Corpus Linguistics in the UK: Resources for Sociolinguistic Research

Abstract

Sociolinguistics has always relied on authentic data, and is increasingly finding value in the methods and textual resources developed by corpus linguists. This article begins by surveying current activity in corpus linguistics in the UK in terms of publications, conferences and networks, and then outlines the range of research currently ongoing, with a particular focus on corpus resources that are readily available and likely to be of use to sociolinguists. This includes general corpora, specialized corpora, and corpora of regional or historical varieties, as well as tools and initiatives for standardization and data‐sharing, which aim to allow users to exploit corpora as fully as possible. The focus is largely on corpora of English, but corpora of other languages are also considered. The discussion treats corpora from the point of view of their availability and the provision of accompanying metadata, both issues central to effective sociolinguistic enquiry.

Reinventing Research? Information Practices in the Humanities

“…Corpus linguistics researchers' methods rely upon the availability of machinereadable texts in the "analysis of specially-designed collections of texts by computer" (Anderson, 2008). Thus, the field is born digital, in contrast to our case studies in areas such as philosophy and English.…”

Taming Textual Data: The Contribution of Corpus Linguistics to Computer-Aided Text Analysis

“…Sinclair, 1991;Leech, 1992;Svartvik, 1992;Biber, 1996;McEnery & Wilson, 1996;Stubbs, 1996;Biber et al, 1998), stimulated by the rise in available computing power. Since the 1990s, corpus linguistics has become a dynamic branch of linguistics, out of which research groups, associations, conferences, journals, monographs, and book series have emerged (Anderson, 2008). Definitions of corpus linguistics are many and varied.…”

“…Seminal work in corpus linguistics goes back to the 1960s (e.g., Kucera & Francis, 1967), whereas modern corpus linguistics using large computer-based corpora emerged in the 1990s (e.g., Biber, 1996; Biber et al, 1998; Leech, 1992; McEnery & Wilson, 1996; Sinclair, 1991; Stubbs, 1996; Svartvik, 1992), stimulated by the rise in available computing power. Since the 1990s, corpus linguistics has become a dynamic branch of linguistics out of which research groups, associations, conferences, journals, monographs, and book series have emerged (Anderson, 2008). Definitions of corpus linguistics are many and varied.…”

Research Methodology Strategies in Strategic Management

“…Corpus-based methods examine concordance by creating a spreadsheet to check and reorder the data. Corpus linguistics researchers' methods rely upon machine-readable texts in the "analysis of specially-designed collections of texts by computer" (Anderson, 2008). Corpus linguists use complex datasets, diverse methods and a variety of theoretical perspectives to tackle research questions.…”