corpus linguistics

The study of language based on examples of "real life" language use stored in corpora (or corpuses)--computerized databases created for linguistic research.

Observations:

• "Corpus studies boomed from 1980 onwards, as corpora, techniques and new arguments in favour of the use of corpora became more apparent. Currently this boom continues--and both of the 'schools' of corpus linguistics are growing . . .. Corpus linguistics is maturing methodologically and the range of languages addressed by corpus linguists is growing annually."
  (Tony McEnery and Andrew Wilson, Corpus Linguistics, Edinburgh University Press, 2001)



• "Quantitative techniques are essential for corpus-based studies. For example, if you wanted to compare the language use of patterns for the words big and large, you would need to know how many times each word occurs in the corpus, how many different words co-occur with each of these adjectives (the collocations), and how common each of those collocations is. These are all quantitative measurements. . . .
  
  "A crucial part of the corpus-based approach is going beyond the quantitative patterns to propose functional interpretations explaining why the patterns exist. As a result, a large amount of effort in corpus-based studies is devoted to explaining and exemplifying quantitative patterns."
  (Douglas Biber, Susan Conrad, and Randi Reppen, Corpus Linguistics: Investigating Language Structure and Use, Cambridge University Press, 2004)



• "To make good use of corpus resources a teacher needs a modest orientation to the routines involved in retrieving information from the corpus, and--most importantly--training and experience in how to evaluate that information."
  (John McHardy Sinclair, How to Use Corpora in Language Teaching, John Benjamins, 2004)