PACKAGE

a) Keyness

The lemma ‘package’ is the one hundred and seventh most significant key word in the BEC corpus.

N	Word	bec freq.	bec.lst %	bnc freq.	bnc.lst %	Keyness	P
107	PACKAGE	284	0.03	120	-	217.3	0.000000

b) Semantic Prosody

Left: Four groups identified. In the finance category, several examples are concerned with problems: bail-out package, rescue package, austerity package

semantic prosody	frequency/ 162 & %	example
size/value of package	14 - 8.64%	the $40 billion package six figure package a large package
finance	30 - 18.51%	remuneration package rescue package accounting package
positive	9 - 5.55%	competitive package excellent package effective package
computers	6 -3.7%	Microsoft Office package our standard office package remains Word Perfect

Right: No clear groups identified.

c) Three-word clusters

N	cluster	Freq.
1	end reporting package	9
2	along with a	3
3	of the package	3
4	reporting package is	3
5	the package deal	3
6	would be a	3

d) Macro-generic distribution

e) Colligation

Used mostly as a noun.

1 instance of use as a verb (0.61% of sample)

COBUILD Sense 1 (a package/parcel)

22 instances - 13.58% of sample

Patterns: Count noun

there’s no sign of the package yet, please let us know as soon as you receive the package

COBUILD Sense 3 (a set of proposals to accepted or rejected)

92 instances - 56.79% of sample

Patterns: Count noun

QVC offers an exceptional package, IMF-brokered rescue package

COBUILD Sense 4 (to package)

1 instance 0.61% of sample

Patterns: Verb (usually passive)

May/June cartons required to re-package product

Also: package holiday (2 instances) and package deal (3 instances).

ADDITIONAL sense: (a collection of services a product/item can collectively offer its users, e.g. a desk top publishing package)

47 instances - 29.01% of sample

Patterns: Count noun

The Demo CD package, 3 dimension modelling and design package, an interesting and comprehensive tuition package

f) Associates

The word ‘package’ was key in 6 files. The only associate of frequency >5 was ‘package’ itself.

Comments

1. COBUILD Sense 3 defines ‘package’ as a set of proposals to be accepted or rejected as a group. There is no definition given in COBUILD to define a computer package, for example, which can be seen as a collection of services a product can collectively offer its users, e.g. a desk top publishing package. Thus a further definition has been added.

2. Useful verb-noun collocations for students:

offer a package

provide a package

putting a package together

collect the package

send the package

announcing a package

Students could match the phrases to the most likely sense, e.g. announce a package - matches to Sense 3, send the package matches to Sense 1.