Searching for similarity using corpus-assisted discourse studies

It has often been noted that corpus-assisted discourse analysis is inherently comparative (e.g., Partington, 2009), but, in this paper, I want to emphasise that such comparison does not exclusively entail the analysis of difference and that the analysis of similarity can be productively incorporated into the framework. As Baker (2006: 182) notes, the way that differences and similarities interact with each other is 'an essential part of any comparative corpus-based study of discourse'. In this paper, first, I outline why the search for similarity is relevant to the analysis of discourse using corpus linguistics; I then go on to assess some possible ways of doing this; and, finally, I take the representation of boy/s and girl/s in British broadsheet newspapers as an example.