraph length	28.49
Standard paragraph length	91.98
Headings	0
Heading length
Standard heading length
1-letter words	42 544
2-letter words	179 256
3-letter words	204 226
4-letter words	173 401
5-letter words	105 337
6-letter words	79 175
7-letter words	75 651
8-letter words	57 641
9-letter words	43 368
10-letter words	28 172
11-letter words	17 737
12-letter words	8 522
13-letter words	5 148
14(+)-letter words	1 902

8.2.2 BEC frequency list unlemmatised/unedited

This can be found in the CD ROM.

8.2.3 BEC frequency list lemmatised

Here the top 100 most frequent lemmas are shown. A list of the top 1,000 lemmas can be found in Appendix 1 in Vol. II and on the CD ROM. The frequency list below shows that in Business English, the most frequent words are still general, non-business words, with only seven words in the top 100 that could be considered business-related – company, business, market, work, service, product and price. This is discussed in full in Section 9.3.1 in the next chapter. It will also be noted that the word yeah has been added to the lemma yes. This was done in an attempt to give a true frequency value to yes in comparison to no, which, unlike yes, did not take any other lexical form in the corpus.

TABLE: XVI: BEC LEMMATISED FREQUENCY LIST (TOP 100 LEMMAS)

N	Word	BEC freq.	BEC %	Lemmas
1	THE	52 213	5.10
2	BE	34 883	3.41	am(286),are(6959),is(11337),was(3893), were(1525),being(760),been(2148),’m(149)
3	TO	29 495	2.88
4	AND	26 429	2.58
5	OF	25 614	2.50
6	A	23 872	2.33	an(3170)
7	IN	18 293	1.79
8	THAT	13 069	1.28	those(821)
9	HAVE	10 945	1.07	has(2716),having(383),had(1677)
10	FOR	10 415	1.02
11	YOU	10 133	0.99
12	IT	8 902	0.87
13	I	8 534	0.83
14	ON	7 781	0.76
15	WE	7 492	0.73
16	WITH	6 754	0.66
17	THIS	6 468	0.63	these(1306)
18	AS	6 241	0.61
19	DO	5 298	0.52	does(581),doing(567),did(573),done(471)
20	AT	4 998	0.49
21	OR	4 834	0.47
22	BUT	4 471	0.44	buts(1)
23	WILL	4 335	0.42
24	THEY	4 221	0.41
25	YES	4 181	0.41	yeah(3308)
26	FROM	4 180	0.41
27	BY	4 179	0.41
28	NOT	4 074	0.40
29	SO	4 012	0.39
30	GET	3 622	0.35	gets(103),getting(323),got(1587),gotten(10)
31	ALL	3 352	0.33
32	IF	3 339	0.33
33	WHICH	3 112	0.30
34	WHAT	3 074	0.30
35	GO	3 060	0.30	goes(178),going(1533),went(184),gone(137)
36	IT’S	2 977	0.29
37	CAN	2 947	0.29
38	COMPANY	2 934	0.29	companies(1092)
39	YEAR	2 874	0.28	years(1058)
40	SAY	2 851	0.28	says(489),saying(336),said(923)
41	BUSINESS	2 837	0.28	businesses(287)
42	ONE	2 761	0.27	ones(131)
43	THERE	2 656	0.26
44	WOULD	2 478	0.24
45	ERM	2 443	0.24
46	KNOW	2 439	0.24	knows(87),knowing(36),knew(67),known(132)
47	THINK	2 428	0.24	thinks(46),thinking(155),thought(272)
48	YOUR	2 409	0.24
49	MORE	2 390	0.23
50	UP	2 365	0.23	ups(44)
51	WELL	2 352	0.23
52	NO	2 349	0.23	nos(6)
53	OUR	2 342	0.23
54	MARKET	2 336	0.23	markets(469),marketing(469),marketed(10)
55	MAKE	2 333	0.23	makes(221),making(371),made(714)
56	WORK	2 234	0.22	works(226),worked(134),working(680)
57	ABOUT	2 222	0.22
58	RIGHT	2 209	0.22	rights(104),righted(1)
59	JUST	2 145	0.21
60	OUT	2 089	0.20
61	THEIR	2 084	0.20
62	ITS	2 077	0.20
63	OTHER	1 959	0.19	others(181)
64	THAT’S	1 938	0.19
65	TIME	1 917	0.19	times(228),timing(39),timed(5)
66	BECAUSE	1 916	0.19
67	ANY	1 913	0.19
68	HE	1 806	0.18
69	USE	1 746	0.17	uses(57),using(307),used(572)
70	NEW	1 730	0.17	newer(8),newest(4)
71	THEM	1 711	0.17
72	PEOPLE	1 701	0.17	peoples(8)
73	NOW	1 669	0.16
74	THEN	1 665	0.16
75	VERY	1 642	0.16
76	SOME	1 612	0.16
77	WHEN	1 578	0.15
78	LIKE	1 555	0.15	likes(20),liking(1),liked(19)
79	TAKE	1 543	0.15	takes(106),taking(261),took(156),taken(236)
80	THAN	1 528	0.15
81	MEAN	1 524	0.15	means(319),meaning(22),meant(46)
82	NEED	1 493	0.15	needs(317),needing(15),needed(154)
83	ALSO	1 476	0.14
84	SERVICE	1 461	0.14	services(641),servicing(43),serviced(5)
85	COME	1 413	0.14	comes(207),coming(330),came(184)
86	WHO	1 404	0.14
87	GOOD	1 386	0.14	goods(391)
88	SHOULD	1 386	0.14
89	PRODUCT	1 385	0.14	products(644)
90	SEE	1 360	0.13	sees(23),seeing(66),sawn(2),saw(89),seen(225)
91	HOW	1 351	0.13
92	TWO	1 318	0.13	twos(9)
93	DON’T	1 315	0.13
94	PRICE	1 302	0.13	prices(417),pricing(69),priced(20)
95	US	1 300	0.13
96	MAY	1 294	0.13
97	WANT	1 290	0.13	wants(148),wanting(24),wanted(184)
98	INTO	1 276	0.12
99	THING	1 243	0.12	things(693)
100	SYSTEM	1 231	0.12	systems(482)

8.2.4 BEC Key words

a) Positive Key Words: Here the BEC top 100 positive key words are presented. Positive key words are those that appear in the BEC corpus more frequently than in general English (in the BNC), to a statistically significant level (Log Likelihood p = 0.000001). The full list of positive key words can be found in Appendix 2 in Vol. II and on the CD ROM. This list contrasts sharply with the BEC frequency list above. There is a much greater concentration of pure business-related lexis, e.g. business, company, market and customer, and also lexis that could be intuitively expected to be found in a Business English environment, e.g. order, contract, mail and rate. A full discussion on this is found in Chapter 9, Section 9.3.1.2. The key word lists show the words in order of keyness, frequency in the smaller corpus (in this case the BEC), percentage of frequency in the smaller corpus, frequency and percentage in the larger corpus (in this case the BNC) and finally, the keyness value, expressed as a Log Likelihood score.

TABLE XVII: BEC POSITIVE KEY WORDS (TOP 100)

N	Word	BEC Freq.	BEC %	BNC Freq.	BNC %	Keyness Log L.
1	BUSINESS	2 837	0.28	542	0.03	3 557.7
2	COMPANY	2 934	0.29	782	0.04	3 118.6
3	MARKET	2 336	0.23	831	0.04	2 056.1
4	CUSTOMER	1 199	0.12	147		1 763.0
5	OK	897	0.09	38		1 635.1
6	PRODUCT	1 385	0.14	412	0.02	1 377.2
7	SALE	1 210	0.12	343	0.02	1 239.4
8	FAX	613	0.06	32		1 085.0
9	MANAGEMENT	973	0.10	279	0.01	989.6
10	PRICE	1 302	0.13	586	0.03	941.5
11	FINANCIAL	780	0.08	237	0.01	765.0
12	BANK	940	0.09	379	0.02	749.0
13	BILLION	515	0.05	67		743.4
14	SERVICE	1 461	0.14	916	0.05	728.7
15	STOCK	889	0.09	350	0.02	722.5
16	ORDER	1 224	0.12	681	0.03	709.0
17	EXECUTIVE	529	0.05	86		707.3
18	CONTRACT	656	0.06	183		678.3
19	CLIENT	535	0.05	126		607.4
20	MAIL	380	0.04	34		607.2
21	CONTRACTOR	326	0.03	16		582.3
22	WILL	4 335	0.42	5 038	0.26	572.4
23	MANAGER	742	0.07	317	0.02	562.4
24	PER	1 014	0.10	585	0.03	562.4
25	SELLER	298	0.03	12		546.6
26	INVESTMENT	577	0.06	185		546.2
27	SHARE	1 148	0.11	762	0.04	528.8
28	INTERNET	249	0.02	1		521.0
29	COST	1 127	0.11	747	0.04	520.2
30	TO	29 495	2.88	47 851	2.44	514.5
31	DATE	782	0.08	389	0.02	512.3
32	GLOBAL	324	0.03	34		497.6
33	PROFIT	799	0.08	429	0.02	482.0
34	SELL	789	0.08	419	0.02	481.8
35	REGISTER	399	0.04	86		473.3
36	PROJECT	642	0.06	283	0.01	473.1
37	PERFORMANCE	507	0.05	175		455.8
38	YEAR	2 874	0.28	3 184	0.16	445.4
39	INTERNATIONAL	606	0.06	269	0.01	443.7
40	ITS	2 077	0.20	2 085	0.11	428.5
41	MILLION	789	0.08	473	0.02	417.1
42	CORPORATE	277	0.03	33		410.6
43	RATE	803	0.08	496	0.03	408.4
44	BUYER	292	0.03	42		407.9
45	CREDIT	392	0.04	110		403.8
46	INDUSTRY	712	0.07	404	0.02	402.8
47	SUPPLIER	288	0.03	44		393.9
48	TECHNOLOGY	445	0.04	157		393.7
49	BUDGET	437	0.04	152		390.7
50	SHALL	803	0.08	515	0.03	388.2
51	COPY	430	0.04	152		379.9
52	ACCOUNT	859	0.08	593	0.03	373.4
53	OUR	2 342	0.23	2 577	0.13	370.8
54	DISTRIBUTOR	218	0.02	16		363.5
55	DELIVERY	291	0.03	56		363.4
56	CASH	384	0.04	124		361.7
57	WE	7 492	0.73	10 822	0.55	349.7
58	COMPANY’S	263	0.03	45		344.7
59	AGREEMENT	470	0.05	210	0.01	342.0
60	GROUP	1 153	0.11	991	0.05	341.0
61	OFFER	733	0.07	491	0.03	333.1
62	GROWTH	475	0.05	224	0.01	328.3
63	DIRECTOR	541	0.05	289	0.01	328.2
64	INFORMATION	835	0.08	622	0.03	321.6
65	PROPERTY	400	0.04	162		317.5
66	NETWORK	390	0.04	156		312.8
67	DIGITAL	185	0.02	13		311.1
68	SHAREHOLDER	286	0.03	73		311.1
69	TEL	216	0.02	29		308.7
70	FOR	10 415	1.02	15 996	0.82	307.3
71	TERM	887	0.09	703	0.04	306.7
72	INVESTOR	248	0.02	51		300.7
73	REVIEW	380	0.04	155		299.8
74	EMPLOYEE	307	0.03	94		299.5
75	TARGET	285	0.03	79		295.7
76	PC	210	0.02	30		294.0
77	INCREASE	758	0.07	566	0.03	290.8
78	INVOICE	182	0.02	17		287.8
79	COM	160	0.02	8		285.0
80	INCLUDE	934	0.09	791	0.04	284.6
81	REGARD	477	0.05	259	0.01	284.1
82	PAYMENT	321	0.03	115		280.8
83	TAX	629	0.06	427	0.02	280.3
84	TRADE	696	0.07	509	0.03	276.3
85	OR	4 834	0.47	6 757	0.34	276.3
86	OFFICE	651	0.06	461	0.02	272.1
87	TELEPHONE	365	0.04	159		271.8
88	ENGINEER	368	0.04	163		269.9
89	MEETING	739	0.07	575	0.03	264.1
90	FIRM	466	0.05	265	0.01	262.9
91	FINANCE	298	0.03	117		242.7
92	NEW	1 730	0.17	1 995	0.10	234.3
93	SYSTEM	1 231	0.12	1 273	0.06	234.1
94	FOCUS	258	0.03	89		232.0
95	RECEIVE	534	0.05	369	0.02	231.7
96	PURCHASE	289	0.03	117		229.4
97	EXPENSE	236	0.02	73		228.7
98	TEAM	498	0.05	334	0.02	225.9
99	STRATEGY	295	0.03	125		225.2
100	STRATEGIC	203	0.02	50		225.1

b) Negative Key Words: Here the BEC top 100 negative key words are presented. Negative key words are those that appear in the BEC corpus less frequently than in general English to a statistically significant level (Log Likelihood p = 0.000001). The full list of negative key words can be found in Appendix 4 in Vol. II and on the CD ROM. The negative key word list differs markedly from the positive key word list: there is little or no business-related lexis and the words are, for example, concerned with family (e.g. mum, child, dad), society (e.g. vote, church, police) and the home (e.g. garden, curtain). A clear divide is thus created between lexis of the business world – shown in the positive key words – and lexis of the non-business world – shown in these negative key words. This is discussed in full in Chapter 9, Section 9.3.2.2.

TABLE XVIII: BEC NEGATIVE KEY WORDS (TOP 100)

N	Word	BEC Freq.	BEC %	BNC Freq.	BNC %	Keyness Log L.
1611	ER	1 198	0.12	9 750	0.50	3 199.9
1610	I	8 534	0.83	31 126	1.59	3 139.1
1609	SHE	337	0.03	5 899	0.30	3 057.0
1608	OH	475	0.05	5 938	0.30	2 620.4
1607	MM	60		3 480	0.18	2 444.0
1606	HE	1 806	0.18	10 232	0.52	2 287.4
1605	HER	259	0.03	3 940	0.20	1 919.9
1604	COS	7		1 739	0.09	1 384.3
1603	IT	8 902	0.87	26 079	1.33	1 287.5
1602	HIS	912	0.09	5 234	0.27	1 187.8
1601	OKAY	7		1 147	0.06	892.8
1600	YES	4 181	0.41	13 210	0.67	863.6
1599	MY	861	0.08	4 349	0.22	825.0
1598	SAY	2 851	0.28	9 573	0.49	760.5
1597	HIM	405	0.04	2 703	0.14	731.8
1596	YOU	10 133	0.99	26 331	1.34	714.8
1595	ME	978	0.10	4 209	0.21	606.6
1594	ONE	2 761	0.27	8 830	0.45	600.5
1593	NO	2 349	0.23	7 784	0.40	593.5
1592	GET	3 622	0.35	10 875	0.55	589.0
1591	GO	3 060	0.30	9 168	0.47	492.0
1590	AH	45		886	0.05	479.9
1589	MAN	201	0.02	1 538	0.08	476.7
1588	WELL	2 352	0.23	7 359	0.38	463.8
1587	GOD	31		784	0.04	461.2
1586	DON’T	1 315	0.13	4 741	0.24	459.2
1585	TWENTY	126	0.01	1 212	0.06	452.4
1584	LIKE	1 555	0.15	5 339	0.27	452.2
1583	MUM	6		602	0.03	451.0
1582	FORMULA	35		793	0.04	450.9
1581	SHE’S	111	0.01	1 088	0.06	411.6
1580	GONNA	112	0.01	1 086	0.06	407.7
1579	OOH	3		483	0.02	375.5
1578	TELL	419	0.04	2 059	0.10	373.9
1577	KNOW	2 439	0.24	7 231	0.37	371.9
1576	MOTHER	22		607	0.03	366.0
1575	SEE	1 360	0.13	4 543	0.23	354.6
1574	DIDN’T	324	0.03	1 724	0.09	352.8
1573	POUND	221	0.02	1 381	0.07	347.3
1572	CHILD	153	0.01	1 133	0.06	340.5
1571	THERE	2 656	0.26	7 607	0.39	338.1
1570	VOTE	73		804	0.04	328.7
1569	NIGHT	117	0.01	979	0.05	328.0
1568	TWO	1 318	0.13	4 348	0.22	326.4
1567	GARDEN	11		465	0.02	309.4
1566	CHURCH	8		440	0.02	306.3
1565	NICE	100		876	0.04	304.6
1564	TH	8		431	0.02	299.1
1563	DO	5 298	0.52	13 343	0.68	294.9
1562	CURTAIN	4		394	0.02	294.6
1561	ROUND	156	0.02	1 048	0.05	285.6
1560	COME	1 413	0.14	4 437	0.23	282.9
1559	JOAN	3		369	0.02	281.4
1558	HAIR	16		450	0.02	272.8
1557	THEN	1 665	0.16	4 999	0.25	270.0
1556	LORD	27		506	0.03	269.0
1555	BOY	25		483	0.02	259.8
1554	NA	6		367	0.02	259.5
1553	POLICE	23		468	0.02	256.5
1552	FATHER	17		432	0.02	254.5
1551	LEAVE	369	0.04	1 647	0.08	253.9
1550	EAT	34		519	0.03	253.1
1549	THIRTY	79		710	0.04	251.9
1548	I’M	930	0.09	3 136	0.16	251.7
1547	WHAT	3 074	0.30	8 171	0.42	250.8
1546	WHEN	1 578	0.15	4 688	0.24	242.8
1545	LOVE	62		625	0.03	241.1
1544	KING	27		465	0.02	239.0
1543	WATER	143	0.01	918	0.05	238.0
1542	FLOWER	3		316	0.02	237.8
1541	LITTLE	365	0.04	1 585	0.08	232.2
1540	HE’S	449	0.04	1 816	0.09	230.5
1539	HA	6		326	0.02	226.5
1538	FIVE	401	0.04	1 670	0.09	225.3
1537	NINETEEN	4		308	0.02	224.4
1536	EDWARD	6		322	0.02	223.3
1535	HOUSE	286	0.03	1 335	0.07	222.7
1534	GOTTA	4		303	0.02	220.3
1533	PUT	741	0.07	2 558	0.13	219.8
1532	FABRIC	9		336	0.02	218.0
1531	BED	36		475	0.02	215.5
1530	FOUR	381	0.04	1 583	0.08	212.6
1529	FLAT	34		460	0.02	211.5
1528	LOOK	1 197	0.12	3 658	0.19	211.3
1527	GIRL	49		525	0.03	210.9
1526	REMEMBER	124	0.01	804	0.04	210.8
1525	EYE	50		522	0.03	206.1
1524	I’D	129	0.01	807	0.04	203.2
1523	PLAY	158	0.02	901	0.05	202.5
1522	DOG	33		440	0.02	200.7
1521	FORTY	53		524	0.03	199.4
1520	NINE	100		700	0.04	199.0
1519	DAD	13		336	0.02	198.9
1518	FIFTY	57		539	0.03	198.7
1517	EH	4		276	0.01	198.4
1516	WOMAN	121	0.01	768	0.04	196.6
1515	ERM	2 443	0.24	6 471	0.33	194.6
1514	I’VE	571	0.06	2 042	0.10	193.4
1513	SEAT	33		427	0.02	191.7
1512	DOWN	749	0.07	2 487	0.13	190.4
1511	OLD	288	0.03	1 263	0.06	188.5

8.2.5 Grammatical categorisation of BEC positive key words

This list can be found in Appendix 2 in Vol. II. It shows the positive key words of the BEC categorised by word class as defined by Ljung (1990): noun, verb, adjective, noun/verb, noun/adjective, verb/adjective, noun/verb/adjective and -ly adverbs. This is discussed in Chapter 9, Section 9.3.2.1.

8.2.6 Semantic categorisation of BEC positive key words

This categorisation can be found in Appendix 3 in Vol. II and the categorisation is done separately for the four largest word classes – noun, verb, adjective, noun/verb. This is discussed in full in Chapter 9, Section 9.3.2.1.

8.2.7 Grammatical categorisation of BEC negative key word list

This list can be found in Appendix 4 in Vol. II. It shows the negative key words of the BEC categorised by word class as defined by Ljung (1990): noun, verb, adjective, noun/verb, noun/adjective, verb/adjective, noun/verb/adjective and -ly adverbs. This is discussed in Chapter 9, Section 9.3.2.2.

8.2.8 Semantic categorisation of BEC negative key words

This categorisation can be found in Appendix 5 in Vol. II and the categorisation is done separately for the four largest word classes – noun, verb, adjective, noun/verb. This is discussed in full in Chapter 9, Section 9.3.2.2.

8.2.9 Analysis of 50 key words from the BEC

It was noted in the previous chapter (Step 5 a-h), how fifty key words from the BEC were selected and subjected to various forms of analysis. These analyses are shown in full in Appendix 6 in Vol. II and a detailed analysis of these words forms a major part of Chapter 9 (Section 9.3.3 to 9.3.7), where each section is explained and interpreted. However, an example of one of the fifty words – business – is presented here. In the example, several different kinds of analysis are shown:

a) Keyness – how key the key word is.

b) Semantic prosody – what lexical/semantic sets the word typically collocates with – collocating groups are shown both to the left of the main word and to the right.

c) 3-word clusters – typical 3-word clusters the word is found in or near.

d) Macro-generic distribution – the range of use of the word across the macro-genres of the BEC shown using the Dispersion Plot function of WordSmith.

e) Colligation – how the word typically behaves grammatically, and what grammatical patterning/meaning correlations there are, using the COBUILD (1995) dictionary as reference.

f) Associates – key words that co-occur with the main word in a number of texts to a statistically significant level.

g) Comments – any comments to be made on the above analyses.

EXAMPLE WORD: ‘BUSINESS’

a) Keyness

The lemma ‘business’ was the most significant key word in the BEC corpus.

N	Word	bec freq.	bec lst %	bnc freq.	bnc.lst %	Keyness	P
1	BUSINESS	2,837	0.28	542	0.03	3,557.8	0.000000

b) Semantic Prosody

Left: A total of 7 groups were identified. However, the positive and negative groups are small and are shown here to contrast positive and negative usage with the word.

semantic prosody	frequency/ 2,551& %	example
where business takes place (place)	56 – 2.19%	Indian business UK business
where business takes place (macro-level demarcation)	123 – 4.82%	international world-wide business overseas business
line of business	222 – 9.86%	telecoms business hairdressing business contract hire business
nature of business (characteristics)	124 – 4.86%	core business family business daily business
money/size of business	67 – 2.62%	a high-yield business big business small business
positive adjectives	50- 1.96%	successful business sound business strong business
negative adjectives	7 – 0.27%	unviablebusiness cut-throat business boring business

Right: Four groups identified.

semantic prosody	frequency/ 2,551& %	example
people and groups of people	145 – 5.68%	business agents business analyst business controller
business activities	135 – 5.29 %	business administration business analysis business development
institutions, organisations and companies	129 – 5.05%	business conglomerates business school the business press
macro-level demarcation	89 – 3.48%	business area business sector business segment

c) Three-word clusters

N	cluster	Freq.
1	of the business	85
2	in the business	63
3	to the business	31
4	the business and	29
5	the business is	29
6	the business English	24
7	for the business	20
8	business and the	19
9	in international business	18
10	the institute for	18
11	a business plan	17
12	for global business	17
13	institute for global	17
14	of business administration	17
15	the business of	16
16	the business plan	14
17	college of business	13
18	and the business	12
19	business English list	12
20	on the business	12
21	the business community	12
22	business areas and	11
23	the business link	11
24	as a business	10
25	credits international business	10
26	for your business	10
27	of a business	10
28	of business and	10
29	of our business	9
30	that your business	9
31	with the business	9
32	about the business	8
33	any other business	8
34	business to business	8
35	out of business	8
36	to do business	8
37	a new business	7
38	and international business	7
39	business in the	7
40	business is not	7
41	from the business	7
42	in a business	7
43	into the business	7
44	of business English	7
45	of its business	7
46	out of the	7
47	the business to	7
48	the business unit	7
49	the business world	7
50	the local business	7
51	your business is	7
52	a business and	6
53	business and computing	6
54	business as a	6
55	business at the	6
56	business of the	6
57	business on the	6
58	business unit managers	6
59	in this business	6
60	of doing business	6
61	of your business	6
62	ordinary course of	6
63	part of the	6
64	run the business	6
65	some of the	6
66	the business at	6
67	the business will	6
68	the international business	6
69	the main business	6
70	the ordinary course	6
71	when the business	6
72	within the business	6
73	your business and	6
74	a business to	5
75	a lot of	5
76	an international business	5
77	as the business	5
78	as well as	5
79	at the business	5
80	business English and	5
81	business English customers	5
82	business English experts	5
83	business link and	5
84	develop the business	5
85	do business with	5
86	English list is	5
87	for new business	5
88	Harvard business review	5
89	Harvard business school	5
90	have a business	5
91	if the business	5
92	in any business	5
93	in order to	5
94	intermediate business English	5
95	international business concentration	5
96	it is a	5
97	lot of business	5
98	nature of the	5
99	new business opportunities	5
100	start a business	5
101	that the business	5
102	the business as	5
103	the business press	5
104	the business that	5
105	the business was	5
106	the college of	5
107	the company’s business	5
108	the core business	5
109	the nature of	5
110	the world business	5
111	to start a	5
112	today’s business express	5
113	type of business	5
114	what the business	5
115	which is the	5
116	within business	5
117	you have a	5
118	a business case	4
119	a business link	4
120	a business that	4
121	a number of	4
122	all the business	4
123	and business areas	4
124	as a whole	4
125	at the close	4
126	at the moment	4
127	been in the	4
128	business as usual	4
129	business development manager	4
130	business from the	4
131	business is going	4
132	business is the	4
133	business law #	4
134	business link placename	4
135	business plan is	4
136	by roland gribben	4
137	by the business	4
138	cent of the	4
139	close of business	4
140	core property business	4
141	course of business	4
142	development of the	4
143	globalisation of business	4
144	go into business	4
145	going into business	4
146	I’ve been in	4
147	if you are	4
148	if you have	4
149	in terms of	4
150	in that business	4
151	in the ordinary	4
152	in the uk	4
153	in your business	4
154	international business #	4
155	international business and	4
156	international business finance	4
157	international business program	4
158	international business programs	4
159	into business with	4
160	involved in the	4
161	it is not	4
162	just the business	4
163	knutsford business centre	4
164	law # credits	4
165	line of business	4
166	look at the	4
167	main business customers	4
168	minor in international	4
169	normal business hours	4
170	of business life	4
171	of business on	4
172	of international business	4
173	of the institute	4
174	one of the	4
175	our core business	4
176	over the next	4
177	parts of the	4
178	per cent of	4
179	place of business	4
180	price for the	4
181	record in business	4
182	side of the	4
183	small business administration	4
184	small business owners	4
185	sort of business	4
186	that’s today’s business	4
187	the business areas	4
188	the business has	4
189	the business in	4
190	the business list	4
191	the business mix	4
192	the business team	4
193	the close of	4
194	the end of	4
195	the small business	4
196	the university of	4
197	this business is	4
198	to concentrate on	4
199	to develop the	4
200	to your business	4
201	university of akron	4
202	volume of business	4
203	we do business	4
204	with a business	4
205	world business review	4

d) Macro-generic distribution

* Each file represents one macro-genre found in the BEC – key to file names in Appendix 19, Vol. II, p.971.

This dispersion plot shows:

File: The rank frequency order of macro-genres where business appeared (thus, for example, business was most frequent in Company Brochures – Combrocs.txt, and second most frequent in UK television programmes – uktv.txt).

Words: The number of words in each macro-genre – one file for each macro-genre.

Hits per 1,000: How many hits of the word business per 1,000 words there were in each macro-genre/file

Plot: Each time the word business occurs in a macro-genre/file it is marked by a small black line, thus showing its distribution of occurrence over all the texts in each macro-genre. For example, in company brochures we see heavy usage at the right-hand side, indicating that business occurred in these texts very often, and less in others, creating an uneven distribution across the company brochures macro-genre.

e) Colligation

COBUILD Sense 1 (work relating to the buying and selling of goods)

1,351 instances 52.95% of sample

Patterns: Uncount noun

we put together a business plan

… greatly affected the way they did business

carried out in cooperation with our business partners

COBUILD Sense 2 (how many products/services a company is able to sell)

163 instances 6.38% of sample

Patterns: Uncount noun

business fell by a third

COBUILD Sense 3 (a company/firm)

523 instances 20.5% of sample

Patterns: Count noun

We go into a business and try and rescue it

You must think of the pros and cons of starting a business from scratch

COBUILD Sense 4 (what you do for your job and not for pleasure)

8 instances 0.31% of sample

Patterns: Uncount noun

Travel agencies have special departments dealing with business travel

a business dinner to end all business dinners

COBUILD Sense 5 (line of business)

436 instances 17.09% of sample

Patterns: Singular noun

telecoms business, hairdressing business, contract hire business, my line of business

COBUILD Sense 7 (important matters you have to deal with)

3 instances 0.11% of sample

Patterns: Uncount noun

conduct the following business, any other business?

COBUILD Sense 8 (my own business – no-one else’s concern)

2 instances 0.07% of sample

Patterns: Uncount noun

Its not my business to manage a business

COBUILD Sense 9 (an event, situation or activity)

4 instances 0.15% of sample

Patterns: Singular noun

with the forty pound business

the business of lists

the business of making strategic choices

COBUILD Sense 10 (an unpleasant or costly task)

3 instances 0.11% of sample

Patterns: Singular noun

Ill health – a costly business

it’s always been a dangerous business

COBUILD Sense 11 (big business/show business)

big business: 8 instances 0.31% of sample

show business: 1 instance 0.03% of sample

COBUILD Sense 12 (do business – companies/people that do business with each other)

13 instances 0.5% of sample

Patterns: Phrase with noun

COBUILD Sense 14 (in business: a company that is currently operating or trading)

9 instances 0.35% of sample

Patterns: verb + link phrase

you’ve already been in business for a period of time

you may find after a year in business that you need bigger premises

COBUILD Sense 16 (to mean business)

1 instance 0.03% of sample

Patterns: Verb (inflect)

gives further evidence that Daimler means business

COBUILD Sense 20 (out of + business)

8 instances 0.31% of sample

Patterns: phrase after verb

COBUILD Sense 22 (business as usual)

4 instances 0.15% of sample

Patterns: usually verb link phrase

Business as usual is a common refrain …

ADDITIONAL Senses:

Conversational filler:

2 instances 0.07% of sample

all this sort of business

that sort of business, you know. The usual story

Other COBUILD entries:

business card: 2 instances

business class: 5 instances

business hours: 5 instances

Other patterns:

i) In the BEC, ‘business’ occurs in an end of sentence position 267 times, (10.46% of sample).

‘Business’ in the PMC occurs 157 times (15.49%) of sample.

… to show that we mean business.

… a climate for creativity in business.

ii) possessive pronoun + business:

163 instances 6.38% of sample

In the PMC there were 68 instances 6.81% of sample

my own business, your business

iii) definite article the + business

485 instances 19.01% of sample

There are links between definite article usage and COBUILD senses 3 & 5:

The minimum target for the business to survive is £250 million (sense 3)

How did you come into the business then originally, the car business? (sense 5)

iv) indefinite article a + business

127 instances 4.97% of sample

There are links between indefinite article usage and COBUILD Sense 3:

The skills that are needed to start a business

Points iii) and iv) above are true except when ‘business’ is used as part of a noun group:

the business community, the business mix for 1993 was 65.5% personal ….

a business magazine

v) noun group + of + business (these refer to process/activity/people/place/amount related to business)

150 instances 5.88% of sample

principle place of business, major branch of business, close of business

vi) do + business

41 instances 1.6% of sample

This compares to 59 instances in the PMC – 5.81% of sample.

f) Associates

N	WORD	NO. OF FILES	AS %
1	BUSINESS	109	100.00
2	COMPANY	27	24.77
3	WE	21	19.27
4	CUSTOMER	19	17.43
5	MANAGEMENT	19	17.43
6	BUSINESSES	18	16.51
7	MARKET	18	16.51
8	CUSTOMERS	18	16.51
9	COMPANIES	17	15.60
10	SALES	16	14.68
11	ITS	15	13.76
12	FINANCIAL	13	11.93
13	GROUP	13	11.93
14	SERVICES	12	11.01
15	SHARE	11	10.09
16	PROFIT	11	10.09
17	OR	11	10.09
18	COST	11	10.09
19	SYSTEMS	11	10.09
20	PER	10	9.17
21	PEOPLE	10	9.17
22	ARE	10	9.17
23	WILL	10	9.17
24	PRODUCTS	10	9.17
25	SO	10	9.17
26	CASH	10	9.17
27	OUR	10	9.17
28	MILLION	10	9.17
29	OK	9	8.26
30	GLOBAL	9	8.26
31	CORE	9	8.26
32	REPORTING	9	8.26
33	BILLION	9	8.26
34	INDUSTRY	8	7.34
35	NEW	8	7.34
36	MANUFACTURING	8	7.34
37	MARKETS	8	7.34
38	YEAR	8	7.34
39	GROWTH	8	7.34
40	FIRMS	8	7.34
41	PRODUCT	8	7.34
42	DEVELOPMENT	8	7.34
43	ASSETS	8	7.34
44	CORPORATE	8	7.34
45	BE	8	7.34
46	BANK	8	7.34
47	MARKETING	7	6.42
48	IS	7	6.42
49	INTERNET	7	6.42
50	SUPPLIERS	7	6.42
51	SOLUTIONS	7	6.42
52	TAX	7	6.42
53	TEAM	7	6.42
54	ORGANISATION	7	6.42
55	MAY	7	6.42
56	SELL	7	6.42
57	PRICE	7	6.42
58	YOUR	7	6.42
59	ERM	7	6.42
60	CEO	7	6.42
61	INCREASE	7	6.42
62	CAPITAL	7	6.42
63	EXECUTIVES	7	6.42
64	IN	7	6.42
65	EXECUTIVE	7	6.42
66	EARNINGS	7	6.42
67	INTERNATIONAL	7	6.42
68	BANKS	7	6.42
69	COMPETITIVE	7	6.42
70	DIRECTORS	6	5.50
71	SHAREHOLDERS	6	5.50
72	SHARES	6	5.50
73	COSTS	6	5.50
74	SERVICE	6	5.50
75	PERFORMANCE	6	5.50
76	DO	6	5.50
77	TOTAL	6	5.50
78	THEY	6	5.50
79	BECAUSE	6	5.50
80	WE’VE	6	5.50
81	AVERAGE	6	5.50
82	ACCOUNTING	6	5.50
83	BUDGET	6	5.50
84	SOFTWARE	6	5.50
85	SIGNIFICANT	6	5.50
86	STRATEGIC	6	5.50
87	STOCK	6	5.50
88	YOU	6	5.50
89	NET	6	5.50
90	MR	6	5.50
91	EQUITY	6	5.50
92	OPERATING	6	5.50
93	INFORMATION	6	5.50
94	INVESTMENTS	6	5.50
95	MANAGERS	6	5.50
96	MANAGER	6	5.50
97	INVESTMENT	6	5.50
98	EMPLOYEE	6	5.50
99	BOOK	5	4.59
100	LEADERSHIP	5	4.59
101	TECHNOLOGIES	5	4.59
102	PERCENT	5	4.59
103	MANAGING	5	4.59
104	BOOKS	5	4.59
105	STRATEGY	5	4.59
106	IMPORTANT	5	4.59
107	INCREASED	5	4.59
108	THERE’S	5	4.59
109	DIVISION	5	4.59
110	IT’S	5	4.59
111	ORGANIZATIONAL	5	4.59
112	TEND	5	4.59
113	TECHNOLOGY	5	4.59
114	THAT	5	4.59
115	TERM	5	4.59
116	ACTIVITIES	5	4.59
117	RESULTS	5	4.59
118	RESEARCH	5	4.59
119	CO	5	4.59
120	COMMERCIAL	5	4.59
121	SELLING	5	4.59
122	PROFITS	5	4.59
123	PRICES	5	4.59
124	COMPANY’S	5	4.59
125	PURCHASE	5	4.59
126	DEAL	5	4.59
127	SHOULD	5	4.59
128	NEED	5	4.59
129	FINANCE	5	4.59
130	OPPORTUNITIES	5	4.59
131	HAS	5	4.59
132	CLIENTS	5	4.59
133	OF	5	4.59
134	DIRECTOR	5	4.59
135	OBVIOUSLY	5	4.59

Comments (these focus both on the BEC and also on BEC/PMC differences)

1. Phrases in the BEC not included or under-represented in the PMC:

close of business, place of business, business as usual, business hours

2. Any other business: used much more widely than in the PMC. In the PMC it is used solely in terms of agendas/meetings, i.e. AOB. In the BEC it is only used twice like this and otherwise to refer to other businesses, e.g. as a computer business or any other business.

3. On business: Again the prepositional phrase ‘on business’ has a much broader usage than is represented in the PMC. There it is used almost solely for Sense 4, i.e. to be on business rather than pleasure (19/21 instances). In the BEC (15 instances 0.58% of sample), it is not used once in this sense but rather as connective preposition, e.g. VAT on business expenses, advising them on business plans.

8.2.10 BEC 3-6 word cluster frequency lists

In this section, examples of 3-6 word frequency clusters from the BEC are presented. A minimum cut-off level of 10 occurrences was used for the 5- and 6-word clusters, as their number was considerably less than the 3- and 4-word clusters. For the 3- and 4-word clusters, a minimum cut-off level of 50 instances was used. Fuller lists of the clusters can be found on the CD ROM. Two points can be made here about these clusters. Firstly, that the longer clusters (5-6 word) show a low overall frequency and seem to be highly genre-specific, and secondly, that the short clusters (3-word) are much higher in frequency and appear much less tied to any specific genre. This is discussed in detail in Chapter 9, Section 9.3.6.

TABLE XIX: 6-WORD FREQUENCY CLUSTERS

N	Word	Freq.
1	A DIVISION OF COMPANYNAME PLC REGISTERED	36
2	DIVISION OF COMPANYNAME PLC REGISTERED OFFICE	36
3	AT THE END OF THE DAY	32
4	HAVE ANY DIFFICULTY RECEIVING THIS TRANSMISSION	30
5	IF YOU HAVE ANY DIFFICULTY RECEIVING	30
6	YOU HAVE ANY DIFFICULTY RECEIVING THIS	30
7	A DIVISION OF COMPANYNAME HOLDINGS PLC	21
8	DIVISION OF COMPANYNAME HOLDINGS PLC REGISTERED	21
9	OF COMPANYNAME HOLDINGS PLC REGISTERED OFFICE	21
10	LOOK FORWARD TO HEARING FROM YOU	20
11	PLEASE DO NOT HESITATE TO CONTACT	20
12	DO NOT HESITATE TO CONTACT ME	19
13	PERSONNAME TOTAL PAGES INCLUDING THIS PAGE	19
14	DIFFICULTY RECEIVING THIS TRANSMISSION PLEASE ADVISE	14
15	HOW TO BUY RUN A	14
16	RECEIVING THIS TRANSMISSION PLEASE ADVISE AT	14
17	THIS TRANSMISSION PLEASE ADVISE AT ONCE	14
18	TO BUY RUN A SHOP	14
19	TEXT DECODER WITH # PAGE MEMORY	13
20	THE SUPPLIER SHALL ESTABLISH AND MAINTAIN	13
21	AT THE END OF THE YEAR	12
22	FIM # # MILLION IN #	12
23	NINE ELMS LANE LONDON SW# #DR	12
24	A DIVISION OF COMPANYNAME COMPANY REGISTERED	11
25	CRISPINS DUKE STREET NORWICH NR# #PD	11
26	DIVISION OF COMPANYNAME COMPANY REGISTERED NUMBER	11
27	ENGLAND NO # INVESTOR IN PEOPLE	11
28	FIM # # MILLION FIM #	11
29	IN ENGLAND NO # INVESTOR IN	11
30	MILLION FIM # # MILLION IN	11
31	PRESS RELEASE IS TRANSMITTED ON BEHALF	11
32	REGISTERED IN ENGLAND NO # INVESTOR	11
33	RELEASE IS TRANSMITTED ON BEHALF OF	11
34	ST CRISPINS DUKE STREET NORWICH NR#	11
35	THIS PRESS RELEASE IS TRANSMITTED ON	11
36	A COMPANY LIMITED BY GUARANTEE REGISTERED	10
37	ARE PROJECTED TO INCREASE BY #	10
38	BETWEEN THE BUYER AND THE SELLER	10
39	BY GUARANTEE REGISTERED IN ENGLAND NO	10
40	COMPANY LIMITED BY GUARANTEE REGISTERED IN	10
41	COMPANYNAME INTERNAL MEMO COMPANYNAME LIMITED COMPANYADDRESS	10
42	FACSIMILE #-# # E-MAIL	10
43	GUARANTEE REGISTERED IN ENGLAND NO #	10
44	I LOOK FORWARD TO HEARING FROM	10
45	LIMITED BY GUARANTEE REGISTERED IN ENGLAND	10
46	MANCHESTER M# #KI TELEPHONE #-#	10
47	SUPPLIER SHALL ESTABLISH AND MAINTAIN PROCEDURES	10
48	TELEPHONE #-# # FACSIMILE #	10

TABLE XX: 5-WORD FREQUENCY CLUSTERS

N	Word	Freq.
1	AT THE END OF THE	72
2	A MEMBER OF COMPANYNAME INTERNATIONAL	57
3	A DIVISION OF COMPANYNAME PLC	36
4	DIVISION OF COMPANYNAME PLC REGISTERED	36
5	OF COMPANYNAME PLC REGISTERED OFFICE	36
6	TOTAL PAGES INCLUDING THIS PAGE	36
7	THE END OF THE DAY	33
8	COMPANYADDRESS REGISTERED IN ENGLAND NO	32
9	ANY DIFFICULTY RECEIVING THIS TRANSMISSION	30
10	HAVE ANY DIFFICULTY RECEIVING THIS	30
11	IF YOU HAVE ANY DIFFICULTY	30
12	YOU HAVE ANY DIFFICULTY RECEIVING	30
13	AS A RESULT OF THE	29
14	DO NOT HESITATE TO CONTACT	25
15	FOR THE ATTENTION OF MR	24
16	FORWARD TO HEARING FROM YOU	23
17	THE END OF THE YEAR	23
18	A DIVISION OF COMPANYNAME HOLDINGS	21
19	A LEVEL # PERFORMER WILL	21
20	COMPANYNAME HOLDINGS PLC REGISTERED OFFICE	21
21	DIVISION OF COMPANYNAME HOLDINGS PLC	21
22	OF COMPANYNAME HOLDINGS PLC REGISTERED	21
23	PLEASE DO NOT HESITATE TO	21
24	COMPANYNAME LIMITED COMPANYADDRESS ENGLAND TEL	20
25	LOOK FORWARD TO HEARING FROM	20
26	NOT HESITATE TO CONTACT ME	19
27	PERSONNAME TOTAL PAGES INCLUDING THIS	19
28	MORE THAN # PER CENT	17
29	THE INSTITUTE FOR GLOBAL BUSINESS	17
30	ARE PROJECTED TO INCREASE BY	16
31	CHAMBER OF COMMERCE INDUSTRY	16
32	SHARING IN THE BOARDROOM #	16
33	THE YEAR ENDED #ST MARCH	15
34	YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN	15
35	BUY RUN A SHOP	14
36	DIFFICULTY RECEIVING THIS TRANSMISSION PLEASE	14
37	HOW TO BUY RUN	14
38	RECEIVING THIS TRANSMISSION PLEASE ADVISE	14
39	THIS TRANSMISSION PLEASE ADVISE AT	14
40	TO BUY RUN A	14
41	TRANSMISSION PLEASE ADVISE AT ONCE	14
42	AND THAT SORT OF THING	13
43	BY THE END OF #	13
44	BY THE END OF THE	13
45	DECODER WITH # PAGE MEMORY	13
46	DUKE STREET NORWICH NR# #PD	13
47	HOW LONG HAVE YOU WORKED	13
48	I LOOK FORWARD TO HEARING	13
49	IT WAS AGREED THAT THE	13
50	NINE ELMS LANE LONDON SW#	13
51	ST CRISPINS DUKE STREET NORWICH	13
52	SUPPLIER SHALL ESTABLISH AND MAINTAIN	13
53	TEXT DECODER WITH # PAGE	13
54	THE SUPPLIER SHALL ESTABLISH AND	13
55	A COMPANY LIMITED BY GUARANTEE	12
56	CRISPINS DUKE STREET NORWICH NR#	12
57	ELMS LANE LONDON SW# #DR	12
58	FIM # # MILLION IN	12
59	NEED TO BE ABLE TO	12
60	PROJECTED TO INCREASE BY #	12
61	THE BUYER AND THE SELLER	12
62	THE PRICE OF THE GOODS	12
63	THE PROFIT AND LOSS ACCOUNT	12
64	THE SELLER SHALL BE ENTITLED	12
65	A DIVISION OF COMPANYNAME COMPANY	11
66	AGREED IN WRITING BETWEEN THE	11
67	AT THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING	11
68	AT THE END OF #	11
69	DIVISION OF COMPANYNAME COMPANY REGISTERED	11
70	ENGLAND NO # INVESTOR IN	11
71	FIM # # MILLION FIM	11
72	FOR THE FIRST TIME IN	11
73	IF YOU ARE GOING TO	11
74	IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO	11
75	IN ENGLAND NO # INVESTOR	11
76	IS TRANSMITTED ON BEHALF OF	11
77	MEMO COMPANYNAME LIMITED COMPANYADDRESS TEL	11
78	MILLION FIM # # MILLION	11
79	NO # INVESTOR IN PEOPLE	11
80	NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS	11
81	OF COMPANYNAME COMPANY REGISTERED NUMBER	11
82	ONE OF THE THINGS THAT	11
83	PRESS RELEASE IS TRANSMITTED ON	11
84	REGISTERED IN ENGLAND NO #	11
85	RELEASE IS TRANSMITTED ON BEHALF	11
86	THE DOW JONES INDUSTRIAL AVERAGE	11
87	THIS PRESS RELEASE IS TRANSMITTED	11
88	WE HAVE A LOT OF	11
89	AT THE BEGINNING OF THE	10
90	BETWEEN THE BUYER AND THE	10
91	BRITISH EMBASSY COMMERCIAL SECTION BUDAPEST	10
92	BY GUARANTEE REGISTERED IN ENGLAND	10
93	COMPANY LIMITED BY GUARANTEE REGISTERED	10
94	COMPANYNAME INTERNAL MEMO COMPANYNAME LIMITED	10
95	FACSIMILE #-# # E	10
96	GUARANTEE REGISTERED IN ENGLAND NO	10
97	IN THE SECOND HALF OF	10
98	INTERNAL MEMO COMPANYNAME LIMITED COMPANYADDRESS	10
99	JULIAN HULSE # OXFORD STREET	10
100	LIMITED BY GUARANTEE REGISTERED IN	10
101	MANCHESTER M# #KI TELEPHONE #	10
102	MEMBER OF THE GROUPNAME GROUP	10
103	OF THE BANK OF ENGLAND	10
104	SHALL ESTABLISH AND MAINTAIN PROCEDURES	10
105	TELEPHONE #-# # FACSIMILE	10
106	THE ARCHITECTTHE CONTRACT ADMINISTRATOR SHALL	10
107	THE CONTRACTOR UNDER THIS CONTRACT	10
108	TO MAKE SURE THAT THE	10
109	WE ARE GOING TO DO	10

TABLE XX1: 4-WORD FREQUENCY CLUSTERS

N	Word	Freq.
1	AT THE END OF	127
2	THE END OF THE	117
3	AT THE SAME TIME	85
4	TO BE ABLE TO	76
5	REGISTERED IN ENGLAND NO	70
6	AS A RESULT OF	69
7	A DIVISION OF COMPANYNAME	68
8	WE ARE GOING TO	64
9	A LEVEL # PERFORMER	57
10	A MEMBER OF COMPANYNAME	57
11	IF YOU HAVE ANY	57
12	MEMBER OF COMPANYNAME INTERNATIONAL	57
13	IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE	53
14	IF YOU WANT TO	48
15	THE REST OF THE	48
16	ON THE BASIS OF	47
17	A LOT OF PEOPLE	45
18	BY THE END OF	43
19	COMPANYADDRESS REGISTERED IN ENGLAND	42
20	IS GOING TO BE	41
21	THANK YOU FOR YOUR	41
22	THAT SORT OF THING	41
23	IS ONE OF THE	39
24	WILL BE ABLE TO	38
25	IN THE UNITED STATES	37
26	THE MARKETING WORKING GROUP	37
27	TO MAKE SURE THAT	37
28	YOU ARE GOING TO	37
29	A WIDE RANGE OF	36
30	COMPANYNAME PLC REGISTERED OFFICE	36
31	DIFFICULTY RECEIVING THIS TRANSMISSION	36
32	DIVISION OF COMPANYNAME PLC	36
33	OF COMPANYNAME PLC REGISTERED	36
34	PAGES INCLUDING THIS PAGE	36
35	PLEASE ADVISE AT ONCE	36
36	THE BANK OF ENGLAND	36
37	TOTAL PAGES INCLUDING THIS	36
38	A COPY OF THE	35
39	IN THE CASE OF	35
40	IT’S GOING TO BE	35
41	PER CENT OF THE	35
42	END OF THE DAY	34
43	FOR THE ATTENTION OF	34
44	FOR THE FIRST TIME	34
45	THE END OF #	34
46	A BIT OF A	33
47	THANK YOU VERY MUCH	33
48	AS WELL AS THE	32
49	OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT	32
50	THEY ARE GOING TO	32

TABLE XXII: 3-WORD FREQUENCY CLUSTERS

N	Word	Freq.	bec %
1	A LOT OF	451	0.04
2	ONE OF THE	329	0.03
3	THE END OF	249	0.02
4	AT THE MOMENT	225	0.02
5	BE ABLE TO	224	0.02
6	GOING TO BE	221	0.02
7	AS WELL AS	219	0.02
8	I DON’T KNOW	210	0.02
9	IN ORDER TO	190	0.02
10	ARE GOING TO	175	0.02
11	SOME OF THE	173	0.02
12	IN TERMS OF	169	0.02
13	PART OF THE	167	0.02
14	A NUMBER OF	163	0.02
15	THERE IS A	163	0.02
16	END OF THE	152	0.01
17	I DON’T THINK	152	0.01
18	IN THE UK	151	0.01
19	WE NEED TO	148	0.01
20	AT THE END	140	0.01
21	YOU HAVE TO	140	0.01
22	MORE THAN #	136	0.01
23	YOU WANT TO	131	0.01
24	OF THE COMPANY	127	0.01
25	IF YOU HAVE	120	0.01
26	IT WOULD BE	119	0.01
27	NEED TO BE	118	0.01
28	TO BE A	117	0.01
29	OUT OF THE	114	0.01
30	WE HAVE TO	114	0.01
31	AND I THINK	113	0.01
32	IN THE PAST	108	0.01
33	THIS IS A	108	0.01
34	WE HAVE A	108	0.01
35	A COUPLE OF	107	0.01
36	HAVE TO BE	105	0.01
37	THE FACT THAT	105	0.01
38	WOULD LIKE TO	104	0.01
39	IF YOU ARE	101
40	IN ACCORDANCE WITH	101
41	THE UNITED STATES	101
42	YOU’VE GOT TO	101
43	AS A RESULT	100
44	IS GOING TO	99
45	YOU NEED TO	97
46	AT THE SAME	96
47	I THINK THE	96
48	THERE WAS A	96
49	TO HAVE A	96
50	IT WILL BE	94

8.2.11 Key BEC 3-word clusters

Here, the key 3-word clusters of the BEC are presented. Only the top 50 are shown. For a fuller list see the CD ROM. These 3-word clusters differ from the 3-word frequency clusters above by being much less frequent and seemingly more genre- or business area-specific. See Chapter 9, Section 9.3.6.1 for a fuller discussion on this.

TABLE XXIII: KEY BEC 3-WORD CLUSTERS

N	Word	BEC Freq.	BEC %	BNC Freq.	BNC %	Keyness Log L.
1	REGISTERED IN ENGLAND	85		0		182.0
2	A DIVISION OF	74		0		158.5
3	IN ENGLAND NO	70		0		149.9
4	DIVISION OF COMPANYNAME	69		0		147.7
5	OF THE GOODS	72		3		131.5
6	A LEVEL #	58		0		124.2
7	PLC REGISTERED OFFICE	57		0		122.0
8	MEMBER OF COMPANYNAME	57		0		122.0
9	OF COMPANYNAME INTERNATIONAL	57		0		122.0
10	LEVEL # PERFORMER	57		0		122.0
11	ARE GOING TO	175	0.02	82		121.7
12	OF THE BUSINESS	83		11		119.1
13	IN THE BUSINESS	63		2		118.7
14	IN THE UK	151	0.01	65		113.7
15	COMPANYNAME LIMITED COMPANYADDRESS	52		0		111.3
16	THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE	51		0		109.2
17	BY THE SELLER	50		0		107.1
18	THE PHARE PROGRAMME	50		0		107.1
19	TERMS AND CONDITIONS	46		0		98.5
20	THE SUPPLIER SHALL	46		0		98.5
21	THE = THE	45		0		96.4
22	MARKETING WORKING GROUP	44		0		94.2
23	BY THE BUYER	43		0		92.1
24	COMPANYADDRESS REGISTERED IN	42		0		89.9
25	THE BUYER SHALL	42		0		89.9
26	OF THIS AGREEMENT	41		0		87.8
27	IN ACCORDANCE WITH	101		37		86.9
28	THE MARKETING WORKING	40		0		85.6
29	INCLUDING THIS PAGE	40		0		85.6
30	THE PROPERTY WILL	39		0		83.5
31	IF YOU ARE	101		39		83.4
32	PAGES INCLUDING THIS	38		0		81.4
33	OF COMPANYNAME PLC	38		0		81.4
34	ON WALL STREET	38		0		81.4
35	OF THE SELLER	38		0		81.4
36	COMPANYNAME PLC REGISTERED	37		0		79.2
37	AND = AND	37		0		79.2
38	IF YOU HAVE	120	0.01	60		78.2
39	PLEASE ADVISE AT	36		0		77.1
40	SHALL NOT BE	36		0		77.1
41	TOTAL PAGES INCLUDING	36		0		77.1
42	DIFFICULTY RECEIVING THIS	36		0		77.1
43	RECEIVING THIS TRANSMISSION	36		0		77.1
44	ADVISE AT ONCE	36		0		77.1
45	OF THE COMPANY	127	0.01	68		76.8
46	TO THE CONTRACTOR	35		0		74.9
47	THE SELLER SHALL	35		0		74.9
48	TO THE BUYER	41		2		73.3
49	FIM # #	34		0		72.8
50	YOU HAVE ANY	72		21		72.4

8.2.12 Analysis of five key 2-word clusters from the BEC

Five 2-word clusters were chosen (discussed in Chapter 7, Step 5 f) and subjected to the same analysis as the single words shown in Section 8.2.9 above. These clusters can be found in full in Appendix 7 in Vol. II and fuller treatment is given in Chapter 9, Section 9.3.6.2. An example, interest rates, is shown below:

EXAMPLE 2-WORD CLUSTER: ‘INTEREST RATES’

a) Keyness

‘Interest rates’ was the seventy-first most significant 2-word cluster in the BEC corpus.

N	Word	bec freq.	bec.lst %	bnc freq.	bnc.lst %	Keyness	P
71	INTEREST RATES	127	0.01	37	–	127.9	0.000000

b) Semantic Prosody

Left: Five groups identified. An interesting, though not surprising factor, is the semantic prosody concerning the upward and downward movement of interest rates. Where higher interest rates are mentioned they are often accompanied by very negative language:

Conversely, where lower interest rates are mentioned these examples are often accompanied by positive co-text:

A third semantic group contains the lexis of containment:

Thus, interest rates can be seen as an evil to be contained: feared on the rise and celebrated on the fall.

semantic prosody	frequency/ 127 & %	example
movement upwards/ high level	46 – 36.22%*	higher interest rates rise in interest rates Russia raised interest rates
movement downwards/ low level	18- 14.17%	if it reduces interest rates it is the decline in interest rates falling interest rates
time	10 – 7.87%	long-term interest rates short-term interest rates
containment/control	7 – 5.51%	set interest rates peg interest rates
decisions	7 – 5.51%	The decision to raise interest rates from 7pc to 7.25pc

* Included here are two instances of right of the node lexis, e.g. forced interest rates up sharply.

Right: No groups identified.

c) Three-word clusters

N	cluster	Freq.
1	higher interest rates	12
2	in interest rates	11
3	low interest rates	11
4	term interest rates	10
5	high interest rates	9
6	interest rates and	9
7	of interest rates	8
8	interest rates are	7
9	on interest rates	6
10	interest rates by	5
11	interest rates in	5
12	raise interest rates	5
13	interest rates have	4
14	interest rates to	4
15	interest rates up	4
16	interest rates will	4
17	rise in interest	4

d) Macro-generic distribution

e) Colligation

i) noun + in + interest rates: (the nouns show movement – mostly upwards)

11 instances – 8.66% of sample (upwards movement verbs 8/11)

f) Associates

‘Interest rates’ was key in 12 files. The only associate of frequency > =5 was ‘interest rates’ itself.

Comments

1. The semantic prosody category decisions was gained using a 10:10 span concordance search. It has typical patterns: noun-on-noun or noun-to-inf-noun:

8.2.13 Analysis of five 3-word clusters from the BEC

Five 3-word clusters were chosen (discussed in Chapter 7, Step 5 f), and subjected to the same analysis as the fifty single words noted in Section 8.2.9 above. These clusters can all be found in Appendix 8 in Vol. II. They are discussed in more detail in Chapter 9, Section 9.3.6.2. An example, in order to, is shown below:

EXAMPLE 3-WORD CLUSTER: ‘IN ORDER TO’

a) Keyness

‘In order to’ was the fifty-fifth most significant key three-word cluster in the BEC corpus.

N	Word	bec freq.	bec.lst %	bnc freq.	bnc.lst %	Keyness	P
55	IN ORDER TO	190	0.02	151	–	65.3	0.000000

b) Semantic Prosody

Left: No groups identified.

Right: One group identified. The verbs following ‘in order to’ were quite diverse, but the members of the group all showed a positive goal, result or outcome of the action. Even seemingly negative phrases had a positive connotation, e.g. in order to + avoid: specifying how to pre-empt difficult situations (5 instances in the sample):

semantic prosody	frequency/ 191 & %	example
positive goal, result or outcome	137 – 71.72%	in order to achieve a 25% increase in order to allow maximum exploitation of the box in order to continuously improve in order to win business in order to secure airline contracts

c) Clusters

6-word: No clusters of frequency >=3.

5-word:

N	cluster	Freq.
1	in order to provide the	4
2	in order to achieve a	3
3	in order to ensure that	3
4	in order to get the	3
5	in order to keep the	3
6	in order to make the	3
7	in order to update the	3

4-word:

N	cluster	Freq.
1	in order to make	8
2	in order to achieve	7
3	in order to ensure	6
4	in order to keep	6
5	in order to avoid	5
6	in order to provide	5
7	but in order to	4
8	in order to allow	4
9	in order to compete	4
10	in order to determine	4
11	in order to get	4
12	in order to maintain	4
13	in order to obtain	4
14	order to provide the	4

d) Macro-generic distribution

e) Colligation

i) in order to-inf

191 instances 100% of sample.

f) Associates

‘In order to’ was key in five files. The only associate of frequency >5 was ‘in order to’ itself.

Comments

1. This cluster has an overwhelmingly positive semantic prosody. Over 70% of the examples are directly positive and the rest are neutral.

8.2.14 BEC Key key-word database

Here the 100 most significant key key-words are presented. Key key-words are those words that are key ‘in a large number of texts of a given type’ (Scott 1997:237). Below we see the word, how many files it was key in, e.g. business was a key word in 111 files out of 877, and the same statistic as a percentage value of the total number of files. A fuller list of key key-words can be found on the CD ROM. It can be seen from the list here, that, as with the previous positive key word list, there is a high concentration of business-related lexis. See Chapter 9, Section 9.3.7 for more on this.

TABLE XXIV: BEC KEY KEY-WORDS (TOP 100)

N	WORD	OF 877	AS %
1	BUSINESS	111	12.66
2	COMPANY	81	9.24
3	OK	80	9.12
4	SALES	58	6.61
5	FAX	56	6.39
6	WE	51	5.82
7	MARKET	45	5.13
8	COMPANIES	45	5.13
9	CUSTOMER	43	4.90
10	YEAH	41	4.68
11	MANAGEMENT	39	4.45
12	CUSTOMERS	36	4.10
13	PRODUCT	36	4.10
14	RIGHT	36	4.10
15	FINANCIAL	33	3.76
16	STOCK	33	3.76
17	PRODUCTS	33	3.76
18	BILLION	33	3.76
19	PER	33	3.76
20	YOU	33	3.76
21	ITS	32	3.65
22	OUR	32	3.65
23	WILL	31	3.53
24	INTERNET	29	3.31
25	MARKETS	29	3.31
26	PRICE	29	3.31
27	SO	28	3.19
28	ERM	28	3.19
29	GROUP	28	3.19
30	OR	27	3.08
31	BANK	26	2.96
32	YEAR	25	2.85
33	MILLION	25	2.85
34	SERVICES	25	2.85
35	GLOBAL	23	2.62
36	PRICES	23	2.62
37	TAX	23	2.62
38	SYSTEMS	23	2.62
39	MR	22	2.51
40	BUSINESSES	22	2.51
41	MARKETING	22	2.51
42	INTERNATIONAL	20	2.28
43	CREDIT	20	2.28
44	SHARES	20	2.28
45	OF	20	2.28
46	TRAINING	20	2.28
47	BE	20	2.28
48	BANKS	20	2.28
49	ORDER	20	2.28
50	THE	19	2.17
51	EXECUTIVE	18	2.05
52	EQUIPMENT	18	2.05
53	ECONOMY	18	2.05
54	SOFTWARE	18	2.05
55	SHARE	18	2.05
56	GROWTH	17	1.94
57	PROFIT	17	1.94
58	PAYMENT	17	1.94
59	INDUSTRY	17	1.94
60	BECAUSE	17	1.94
61	SERVICE	17	1.94
62	PROJECT	17	1.94
63	CORPORATE	17	1.94
64	SHALL	17	1.94
65	ARE	17	1.94
66	MANAGER	17	1.94
67	TEAM	17	1.94
68	COST	16	1.82
69	COSTS	16	1.82
70	TRADE	16	1.82
71	BUDGET	16	1.82
72	MEAN	16	1.82
73	CASH	16	1.82
74	RATES	16	1.82
75	COMPANY’S	16	1.82
76	WE’VE	16	1.82
77	YOUR	15	1.71
78	INVESTMENT	15	1.71
79	TECHNOLOGY	15	1.71
80	REVIEW	15	1.71
81	MAIL	15	1.71
82	INFORMATION	15	1.71
83	BY	15	1.71
84	DO	15	1.71
85	JUST	15	1.71
86	THAT’S	15	1.71
87	TRADING	14	1.60
88	PROJECTS	14	1.60
89	FIRMS	14	1.60
90	MEETING	14	1.60
91	CONSUMERS	14	1.60
92	DESIGN	14	1.60
93	PERCENT	14	1.60
94	REPORTING	14	1.60
95	AUDIT	14	1.60
96	DELIVERY	14	1.60
97	PERFORMANCE	14	1.60
98	THAT	14	1.60
99	AGREEMENT	14	1.60
100	DIRECTOR	14	1.60

8.2.15 Analysis of five key words words from the BNC corpus

Five words were chosen from the BNC Sampler corpus and subjected to the same analysis as the single words in the BEC (as in Chapter 7, Step 5 a-h) in order to provide a comparison of usage between Business English and general English. All five words analysed in the BNC can be found in Appendix 9 in Vol. II. An example, manage, is shown below:

EXAMPLE WORD FROM BNC ANALYSIS: ‘MANAGE’

a) Keyness

The lemma ‘manage’ was the one hundred and forty-fourth most significant key word in the BEC corpus.

N	Word	bec freq.	bec.lst %	bnc freq.	bnc.lst %	Keyness	P
144	MANAGE	377	0.04	246	0.01	177.9	0.000000

b) Semantic Prosody

No groups identified but see colligation section below.

c) Three-word clusters

N	cluster	Freq.
1	did you manage	9
2	how did you	8
3	going to manage	4
4	have to manage	4
5	I could manage	4
6	those who manage	4

d) Macro-generic distribution

‘Manage’ was used in 48 out of 185 files.

e) Colligation

Manage n = 88

COBUILD Sense 1 (controlling a system, organisation)

17 instances 19.31% of sample

Pattern: Verb/ Verb-Noun

manage a network of UK resellers

COBUILD Sense 3 (to manage to do something)

38 instances 43.18% of sample

Pattern: Verb to-inf/Verb-Noun

COBUILD Sense 4 (to manage to cope with a difficult situation)

32 instances 36.36% of sample

Patterns: Verb

Other patterns:

i) modal/auxiliary + manage: (this group expresses likelihood/necessity/ability)

27 instances 30.68% of sample

This compares to modal usage in the BEC where only 7 examples were found, 8.53% of the sample in the BEC.

Comments

1. In this sample from the BNC, we see a reversal of the frequency of the senses when compared to the BEC. In the BEC, Sense 1 was 54.87% of the sample, in the BNC it was 19.31%. In the BEC Sense 3 was 14.63% of the sample, in the BNC it was 43.18%. Additionally in the BEC there were no examples of Sense 4 found.

2. Many of the examples found in the BNC were negative ones: I can’t manage, he could not manage. Negativity is not referred to in COBUILD.

8.2.16 Collocates of the 50 key words shown by MI statistic.

It was noted in Chapter 7 that the MI statistic is not considered a sole reliable source of information when determining collocational significance – it tends to over-stress highly infrequent collocates. Thus, in this research it has not played a large part. However, the MI statistics for all the 50 key words under analysis were computed. They are presented on the next pages. This list is also to be found in Appendix 10 in Vol. II.

TABLE XXV: COLLOCATES OF THE KEY WORDS AND MI SCORE

Word	Collocates & MI Score
customer	acknowledges 4.66 consciousness 4.59 satisfaction 4.17 hereunder 3.78 assistant 3.46 refund 3.42 base 3.28 preferences 3.27 elt 3.27 confidentiality 3.27
manager	cfi 5.72 work’s 5.39 medal 4.55 enc 4.32 oversee 3.81 branch 3.43 inc’s 3.22 booksellers 3.22
supplier	furnish 6.86 establish 5.19 tier 4.99 intends 4.74 dcs 4.33 terminal 3.86 leading 3.67 shall 3.52 records 3.07
distributor	notify 4.85 nz 4.79 angus 4.70 terminate 4.33 appointed 3.10
shareholder	tsr 6.15 return 4.41 value 3.92 total 3.82 release 3.64 rights 3.15 partner 3.10 approval 3.06
employee	counselling 5.13 ownership 4.79 satisfaction 4.35 agent 4.16 involvement 3.62 owners 3.5 official 3.42 representative 3.16 relations 3.06
staff	siteon 4.87 forum 4.36 dining 4.02 employing 3.78 trusted 3.61 recruiting 3.46 junior 3.25 bed 3.13
partner	pegge 7.45 cazenove 6.45 pw 5.33 ernst 5.22 willing 4.03 senior 3.73. venture 3.24 shareholder 3.10
boss	inc’s 5.88 indians 4.70 america’s 3.56
management	timebased 5.60 mercury 4.55 templeton 4.13 resolute 3.87 krigline 3.87 expatriate 3.87 guru 3.55 ems 3.55 deloitte 3.55 buyout 3.55
business	roland 3.47 gribben 3.47 clydebank 3.47 knutsford 3.05
investment	realized 5.52 comcast 5.37 inward 5.32 consisted 5.22 slashed 4.96 grade 4.74 incremental 4.64 banker 4.44 trusts 4.37 boosting 3.96
delivery	conveyance 6.85 tendered 5.85 notwithstanding 5.04 constitute 4.53 calculating 4.26 shorter 4.15 instalments 4.15 consignment 4.04 quoted 3.65 exclusively 3.53
payment	lump 5.58 validity 4.43 prompt 4.16 hereof 3.92 cleared 3.92 sum 3.33 deposit 3.26
development	counsellors 5.36 umts 5.19 counsellor 5.03 accelerated 4.36 cycles 4.19 electrolux 3.50 sustainable 3.49 nera 3.45 accelerate 3.45 research 3.10
production	rationalising 5.75 automated 4.90 defective 4.81 commenced 4.58 indicator 4.42 installation 4.26 virgin 3.66 valued 3.66 inefficient 3.66 environments 3.42
communication	interpersonal 5.45 hyperion 5.06 excellent 3.91 skills 3.34 feedback 3.31
competition	karel 6.48 foreshorten 6.39 stiff 6.22 fierce 5.63 commissioner 5.34 union’s 4.63 intense 4.55 paths 4.48 stages 3.99 faces 3.48
takeover	distillers 8.43 guinness’s 7.85 speculation 5.53 fear 5.53 panel 5.47 battle 4.59 bid 4.50 code 3.98 america’s 3.94
distribution	nfc 4.60 channels 4.54 revenue 4.37 midlands 4.27 expanded 3.84 elsewhere 3.07
sell	eager 4.50 rollers 3.25 offs 3.11
manage	strategically 5.62 efficiently 5.43 awareness 4.38 relationships 3.26 grow 3.04
receive	she’d 6.13 charities 5.28 elect 5.23 complimentary 4.81 delegate 4.55 elected 4.28 seminar 3.93 entitled 3.81 compensation 3.48 hercules 3.04
confirm	morton 6.47 bailey’s 5.37 pleased 4.25 definition 3.79 acceptance 3.30
provide	bowls 5.55 canteen 5.13 bedding 5.13 dsp 3.81 detection 3.63
send	cv 4.05 paste 3.69 cheque 3.47
develop	mwg 5.37 careers 5.18 motivate 4.59 strategically 4.37 implement 3.95 instruction 3.37 attract 3.32
discuss	kaarina 5.63 pgw 5.47 nbr 5.13 wish 4.34 doug 4.04 files 3.94 aspect 3.24
achieve	goals 4.70 desired 4.48 consensus 3.87 goal 3.81 objectives 3.21 budgets 3.06
improve	continuously 4.74 productivity 4.60 division’s 4.57 twg 4.16 efficiency 4.04 liquidity 3.93 definition 3.25 education 3.04
high	wycombe 5.40 hdpe 5.40 molecular 5.08 seas 5.01 fliers 4.81 douper 4.81 tech 4.71 viscosity 4.40 polyethylene 4.32 density 4.02
big	rallies 4.85 ifs 4.59 egg 4.59 headline 4.01 caps 4.01 bucks 4.01 victory 3.78 bang 3.59 highlight 3.01 boys 3.01
low	permanently 5.70 exceptionally 5.38 commodities 5.11 artificially 5.11 voltage 4.70 wage 4.15 pollution 4.11 incomes 3.89 inflation 3.84 flying 3.65
global	trans 6.25 seamless 5.86 prioritize 5.86 strategist 5.45 jad 5.45 custody 5.45 deflation 4.64 ambitions 4.36 institute 4.32 polish 3.99
international	aerosystems 4.74 hampton 4.54 nova 4.22 linkage 4.22 oriflame 3.96 credits 3.89 division 3.59 undergraduate 3.54 mercedes 3.37 concentration 3.37
local	roots 5.14 expatriate 5.14 devalued 4.82 authorities 3.93 authority 3.57 residential 3.34 monopolies 3.34 governments 3.21 angus 3.06
competitive	devaluations 5.85 edges 5.59 disadvantage 5.43 climate 4.78 edge 4.59 advantage 4.44 globally 4.43 anti 4.22 pressures 3.74 dead 3.47
corporate	governance 6.16 strategists 5.35 unity 4.86 nestle 4.50 identity 4.09 headquarters 4.05 uniform 3.97 counselling 3.86 recovery 3.72 landscape 3.50
strategic	thinker 6.27 choices 4.80 planning 4.41 alternatives 4.12 vision 3.75 logic 3.66 priorities 3.53 partnerships 3.53 restricted 3.48 structural 3.35
financial	ifas 4.59 commentator 4.18 statements 4.15 schroders 3.86 institutions 3.63 entrepreneurship 3.59 controller 3.51 cnn 3.42 consolidated 3.30 turmoil 3.22
sale	varityperkins 6.11 proceeds 4.63 reed 3.41
merger	mania 6.59 equals 5.81 cibc’s 5.81 unichem 5.59 csx 4.49 mega 4.33 citicorp 4.14 talks 4.12 guinness 3.93 worldcom 3.87
trade	mercosur 5.48 missions 4.84 unions 4.65 supranational 4.48 secrets 4.48 exhibitions 4.32 offs 3.99 journals 3.95 barriers 3.84 references 3.56
package	brokered 6.45 rescue 5.45 relocation 4.86 reporting 3.71 dimensions 3.69 remuneration 3.36 rewards 3.20
export	promoter 7.87 counsellors 7.04 counsellor 6.72 vouchers 6.45 cfi 6.45 quotas 6.23 department’s 6.13 advisor 6.13 dept 5.45 import 4.90
service	personalized 4.61 faxbroadcast 4.61 briefings 4.61 figtree 4.19 directories 4.19 atmospheric 4.19 mg 3.87 premier 3.53 franking 3.19 entrance 3.19
market	capitalisation 3.88 newsprint 3.76 capitalization 3.54
earnings	diluted 6.08 oppenheimer’s 5.34 retained 5.21 enhancing 4.34 ratios 4.24 beat 3.69 grew 3.27 underlying 3.24 share 3.23 fully 3.04
performance	promotes 4.82 expatriate 4.82 asz 4.82 subsidiary’s 4.50 stimulating 4.50 sporting 4.50 economy’s 4.50 candidate’s 4.40 manager’s 4.23 criteria 3.88
product	nonconforming 5.25 conforms 5.25 selector 4.25 sffeco 3.84 badger 3.79 widest 3.67 cycles 3.67 fastrax 3.51 launches 3.38 conformance 3.38

8.3 Analysis of the PMC

8.3.1 PMC general statistics

Here the general statistics of the PMC are presented.

TABLE XXVI: GENERAL STATISTICS OF THE PMC

Text File	OVERALL
Bytes	3 483 807
Tokens (words)	593 294
Types (types of words)	19 738
Type/Token Ratio	3.33
Standardised Type/Token (as %)	41.83
Average word length	4.49
Sentences	25 150
Sentence length	15.55
Standard sentence length	14.72
Paragraphs	14 809
Paragraph length	40.04
Standard paragraph length	77.27
1-letter words	28 771
2-letter words	106 371
3-letter words	117 204
4-letter words	104 668
5-letter words	65 493
6-letter words	48 149
7-letter words	43 181
8-letter words	29 225
9-letter words	22 315
10-letter words	13 173
11-letter words	7 682
12-letter words	3 826
13-letter words	2 163
14(+)-letter words	718

8.3.2 PMC frequency list unlemmatised

This can be found on the CD ROM attached to the back cover of this thesis.

8.3.3 PMC frequency list lemmatised

This can be found on the CD ROM attached to the back cover of this thesis.

8.3.4 PMC positive key words (BNC reference corpus)

Here, the top 100 positive key words in the PMC are presented. They are key in comparison to the BNC corpus. The full list can be found on the CD ROM attached to the back cover of this thesis. This list shows how the Business English of published materials differs from general English, and it displays a high frequency of business lexis (e.g. company, market, product), a number of words typical to a business environment (e.g. fax, order), but also words concerned with politeness in speech and writing (e.g. please, sincerely, dear, sorry). Thus, this list differs from the positive key words computed from the BEC. These differences are covered in full in Chapter 9, Section 9.4.1.

TABLE XXVII: PMC POSITIVE KEY WORDS (TOP 100) – BNC REFERENCE

N	WORD	FREQ.	PMC.LST %	FREQ.	BNC.LST %	KEYNESS Log L.
1	COMPANY	2 045	0.34	782	0.04	3 054.4
2	MARKET	1 478	0.25	831	0.04	1 739.6
3	OUR	2 539	0.43	2 577	0.13	1 687.7
4	SALE	968	0.16	343	0.02	1 501.7
5	PRODUCT	1 006	0.17	412	0.02	1 447.1
6	BUSINESS	1 084	0.18	542	0.03	1 382.8
7	MANAGER	811	0.14	317	0.02	1 196.3
8	PLEASE	1 079	0.18	659	0.03	1 193.0
9	WE	5 837	0.98	10 822	0.55	1 192.7
10	OK	483	0.08	38		1 158.5
11	PRICE	949	0.16	586	0.03	1 040.2
12	YOUR	2 949	0.50	4 670	0.24	912.2
13	CUSTOMER	528	0.09	147		912.2
14	BANK	694	0.12	379	0.02	833.5
15	EMPLOYEE	411	0.07	94		764.6
16	FAX	288	0.05	32		649.9
17	YOU	10 587	1.78	26 331	1.34	594.8
18	MEETING	697	0.12	575	0.03	587.8
19	DEPARTMENT	456	0.08	232	0.01	574.8
20	ORDER	747	0.13	681	0.03	564.9
21	CREDIT	342	0.06	110		555.2
22	LTD	332	0.06	103		547.8
23	AFRAID	358	0.06	145		517.9
24	SINCERELY	204	0.03	11		514.7
25	JOB	755	0.13	752	0.04	513.2
26	DIRECTOR	464	0.08	289	0.01	504.9
27	OFFICE	568	0.10	461	0.02	487.0
28	PRODUCTION	362	0.06	167		485.6
29	THANK	877	0.15	1 015	0.05	484.9
30	INVOICE	203	0.03	17		482.1
31	DISCOUNT	225	0.04	36		466.6
32	NEW	1 332	0.22	1 995	0.10	465.3
33	UM	168	0.03	4		454.7
34	BRAND	270	0.05	82		449.6
35	PER	619	0.10	585	0.03	448.7
36	TELEX	167	0.03	6		438.7
37	DELIVERY	237	0.04	56		435.8
38	TO	17 365	2.93	47 851	2.44	421.0
39	PERSONNEL	219	0.04	50		407.6
40	I’M	1 759	0.30	3 136	0.16	401.3
41	ADVERTISE	274	0.05	110		398.3
42	ENCLOSE	186	0.03	27		395.4
43	SELL	487	0.08	419	0.02	392.7
44	MANAGEMENT	398	0.07	279	0.01	392.2
45	PAYMENT	266	0.04	115		370.9
46	INTEREST	716	0.12	865	0.04	370.4
47	FLIGHT	225	0.04	72		366.1
48	AGREE	482	0.08	443	0.02	361.0
49	YOURS	302	0.05	166		360.9
50	REF	134	0.02	5		350.9
51	COST	632	0.11	747	0.04	338.3
52	SUPPLIER	184	0.03	44		336.9
53	COMPANY’S	181	0.03	45		326.7
54	HELLO	303	0.05	192		325.2
55	CORPORATE	164	0.03	33		318.3
56	OFFER	481	0.08	491	0.03	316.8
57	MEET	456	0.08	457	0.02	307.5
58	TELEPHONE	270	0.05	159		306.8
59	I’D	634	0.11	807	0.04	301.1
60	LONDON	470	0.08	505	0.03	289.0
61	INTERVIEW	197	0.03	78		288.5
62	EXECUTIVE	200	0.03	86		279.7
63	INTERNATIONAL	328	0.06	269	0.01	278.2
64	GOOD	1 456	0.25	2 754	0.14	278.0
65	MILLION	443	0.07	473	0.02	274.8
66	CAN	2 545	0.43	5 606	0.29	273.8
67	CONSIGNMENT	91	0.02	0		265.7
68	CENT	375	0.06	364	0.02	263.1
69	DATE	386	0.07	389	0.02	258.4
70	UK	288	0.05	224	0.01	257.6
71	EXPORT	173	0.03	67		256.3
72	PRESENTATION	168	0.03	62		255.2
73	US	1 186	0.20	2 165	0.11	252.5
74	ACCOUNT	488	0.08	593	0.03	250.1
75	HOW	1 385	0.23	2 666	0.14	249.9
76	DEAR	360	0.06	353	0.02	249.5
77	WORK	1 519	0.26	3 009	0.15	248.7
78	SALARY	126	0.02	25		245.6
79	SORRY	447	0.08	537	0.03	233.3
80	SURE	501	0.08	652	0.03	229.0
81	CONTRACT	242	0.04	183		222.4
82	STAFF	437	0.07	535	0.03	221.3
83	INCREASE	452	0.08	566	0.03	220.6
84	FAITHFULLY	79	0.01	1		220.5
85	WILL	2 243	0.38	5 038	0.26	220.3
86	FOR	6 062	1.02	15 996	0.82	217.5
87	SHARE	544	0.09	762	0.04	217.4
88	MACHINE	293	0.05	274	0.01	215.0
89	MR	1 041	0.18	1 920	0.10	214.8
90	MANUFACTURE	199	0.03	126		213.7
91	FINANCE	192	0.03	117		212.5
92	FIRM	286	0.05	265	0.01	212.2
93	CLOTHES	72	0.01	0		210.2
94	YEAR	1 532	0.26	3 184	0.16	210.1
95	PERFORMANCE	229	0.04	175		208.4
96	MANUFACTURER	138	0.02	53		205.4
97	OPTION	195	0.03	128		203.3
98	CASH	191	0.03	124		200.9
99	PROBLEM	697	0.12	1 136	0.06	200.9
100	GOODBYE	103	0.02	21		199.1

8.3.5 PMC positive key words (BEC reference corpus)

Here, the top 100 positive key words in the PMC are presented. They are key in comparison to the BEC corpus. The full list can be found on the CD ROM attached to the back cover of this thesis. This list shows how the Business English of the published materials differs from the Business English found in the BEC. It displays a high frequency of words related to personal communication (e.g. personal/possessive pronouns you, I’m, our, we), words related to politeness (e.g. thank, please) and words related to forms of communication (e.g. telex, letter, meeting, presentation). These matters are discussed in Chapter 9, Section 9.4.1.

TABLE XXVIII: PMC POSITIVE KEY WORDS (TOP 100) – BEC REFERENCE

N	WORD	FREQ.	PMC.LST %	FREQ.	BEC.LST %	KEYNESS Log L.
1	YOU	10 587	1.78	10 133	0.99	1 800.6
2	I’M	1 759	0.30	930	0.09	910.3
3	YOUR	2 949	0.50	2 409	0.24	744.2
4	I’D	634	0.11	129	0.01	695.8
5	AFRAID	358	0.06	38		502.1
6	ME	1 399	0.24	978	0.10	479.4
7	OUR	2 539	0.43	2 342	0.23	474.7
8	MY	1 240	0.21	861	0.08	429.9
9	THANK	877	0.15	502	0.05	409.1
10	PLEASE	1 079	0.18	715	0.07	404.7
11	SORRY	447	0.08	166	0.02	331.9
12	LIKE	1 666	0.28	1 555	0.15	301.1
13	I’LL	721	0.12	461	0.05	286.2
14	WE	5 837	0.98	7 492	0.73	284.0
15	FLIGHT	225	0.04	38		268.6
16	COULD	1 317	0.22	1 176	0.11	268.0
17	ABOUT	2 096	0.35	2 222	0.22	252.3
18	GOOD	1 456	0.25	1 386	0.14	248.7
19	SEE	1 398	0.24	1 360	0.13	223.9
20	HOW	1 385	0.23	1 351	0.13	220.0
21	CAN	2 545	0.43	2 947	0.29	213.9
22	TELEX	167	0.03	25		209.1
23	YOURS	302	0.05	134	0.01	190.0
24	LETTER	356	0.06	185	0.02	187.9
25	LTD	332	0.06	163	0.02	187.3
26	JOB	755	0.13	627	0.06	183.1
27	MEET	456	0.08	294	0.03	178.6
28	MRS	161	0.03	33		176.0
29	MORNING	328	0.06	174	0.02	168.8
30	GOODBYE	103	0.02	6		165.5
31	MR	1 041	0.18	1 025	0.10	160.5
32	MANAGER	811	0.14	742	0.07	154.7
33	LET’S	274	0.05	135	0.01	154.0
34	PERSONNEL	219	0.04	90		148.5
35	LUNCH	167	0.03	52		142.3
36	TELL	527	0.09	419	0.04	140.7
37	DEPARTMENT	456	0.08	339	0.03	139.4
38	SINCERELY	204	0.03	84		138.1
39	HELLO	303	0.05	177	0.02	137.4
40	OKAY	89	0.02	7		134.7
41	FINE	315	0.05	193	0.02	133.4
42	ADVERTISE	274	0.05	154	0.02	130.9
43	SURE	501	0.08	403	0.04	130.4
44	NAME	510	0.09	414	0.04	130.1
45	SIR	191	0.03	81		125.7
46	US	1 186	0.20	1 300	0.13	125.6
47	DRINK	180	0.03	72		125.2
48	EMPLOYEE	411	0.07	307	0.03	124.5
49	AIRPORT	122	0.02	29		123.4
50	MACHINE	293	0.05	182	0.02	121.5
51	INTERVIEW	197	0.03	92		117.5
52	OH	544	0.09	475	0.05	117.1
53	CHOCOLATE	69	0.01	3		116.1
54	NICE	204	0.03	100		115.3
55	HEAR	271	0.05	167	0.02	113.7
56	TOO	520	0.09	452	0.04	113.2
57	PRODUCTION	362	0.06	267	0.03	112.3
58	COURSE	591	0.10	546	0.05	109.8
59	CONSIGNMENT	91	0.02	15		109.7
60	AH	134	0.02	45		107.9
61	POINT	692	0.12	679	0.07	107.8
62	ARRIVE	208	0.04	112	0.01	105.0
63	LEAVE	436	0.07	369	0.04	101.2
64	FIRST	919	0.15	1 011	0.10	95.9
65	ENCLOSE	186	0.03	99		95.3
66	IDEA	427	0.07	369	0.04	94.2
67	VERY	1 362	0.23	1 642	0.16	94.0
68	QUESTION	454	0.08	404	0.04	93.1
69	LET	373	0.06	306	0.03	93.0
70	LOOK	1 045	0.18	1 197	0.12	92.0
71	ASK	539	0.09	515	0.05	91.0
72	MISS	146	0.02	66		90.1
73	HOUR	350	0.06	285	0.03	88.7
74	PREMISE	44		0		88.2
75	MMM	44		0		88.2
76	SPEAK	351	0.06	288	0.03	87.4
77	TAKE	1 269	0.21	1 543	0.15	83.8
78	MEETING	697	0.12	739	0.07	83.7
79	FACTORY	199	0.03	123	0.01	83.1
80	ENJOY	163	0.03	88		82.0
81	HERE	719	0.12	773	0.08	82.0
82	PRESENTATION	168	0.03	93		81.9
83	WORKER	176	0.03	102		80.7
84	FIGURE	326	0.05	269	0.03	80.2
85	EXCUSE	91	0.02	27		80.2
86	AFTERNOON	146	0.02	74		79.4
87	MANPOWER	62	0.01	9		78.5
88	DEAR	360	0.06	316	0.03	76.4
89	ROAD	231	0.04	165	0.02	76.1
90	AGREE	482	0.08	472	0.05	75.6
91	INTEREST	716	0.12	789	0.08	74.2
92	CAN’T	408	0.07	381	0.04	73.5
93	MEAL	75	0.01	19		73.1
94	STAFF	437	0.07	419	0.04	73.0
95	DISCOUNT	225	0.04	163	0.02	72.2
96	ADVERTISEMENT	65	0.01	13		71.9
97	FAITHFULLY	79	0.01	23		70.5
98	SEAT	91	0.02	33		68.9
99	SOON	249	0.04	199	0.02	65.7
100	CANDIDATE	132	0.02	72		65.6

8.3.6 Grammatical categorisation of PMC positive key words (BNC reference)

This list can be found in Appendix 13 in Vol. II. It shows the positive key words of the PMC categorised by word class as defined by Ljung (1990): noun, verb, adjective, noun/verb, noun/adjective, verb/adjective, noun/verb/adjective and -ly adverbs. This is discussed in Chapter 9, Section 9.4.1.1.

8.3.7 Semantic categorisation of PMC positive key words (BNC reference corpus)

This categorisation can be found in Appendix 14 in Vol. II and the categorisation is done separately for the four largest word classes – noun, verb, adjective, noun/verb. This is discussed in full in Chapter 9, Section 9.4.1.1.

8.3.8 Grammatical categorisation of PMC positive key words (BEC reference)

This list can be found in Appendix 15 in Vol. II. It shows the positive key words of the PMC categorised by word class as defined by Ljung (1990): noun, verb, adjective, noun/verb, noun/adjective, verb/adjective, noun/verb/adjective and -ly adverbs. This is discussed in Chapter 9, Section 9.4.1.3.

8.3.9 Semantic categorisation of PMC positive key words (BEC reference corpus)

This categorisation can be found in Appendix 16 in Vol. II and the categorisation is done separately for the four largest word classes – noun, verb, adjective, noun/verb. This is discussed in full in Chapter 9, Section 9.4.1.3.

8.3.10 Analysis of five key words from the PMC

The steps of this analysis were discussed in Chapter 7, Section 7.3 (i). The analysis of all the five words can be found in Appendix 17 in Vol. II. Here an example word, product, is presented.

EXAMPLE WORD FROM PMC: ‘PRODUCT’

a) Keyness

The lemma ‘product’ was the fifth most significant key word in the PMC corpus when compared to the BNC.

N	Word	pmc freq.	pmc.lst %	bnc freq.	bnc.lst %	Keyness	bec freq.
5	PRODUCT	1,006	0.17	412	0.02	1447.1	1,385

b) Semantic Prosody

Left: Two groups identified.

semantic prosody	frequency/ 526 & %	example
age (new only)	62 – 11.78%	new product
positive	26 – 4.94%	a classic product an excellent product a perfect product

Right: Two groups identified.

semantic prosody	frequency/ 526 & %	example
range/choice of products	24 – 4.56%	product lines product range
business activities	40 – 7.6%	product management product sampling

c) Three-word clusters

N	cluster	Freq.
1	a new product	19
2	the new product	14
3	of the product	12
4	the product is	8
5	this product is	8
6	a high product	6
7	product or service	6
8	product to the	6
9	that the product	6
10	the end product	6
11	to launch a	6
12	for this product	5
13	gross domestic product	5
14	new product range	5
15	of a product	5
16	of new product	5
17	of your product	5
18	that this product	5
19	the product or	5
20	the product range	5
21	the product to	5
22	the product was	5
23	a product of	4
24	a product that	4
25	a product’s profile	4
26	and a high	4
27	bought the product	4
28	commands a higher	4
29	high product profile	4
30	launch a new	4
31	led rather than	4
32	new product development	4
33	of this product	4
34	our new product	4
35	product augmented product	4
36	product in #	4
37	product is the	4
38	product of the	4
39	product’s profile and	4
40	profile and a	4
41	this product in	4
42	type of product	4
43	with the product	4
44	your product is	4

d) Macro-generic distribution

* Key to file names in Appendix 20, Vol. II, p. 972.

e) Colligation

COBUILD Sense 1 (something that is produced and sold in large quantities)

Patterns: Count noun

100% of sample

ADDITIONAL sense not noted in COBUILD: (products denoted collectively)

2 instances – 0.38% of sample

Patterns: Uncount noun

We need to new product , we need new product because …

See Comment 2 below for more discussion on this.

Other patterns:

i) (verb/noun) + possessive pronoun + product:

56 instances – 10.64% of sample

f) Associates

N	WORD	NO. OF FILES	AS %
1	PRODUCT	15	100.00
2	SALES	15	100.00
3	COMPANY	14	93.33
4	MARKET	13	86.67
5	BUSINESS	11	73.33
6	COMPANIES	11	73.33
7	MARKETING	11	73.33
8	PRODUCTION	11	73.33
9	PRICE	9	60.00
10	CUSTOMERS	9	60.00
11	OK	9	60.00
12	PRODUCTS	9	60.00
13	OUR	8	53.33
14	MEETING	8	53.33
15	WE	8	53.33
16	DELIVERY	8	53.33
17	MANAGER	7	46.67
18	MANAGEMENT	7	46.67
19	SALARY	7	46.67
20	TO	7	46.67
21	PER	7	46.67
22	YOUR	7	46.67
23	AFRAID	7	46.67
24	EMPLOYEES	7	46.67
25	HOW	7	46.67
26	ADVERTISING	7	46.67
27	COMPANY’S	6	40.00
28	PRICES	6	40.00
29	CORPORATE	6	40.00
30	PERSONNEL	6	40.00
31	DIRECTOR	6	40.00
32	SELL	6	40.00
33	SHARE	6	40.00
34	ABOUT	6	40.00
35	ARE	6	40.00
36	QUALITY	6	40.00
37	YOU	6	40.00
38	I’D	6	40.00
39	NEW	6	40.00
40	MANAGERS	6	40.00
41	FAX	6	40.00
42	I’M	6	40.00
43	SECTOR	5	33.33
44	GOODS	5	33.33
45	AGREE	5	33.33
46	PROFIT	5	33.33
47	THAN	5	33.33
48	SORRY	5	33.33
49	INVOICE	5	33.33
50	IS	5	33.33
51	YEAR	5	33.33
52	PAYMENT	5	33.33
53	MORE	5	33.33
54	PLEASE	5	33.33
55	ORDER	5	33.33
56	DEPARTMENT	5	33.33
57	OFFICE	5	33.33
58	MARKETS	5	33.33
59	BRAND	5	33.33
60	BANK	5	33.33
61	PLEASED	5	33.33
62	MEET	5	33.33

Comments

1. In the PMC there is more emphasis on the personal aspects or personal relationships of the participants to the products. Possessive pronouns are used 26 times in the BEC (3.5% of the sample). In the PMC they are used 56 times (10.64% of the sample).

2. The use of ‘product’ as a non-count noun is almost totally missing from the PMC with only 2 examples (0.38% of the sample), found from Presenting in English (Powell 1996) We need to new product, we need new product because … Powell also has one other example found in Business Matters (Powell 1996), image outsells product every time, which leans in this direction, but is not a clear example.

There were 106 instances of this use of ‘product’ in the BEC (14.3% of the sample).

‘Product’ used in this way acts as a replacement for ‘products’ in the plural, and cannot be used in conjunction with an article. In all of these instances ‘product’ is not post-modified as in product group or product development. It therefore represents a different usage than is represented in the PMC. This sense is missing from the COBUILD dictionary.

Examples of ‘product’ used as a non-count noun from the BEC are:

We are on the point of having to source product externally.

But you’ve got product on there that nobody wants.

… preserve and segregate product from time of receipt.

we’ve had to go to Asics in Denmark and buy product from them.

3. New product: The phrase new product occurred 32 times in the BEC (4.31 of BEC sample of product). In the PMC, the corresponding figures were 62 instances – 11.78% of the sample. This shows an over-emphasis in the PMC on new products. Moreover, three senses of the word product are found in the BEC, to only one COBUILD sense in the PMC, showing an overall lack of lexical diversity.

8.3.11 PMC 3-word cluster frequency list

This list shows the most frequent 3-word clusters found in the PMC. Here the top 50 are presented. A fuller list can be found on the CD ROM attached to the back cover of this thesis. It is evident from this list that the focus on politeness in the PMC, already noted with the single-word lists, is a key feature of the lexis (e.g. thank you for, would you like, look forward to). This is covered in Chapter 9, Section 9.4.5.

TABLE XXIX: PMC 3-WORD CLUSTER FREQUENCY LIST

N	Word	Freq.	%
1	I’D LIKE TO	342	0.06
2	A LOT OF	258	0.04
3	THANK YOU FOR	204	0.03
4	WOULD YOU LIKE	200	0.03
5	BE ABLE TO	199	0.03
6	ONE OF THE	172	0.03
7	THE END OF	170	0.03
8	LOOK FORWARD TO	163	0.03
9	WHAT DO YOU	158	0.03
10	WOULD LIKE TO	154	0.03
11	HOW DO YOU	148	0.02
12	AT THE MOMENT	144	0.02
13	DO YOU THINK	143	0.02
14	TO MEET YOU	139	0.02
15	YOU FOR YOUR	128	0.02
16	DO YOU DO	120	0.02
17	I THINK WE	117	0.02
18	WE HAVE TO	117	0.02
19	WE NEED TO	115	0.02
20	AS SOON AS	114	0.02
21	YOU LIKE TO	114	0.02
22	A NUMBER OF	109	0.02
23	IN THE UK	108	0.02
24	YOU VERY MUCH	104	0.02
25	THANK YOU VERY	103	0.02
26	GOING TO BE	101	0.02
27	YOU TELL ME	100	0.02
28	LOOK AT THE	97	0.02
29	YOU CAN SEE	95	0.02
30	IF YOU COULD	94	0.02
31	YOU WANT TO	94	0.02
32	I DON’T THINK	93	0.02
33	SOME OF THE	92	0.02
34	THERE IS A	92	0.02
35	DO YOU HAVE	91	0.02
36	THINK WE SHOULD	90	0.02
37	ON THE OTHER	88	0.01
38	A GOOD IDEA	87	0.01
39	PART OF THE	87	0.01
40	I WOULD LIKE	86	0.01
41	THE NUMBER OF	86	0.01
42	HOW ARE YOU	85	0.01
43	IN ORDER TO	85	0.01
44	AT THE END	81	0.01
45	END OF THE	80	0.01
46	FIRST OF ALL	80	0.01
47	AS WELL AS	78	0.01
48	IN TERMS OF	78	0.01
49	PER CENT OF	77	0.01
50	TO BE A	77	0.01

8.3.12 PMC key 3-word clusters (BEC reference)

This shows the key 3-word clusters of the PMC (BEC reference corpus) using Log Likelihood: p = 0.000001. Here the top 50 clusters are presented. A fuller list can be found on the CD ROM (also key 3-word clusters BNC reference) attached to the back cover of this thesis. The politeness noted in the lexis of the frequency 3-word clusters is again found here in the key 3-word clusters. This is discussed in Chapter 9, Section 9.4.5.

TABLE XXX: PMC KEY 3-WORD CLUSTERS – BEC REFERENCE

N	WORD	PMC FREQ.	PMC3WRDLST %	BEC FREQ.	BEC3WRD LST %
1	I’D LIKE TO	342	0.06	15	574.9
2	WOULD YOU LIKE	200	0.03	25	266.8
3	TO MEET YOU	139	0.02	8	223.8
4	DO YOU DO	120	0.02	9	183.5
5	THANK YOU FOR	204	0.03	63	174.8
6	YOU LIKE TO	114	0.02	10	168.1
7	PLEASED TO MEET	70	0.01	0	140.3
8	I’M AFRAID I	73	0.01	2	129.7
9	YOU TELL ME	100	0.02	14	128.3
10	LETTER OF #	65	0.01	2	114.1
11	HOW DO YOU	148	0.02	53	113.3
12	LOOK FORWARD TO	163	0.03	66	112.1
13	WHAT DO YOU	158	0.03	63	110.2
14	YOUR LETTER OF	75	0.01	7	108.9
15	YOU FOR YOUR	128	0.02	44	101.2
16	HOW ARE YOU	85	0.01	15	99.6
17	NICE TO MEET	49		0	98.2
18	TO SEE YOU	74	0.01	11	92.9
19	THINK WE SHOULD	90	0.02	23	87.3
20	DO YOU THINK	143	0.02	66	86.3
21	SEE YOU AGAIN	43		0	86.2
22	THANK YOU VERY	103	0.02	34	84.0
23	COULD YOU TELL	72	0.01	13	83.5
24	YOU VERY MUCH	104	0.02	36	81.8
25	I HELP YOU	60	0.01	9	75.1
26	CAN YOU TELL	52		5	74.9
27	IF YOU COULD	94	0.02	32	74.9
28	JUST A MOMENT	37		0	74.2
29	KIND OF YOU	36		0	72.2
30	I’D LIKE YOU	36		0	72.2
31	CAN I HELP	59		10	70.3
32	INFORM YOU THAT	34		0	68.2
33	VERY KIND OF	34		0	68.2
34	FIRST OF ALL	80	0.01	25	68.0
35	FOR YOUR LETTER	48		5	67.7
36	LIKE TO SPEAK	31		0	62.1
37	MOVE ON TO	50		8	61.0
38	TO SEEING YOU	42		4	60.7
39	FORWARD TO SEEING	44		5	60.5
40	AFRAID I CAN’T	30		0	60.1
41	I HAVE YOUR	29		0	58.1
42	MAY # =	29		0	58.1
43	LIKE TO GO	29		0	58.1
44	I AM WRITING	48		8	57.6
45	WHY DON’T YOU	38		3	57.4
46	I LOOK FORWARD	72	0.01	25	56.5
47	WOULD LIKE TO	154	0.03	104	0.01
48	VERY PLEASED TO	27		0	54.1
49	YOU SPELL THAT	27		0	54.1
50	DO YOU WORK	27		0	54.1

8.3.13 PMC Key key-word database

Here the top 50 key key-words found in the PMC (BEC reference corpus) are presented. A full list can be found on the CD ROM attached to the back cover of this thesis.

TABLE XXXI: PMC KEY KEY-WORDS (TOP 50) – BEC REFERENCE

N	WORD	OF 33	AS %
1	YOU	21	63.64
2	I’M	20	60.61
3	I’D	20	60.61
4	AFRAID	18	54.55
5	YES	17	51.52
6	MY	16	48.48
7	COULD	15	45.45
8	YOUR	15	45.45
9	LIKE	15	45.45
10	SORRY	14	42.42
11	ME	14	42.42
12	I’LL	13	39.39
13	HOW	13	39.39
14	ABOUT	13	39.39
15	THANK	12	36.36
16	LET’S	11	33.33
17	SEE	11	33.33
18	PLEASE	11	33.33
19	GOOD	11	33.33
20	FINE	10	30.30
21	WE	10	30.30
22	MORNING	10	30.30
23	OUR	9	27.27
24	FLIGHT	8	24.24
25	MANAGER	8	24.24
26	HERE	8	24.24
27	LOOK	8	24.24
28	AGREE	8	24.24
29	CAN	8	24.24
30	MEET	7	21.21
31	MEETING	7	21.21
32	STAFF	7	21.21
33	NAME	7	21.21
34	WHAT	7	21.21
35	DO	7	21.21
36	COURSE	7	21.21
37	DEPARTMENT	7	21.21
38	TOO	7	21.21
39	SPEAK	7	21.21
40	DRINK	7	21.21
41	MR	7	21.21
42	HELLO	7	21.21
43	GOODBYE	7	21.21
44	THAT’S	7	21.21
45	PLEASED	7	21.21
46	VERY	6	18.18
47	NICE	6	18.18
48	MARKET	6	18.18
49	AFTERNOON	6	18.18
50	CALL	6	18.18

8.4 The next chapter

As can be seen from this chapter, there is a large volume of results to be dealt with, of which only small samples have been presented here. These results now need to be discussed and analysed, and it will be seen that they have both linguistic and pedagogical implications.