Searching for non-sequential words
Leaving something behind...
So far we have used the Leeds CQP interface to make queries for single words or lemmas (e.g. left and left%).
What if we want to search for the nouns that occur in the expression leave xxx behind?
Options available in concordancers differ considerably. Some will ask you to specify the span separating the first part of the search string from the last (i.e. one or two words intervening). Others may allow you to use a wildcard (typically the asterisk "*") standing in for the missing word(s).
If you make a query in the Leeds CQP interface, you can use:
to indicate a gap of up to 2 words between the lemma LEAVE and the word behind.leave% +3behind
You will learn more about how to use special characters in the unit on Regular expressions.
LEAVE ... behind in the Leeds Internet corpus, selected, default sorting (right)