In this post we explore the ways ‘by’ is tagged in large corpora such as iWeb and NOW.
1 BY (II) is clearly most commonly found to be a simple preposition.
either on purpose or by accident.
And then took his own life, drowned himself.
2 BY (II31) (complex prepositional phrase)
1 BY WAY OF 81460 C1
Second, the other sentences which make up the body of the paragraph should support the topic sentence
by way of explaining or defining it.
PELIC STUDENT: Korean female, level 5 writing class.
2 BY MEANS OF 79143 C1
However, it is wrong that you generalize Japanese by means of observing [the] only one person subjectively.
Japanese male, level 5 reading class.
3 BY REASON OF 25142
We find the defendant not guilty by reason of temporary insanity.
3 BY (RR21) (adverbial phrase)
BY FAR 174076
4 BY (RT21)(time)
BY NOW 123734
You ought to be pretty knowledgeable by now, then.
5 BY (RR31) 93770
1 BY NO MEANS 68471
Might I remind you gentlemen that this war is by no means won.
This is similar to:
We get it by any means necessary.
2 BY AND LARGE 18474
It‘s been a good thing for the prison, by and large.
3 BY AND BY 3394
4 BY THE BY 1785
6 BY (RR41) 1674
BY FAR AND AWAY 1626
7 BY (NP1) 186 (proper nouns = names)
8 BY (RP) 168 (particle)
1 GO BY 27901
2 STOP BY 25013
3 GET BY 23424
4 CLOSE BY 17170
5 WENT BY 12069
6 GOES BY 11831
7 STOPPING BY 11275
8 COME BY 9844
9 PASS BY 8267
10 STOPPED BY 6740