BIG

a) Keyness

The lemma ‘big’ was the two hundred and ninth most significant key word in the BEC corpus.

N	Word	bec freq.	bec.lst %	bnc freq.	bnc.lst %	Keyness	P
209	BIG	902	0.09	1,018	0.05	131.4	0.000000

b) Semantic Prosody

It might have been expected that a very general word such as ‘big’ would have no clear collocative relations with any particular words, nor any strong prosodic relations with any major lexical sets. However, it can be seen below to collocate with at least one large group - that of companies and institutions. It also forms part of several adjectival/noun phrases related to business (see the colligation section below).

Left: No clear groups identified.

Right: Three groups identified.

semantic prosody	frequency/ 587 & %	example
companies/institutions	140 - 23.85%	big banks big business big multi-nationals
money	28 - 4.77%	big amounts of money big bucks big fine
people*	18 - 3.06%	big men bug guys big customers

* some collocates here also refer to companies by using lexis related to people, e.g. the big players, the big boys

c) Three-word clusters

N	cluster	Freq.
1	of the big	23
2	was a big	12
3	is a big	11
4	one of the	11
5	have a big	9
6	the big three	8
7	a big impact	7
8	as big as	7
9	a big company	6
10	all the big	6
11	and the big	6
12	from the big	6
13	in a big	6
14	make a big	6
15	the big guys	6
16	there was a	6
17	with the big	6
18	a big difference	5
19	a big problem	5
20	a big way	5
21	for the big	5
22	it's a big	5
23	such a big	5
24	the big money	5
25	these are big	5
26	a big change	4
27	a big order	4
28	a very big	4
29	be a big	4
30	be as big	4
31	been a big	4
32	big impact on	4
33	got a big	4
34	it was a	4
35	made a big	4
36	most of the	4
37	some of the	4
38	there's a big	4
39	to make a	4
40	to the big	4
41	with a big	4

d) Macro-generic distribution

e) Colligation

COBUILD Sense 1 (a person or thing big in physical size)

51 instances - 8.51% of sample

Patterns: Adjective (graded)

big car, big computer, a big crane

COBUILD Sense 2 (consisting of many people or things)

17 instances - 2.89% of sample

Patterns: Adjective (graded)

There is a very big camp in Al Dunlap’s favor

big demographics

COBUILD Sense 3 (increase or change: great in degree, extent or importance)

308 instances - 52.47% of sample

Patterns: Graded adjective

big decisions, big gains, big impact, big problems

COBUILD Sense 4 (big organisation: corresponds mostly to semantic prosody right category 1 above)

172 instances - 29.3% of sample

Patterns: Graded adjective

Some of the big banks have been hit

Rugmark carpets will be distributed by big German retailers

COBUILD Sense 5 (big in something)

1 instance - 0.17% of sample

Redland is big in roof-tiles

COBUILD Sense 9 (a big word)

1 instance - 0.17% of sample

Patterns: Graded adjective - usually adjective-noun

There’s a big word for you. Adjudicator.

Other COBUILD Senses:

big deal: 5 instances - 0.85% of sample

big business: 8 instances - 1.36% of sample

big name: 3 instances - 0.51% of sample

big money: 7 instances - 1.19% of sample

big time: 8 instances - 1.36% of sample

Other phrases:

(the) big picture: 4 instances - 0.68% of sample

big Apple 1 instance - 0.17% of sample

big bang: 1 instance - 0.17% of sample

Other patterns:

i) A strong tendency to form post-modified compound nouns/adjectives:

Big Blue, big business, big money, big players, Big Bang, the Big Three, big-time

ii) Slightly more likely to be used with an indefinite article than a definite:

preceded by a - 160 instances - 27.25% of sample

preceded by the - 130 instances - 22.14% of sample

iii) big + on:

2 instances - 0.34% of sample

this hotel’s very big on training

companies are getting very big on technology

iv) (a) + big + if :

4 instances - 0.68% of sample

One of the very big ifs is Asia

Well, you have two very big ifs there, I think

f) Associates

N	WORD	NO. OF FILES	AS %
1	BIG	8	100.00
2	BILLION	6	75.00
3	COMPANIES	5	62.50