Qualitative and quantitative methods in the field of semantics

Abstract This paper shows that the combination of qualitative and (basic) quantitative methods is a fruitful approach in the case of a semantic analysis of comparable and parallel corpus data. This point is illustrated through a comparison of two close French dynamic prepositions with a medial polarity, i.e. à travers and au travers de ‘across, through, by means of’ (often considered to be synonyms) with their intuitive equivalent in Dutch, door ‘through, by’. The study relies on corpus data stemming from the Dutch Parallel Corpus 2.0. The results offer new insights (i.e. an important difference in distribution of concrete and abstract uses in French and Dutch) and contradict some existing (lexicographic) descriptions and intuitions, viz. a nonexistent mutual correspondence between au travers de and door , and an unexpected preference for Dutch via as equivalent for French à travers in abstract configurations.