Corpus Linguistics for Virtual Workplace Discourse

Corpus Linguistics for Virtual Workplace Discourse provides a thorough and practical step-by-step guide to constructing and analysing a multi-modal corpus of virtual meetings. It draws from original data from video recordings of virtual meetings with a variety of participant profiles from various industries, alongside examples of images and transcriptions from this data to illustrate key points.

This cutting-edge volume contextualises the field through previous corpus studies of interaction in a workplace context, as well as a description of various technology mediated interactions, culminating in video-mediated interaction, before outlining the cross-section of these two areas in describing the characteristics of virtual meetings. An overview of multi-modal corpus analysis provides examples and analysis of virtual meetings from a multi-modal perspective, demonstrating what is unique about virtual workplace discourse. The text concludes by presenting how multi-modal corpus analysis can aid understanding and delivery of virtual meetings through suggestions regarding meeting management. At various stages throughout the book, readers will engage with tasks that promote critical thinking at each phase of background research and data analysis. This will ensure that practical learning outcomes are achieved as well as broad insights gained into multi-modal corpus analysis of virtual meetings.

This timely, prescient text is essential reading to students and researchers in corpus linguistics and any applied linguistics scholar interested in workplace communication, as well as valuable reading for any students or scholars in business communication.

Dawn Knight is Professor of English Language and Applied Linguistics at Cardiff University, Wales. Her research interests lie in the areas of corpus linguistics, multimodality and discourse analysis. Dawn has expertise in conceptualising, theorising and applying innovative interdisciplinary approaches/methodologies for extracting and predicting language patterns within/across social and linguistic contexts. Her pioneering work on Welsh language resource development (including CorCenCC and FreeTxt), supported by major AHRC, ESRC and Welsh Government grants, is helping to change the landscape of minoritised language research and the potential real-world applications of corpora/corpus-based enquiry.

Anne O’Keeffe is Professor of Applied Linguistics at Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick, Ireland. Her publications include From Corpus to Classroom, and Investigating Media Discourse, Introducing Pragmatics in Use 1st. She co-edited The Routledge Handbook of Corpus Linguistics. With Geraldine Mark, she developed the Cambridge University Press English Grammar Profile open database. She is co-editor of Routledge book series: The Routledge Corpus Linguistics Guides and The Routledge Applied Corpus Linguistics. She is also founder and Director of the Inter-Varietal Applied Corpus Studies (IVACS) Research Centre and Network.

Christopher Fitzgerald is a Postdoctoral Researcher on the Interactional Variation Online project at Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, Ireland. His research interests include, the language of memory and oral history, second language acquisition and corpus linguistics. His publications in these areas include Investigating a Corpus of Historical Oral Testimonies: The Linguistic Construction of Certainty, Cohesion and Solidarity in COVID-related Addresses to the Nation and Penetrating Historical Discourse’s Truth Matrix: A Corpus Analysis of Oral History Testimonies.

Justin McNamara works as a Postdoctoral Researcher and lectures in English as a Foreign Language, Applied Linguistics and Research Methodologies at Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, Ireland. His research interests are in the areas of corpus linguistics, formulaic language, Teacher training, Teaching modern languages, Irish English and pragmatics. His publications include: When a Frog Grows Hair: ESOL Learner’s use of Figurative Language in ELT 10th Anniversary Bulletin, ‘Interactional Variation Online (IVO): Corpus Approaches to Analysing Multi-modality in Virtual Meetings’ International Journal of Corpus Linguistics Special Issue on Virtual Workplace Communication (IJCL).

Geraldine Mark is an applied corpus linguist with interests in discourse analysis, register, multi-modal interaction, L1 and L2 development and materials design. Publications include ‘Teachers’ engagement with corpora for language teaching materials development’, Second language teacher education; Exploring Part of Speech (POS)-tag sequences in a large-scale learner corpus of L2 English: A developmental perspective, Corpora 19, 1;. Principled pattern curation to guide data-driven learning design. Applied Corpus Linguistics, 2 (3).

Dr Sandrine Peraldi is an Assistant Professor at University College Dublin, in the School of Languages, Cultures & Linguistics (SLCL). She is currently Head of Linguistics and Deputy Head of School. Prior to joining UCD in 2017, she was, over a decade, ISIT’s Research Director, a French Grande Ecole specialising in Translation and Intercultural Studies. Her areas of expertise and publication include Terminology, Corpus-informed Discourse Analysis, Intercultural Communication and finally Translation Studies. Dr Peraldi has been involved in multiple EU-funded projects with a specific focus on professional discourse communities and she has an extensive expertise in developing successful action research projects, enabling students to engage with researchers and industry on research-led projects. More recently, she joined the European Network On Lexical Innovation (ENEOLI) Cost Action project aimed at highlighting the importance of neology in academic and professional settings.

Tania Fahey Palma is an Assistant Professor in Organisational and Intercultural Communication at Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Her research focuses on language, power and identity in workplace contexts and organisations. She has led funded projects on Healthcare Communication and has worked extensively with industry to improve communication practices in health services and law. She previously worked at the University of Aberdeen where she was Dean for East Asia and Director for Postgraduate Taught Studies.

Fiona Farr is Professor of Applied Linguistics and TESOL at the University of Limerick, Ireland. She is also Adjunct Professor at INN, Hamar, Norway. Her key areas of expertise are teacher education, reflective practice, and applied corpus linguistics. Her most recent book is The Reflective Cycle of the Teaching Practicum (2023, Equinox, with Farrell). She is co-editor of the EUP Textbooks in TESOL Series, and is Associate Editor of the Journal Second Language Teacher Education.

Benjamin Cowan is Professor at University College Dublin's School of Information and Communication Studies, Dublin, Ireland. His research focuses on using cognitive psychology and psycholinguistic approaches to understand dialogue interaction with and through machines. Prof. Cowan publishes widely within the field of Human Computer Interaction (HCI), with recent research focusing on Bridging social distance during social distancing: exploring social talk and remote collegiality in video conferencing (HCIJ) and Audience design and egocentrism in reference production during human-computer dialogue (IJHCS).

Svenja Adolphs is Professor of English Language and Linguistics at the University of Nottingham, UK. Her research interests are in the areas of corpus linguistics, pragmatics and discourse analysis. She has published widely in these areas, including Corpus and Context: Investigating Pragmatics Functions in Spoken Discourse, Introducing Pragmatics in Use and Spoken Corpus Linguistics: From Monomodal to Multimodal.