ConcGram 1.0: A phraseological search engine (Studies in Corpus Linguistics Software)

ConcGram 1.0 is a corpus linguistics software package which is specifically designed to find all the co-occurrences of words in a text or corpus irrespective of variation. The software finds the co-occurrences fully automatically, in other words, the user inputs no prior search commands. These co-occurrences are termed ‘concgrams’ and include instances of both constituency variation (increase in expenditure, increase in the share of public expenditure)and positional variation (expenditure would inevitably increase). ConcGram 1.0 is therefore uniquely suited to uncovering the full phraseological profile of a text or corpus. In addition to this principal function, ConcGram 1.0 allows the user to nominate concgram searches, and it also has the more traditional functions associated with corpus linguistics software.

The software comes with a detailed online manual in a PDF file, which explains all of the functions and includes a user-friendly tutorial. In addition, the manual includes a discussion of the theoretical issues underpinning the development of the software and the implications of concgramming for the study of phraseology (Why Concgram? by Martin Warren).

The software has a wide range of applications in the fields of Corpus Linguistics, Critical Discourse Analysis, Discourse Analysis, Lexicology, Lexicography, Pragmatics and Semantics.