Doing Linguistics with a Corpus: Methodological Considerations for the Everyday User

Description

Paradoxically, doing corpus linguistics is both easier and harder than it has ever been before. On the one hand, it is easier because we have access to more existing corpora, more corpus analysis software tools, and more statistical methods than ever before. On the other hand, reliance on these existing corpora and corpus linguistic methods can potentially create layers of distance between the researcher and the language in a corpus, making it a challenge to do linguistics with a corpus. The goal of this Element is to explore ways for us to improve how we approach linguistic research questions with quantitative corpus data. We introduce and illustrate the major steps in the research process, including how to: select and evaluate corpora, establish linguistically-motivated research questions, observational units and variables, select linguistically interpretable variables, understand and evaluate existing corpus software tools, adopt minimally sufficient statistical methods, and qualitatively interpret quantitative findings.

'The type of knowledge and especially awareness offered by this book will help researchers avoid potential bias, and inappropriate tools or measures whilst reinforcing the need for qualitative interpretation as well as quantitative analysis. This volume therefore ensures that the readers have the necessary instruments to critically work on each step of the corpus analysis without having to master each statistical or annotation tool or developing their own computational knowledge.' Elena Mattei, Iperstoria '... provides some great insights in to how to improve research for linguists interested in using corpora as tools for language analysis.' Tyler Kimball Anderson, LINGUIST List