Corpus Linguistics

This textbook employs a corpus-based approach to language and linguistics. It takes the student through the subject's background, its contemporary practical application, and its future prospects. This corpus-based or empiricist approach to language study (based on the computer-aided analysis of large databanks of machine-readable text or "corpora", eg COBUILD) makes it possible to provide quantitative evidence for language observations and is leading to the discarding of orthodox views in favour of new ideas based squarely on the structure of the language as it really is.