Abstract
In this chapter we will develop a computer program to calculate collocations for us. This could be done in any programming language, and here we have chosen awk as it is easy to understand and has a clear syntax. One particular benefit is the lack of ‘overheads’ that are needed in more complex languages such as Java or C++. In awk you do not need to set up any classes or methods in the same way, and processing data is much more modular. Obviously, there are many ways to express a certain functionality in a computer program, and we make no claims that there are no better ways of doing so than the one presented here; it might also not be the most efficient way to do so. However, speed is only a secondary concern: clarity and ease of understanding are more important. We will also try to keep the code simple and easy to understand for beginners.
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© 2013 Geoff Barnbrook, Oliver Mason and Ramesh Krishnamurthy
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Barnbrook, G., Mason, O., Krishnamurthy, R. (2013). Computing collocations. In: Collocation. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137297242_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137297242_3
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-4039-4613-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-29724-2
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