Corpus linguistics

Corpus linguistics is an empirical method for the study of language by way of a text corpus (plural corpora).^[1] Corpora are balanced, often stratified collections of authentic, "real world", text of speech or writing that aim to represent a given linguistic variety.^[1] Today, corpora are generally machine-readable data collections.

Corpus linguistics proposes that a reliable analysis of a language is more feasible with corpora collected in the field—the natural context ("realia") of that language—with minimal experimental interference. Large collections of text, though corpora may also be small in terms of running words, allow linguists to run quantitative analyses on linguistic concepts that may be difficult to test in a qualitative manner.^[2]

The text-corpus method uses the body of texts in any natural language to derive the set of abstract rules which gover inn that language. Those results can be used to explore the relationships between that subject language and other languages which have undergone a similar analysis. The first such corpora were manually derived from source texts, but now that work is automated.

Corpora have not only been used for linguistics research, they have since the 1969 been increasingly used to compile dictionaries (starting with The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language in 1969) and reference grammars, with A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language, published in 1985, as a first.

Experts in the field have differing views about the annotation of a corpus. These views range from John McHardy Sinclair, who advocates minimal annotation so texts speak for themselves,^[3] to the Survey of English Usage team (University College, London), who advocate annotation as allowing greater linguistic understanding through rigorous recording.^[4]

^ ^a ^b Meyer, Charles F. (2023). English Corpus Linguistics (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 4.
^ Hunston, S. (1 January 2006), Brown, Keith (ed.), "Corpus Linguistics", Encyclopedia of Language & Linguistics (Second Edition), Oxford: Elsevier, pp. 234–248, doi:10.1016/b0-08-044854-2/00944-5, ISBN 978-0-08-044854-1, retrieved 31 October 2023
^ Sinclair, J. 'The automatic analysis of corpora', in Svartvik, J. (ed.) Directions in Corpus Linguistics (Proceedings of Nobel Symposium 82). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. 1992.
^ Wallis, S. 'Annotation, Retrieval and Experimentation', in Meurman-Solin, A. & Nurmi, A.A. (ed.) Annotating Variation and Change. Helsinki: Varieng, [University of Helsinki]. 2007. e-Published

[:0-1] Meyer, Charles F. (2023). English Corpus Linguistics (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 4.

[2] Hunston, S. (1 January 2006), Brown, Keith (ed.), "Corpus Linguistics", Encyclopedia of Language & Linguistics (Second Edition), Oxford: Elsevier, pp. 234–248, doi:10.1016/b0-08-044854-2/00944-5, ISBN 978-0-08-044854-1, retrieved 31 October 2023

[3] Sinclair, J. 'The automatic analysis of corpora', in Svartvik, J. (ed.) Directions in Corpus Linguistics (Proceedings of Nobel Symposium 82). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. 1992.

[4] Wallis, S. 'Annotation, Retrieval and Experimentation', in Meurman-Solin, A. & Nurmi, A.A. (ed.) Annotating Variation and Change. Helsinki: Varieng, [University of Helsinki]. 2007. e-Published

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