StringNet is an English knowledgebase containing about 2 billion multiword patterns extracted from text. These patterns, called hybrid n-grams, can include specific words, word forms, or parts of speech. An example is "take the unprecedented step of [v-ing]". Each pattern is linked to related patterns by parent, child, expand, and contract relations. Teachers can use StringNet patterns and relations in classroom activities like substitution drills, noticing in reading, pre-teaching vocabulary, and games.

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Neil McMahon, IHWO,
IH Buenos Aires Teacher Training

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What is StringNet?
An English lexico-grammatical
knowledgebase consisting of
multiword patterns of word
behaviour

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StringNet contains about
two billion
hybrid n-grams extracted from
the British National Corpus
(BNC)

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What are Hybrid n-grams?
The multiword patterns that we
call hybrid n-grams are
sequences of grams which may
consist of…

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(1) specific word forms
(e.g., ‘trying’ but not ‘tried’ or
‘tries’ or ‘try’);

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(2) lexemes (e.g., try, including
its various forms—
trying, tried, etc.);

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or (3) parts of speech
(POSs), marked off in
brackets, including specific POSs
such as [V-ing] or more general
POSs such as [verb], which
cover different more specific
POSs such as [V-ing].

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An example hybrid n-gram is:
take the unprecedented step of
[v-ing]

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take the unprecedented step of [v-ing]
Clicking on the [v-ing] reveals:

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take the unprecedented step of [v-ing]
Clicking on unprecedented reveals:
In the classroom?
Stringnet substitution drills…

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take the unprecedented step of [v-ing]
Clicking on Examples:
In the classroom?
Note their fave example in context
Guess the texts
Read and remember

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Each of the 2 billion patterns in StringNet is indexed
(linked) to other related patterns by four basic types
of relations.
1.Parents: more abstract versions of itself
2.Children: more specific versions of itself
3.Expand: to longer versions of itself
4.Contract: to shorter versions of itself

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take the unprecedented step of [v-ing]
Clicking on Parent:

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take the unprecedented step of [v-ing]
Clicking on Child:

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take the unprecedented step of [v-ing]
Clicking on Expand:

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take the unprecedented step of [v-ing]
Clicking on Contract:

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In the classroom?
There’s a better word for…
Productive feedback

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In the classroom?
Transformations support
Noticing in reading
Pre-teach vocab
Family fortunes
Collocation games
?…?

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Neil McMahon, IHWO,
IH Buenos Aires Teacher Training