The ICE corpora are different from LOB in terms of organisation. For example,
they include 60% of spoken material while LOB doesn't. The project involes
over a dozen countries and regions in the world. So far, the British component
(ICE-GB) is completed. It exists in three different versions: lexical, tagged,
and parsed. At the moment, ICE-GB is accessible only on the
premises at the Survey of English Usage, UCL, London.
I include the general structure for ICE. The numbers indicate the number
of samples (2,000 words) for each text category.
Spoken ==================
DIALOGUE
Private
S1A1 direct conversations 90
S1A2 distanced conversations 10
Public
S1B1 class lessons 20
S1B2 broadcast discussions 20
S1B3 broadcast interviews 10
S1B4 parliamentary debates 10
S1B5 legal cross-examinations 10
S1B6 business transactions 10
MONOLOGUE
Unscripted
S2A1 spontaneous commentaries 20
S2A2 unscripted speeches 30
S2A3 demonstrations 10
S2A4 legal presentations 10
Mixed
S2B1 broadcast news 20
Scripted
S2B2 broadcast talks 20
S2B3 non-broadcast talks 10
Written ============================
NON-PRINTED
Non-professional writing
W1A1 untimed essays 10
W1A2 timed essays 10
Correspondence
W1B1 social letters 15
W1B2 business letters 15
PRINTED
Informational
W2A1 Learned: humanities 10
W2A2 Learned: social sciences 10
W2A3 Learned: natural sciences 10
W2A4 Learned: technology 10
W2B1 Popular: humanities 10
W2B2 Popular: social sciences 10
W2B3 Popular: natural sciences 10
W2B4 Popular: technology 10
W2C1 Press news reports 20
Instructional
W2D1 Administrative writing 10
W2D2 Skills/hobbies 10
Persuasive
W2E1 Press editorials 10
Creative
W2F1 Fiction 20
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Alex Chengyu Fang
Deputy Director E-Mail: ucleacf@ucl.ac.uk
Survey of English Usage Voice: 0171 380 7777 Ext. 3120
University College London 0171 419 3120
Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT Fax: 0171 916 2054
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