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1.4.DiachroniccorporaofEnglish
21
asmallcorpuswhichcontainsthesamekindoflanguage.Ofcourse,any
smallcorpusisbetterthannocorpusatall,butifthechoiceisbetween
asmallandalargecorpusofthesame(orsimilar)kindofmaterial,Iwould
alwaysgoforthelatter.”ThisisconfirmedbyLeech(2007:138),who
observesthat“thereisoneruleofthumbthatfewarelikelytodissent
from.Itisthatingeneral,thelargeracorpusis,andthemorediverseit
isintermsofgenresandotherlanguagevarieties,themorebalancedand
representativeitwillbe.”Furthermore,accordingtoLeech(1991:27),we
cansaythatacorpusisrepresentativewhen“thefindingsbasedonits
contentscanbegeneralizedtoalargerhypotheticalcorpus.”Healsoobserves
thattheissueofcorpusrepresentativenessmustbeconsideredlargelyasan
actoffaithbecauseatpresentthereisnowayofensuringitorevaluating
itinanobjectiveway,althoughagreatdealofresearchiscarriedoutwith
respecttothisissue.5
Inthenextsectionwewilldiscussmostofthewell-knownandinfluential
diachroniccorporaoftheEnglishlanguage,bothannotatedandunannotated.
Wewillbasicallyconcentrateontheonesthatwehavemadeuseofinour
researchandthattakeOldEnglishintoaccount,butwewillalsomention
othercorpora.
1.4.DiachroniccorporaofEnglish
AsregardsdiachronicanalysesoftheEnglishlanguage,Facchinettiand
Rissanen(2006:7)statethat“corpus-basedstudiesofdiachronicEnglishhave
beenthrivingoverthelastthreedecadestosuchanextentthatthevalidityof
corporaintheenrichmentofhistoricallinguisticresearchisnowundeniable.
Bearingthisinmind,scholarsarenowponderinghowfardiachroniccorpus
linguisticsmaybeimprovedinordertofurtherenhanceourknowledgeofthe
kaleidoscopicshiftsandturnsoftheEnglishlanguagethroughthecenturies.”
CurzanandPalmer(2006:20)arguethatstudiesinhistoricalcorpuslinguistics
shouldtakeintoaccountthedevelopmentandinvolvementofcomplementary
methodologiesandtheengagementofcurrentlinguistictheories:“Thekeyisto
developmethodologiesthatexploitthehistoricalcorporaavailableappropriately,
giventheresearchgoalsandthenatureofthecorpus.”Moreover,theyclaimthat
workingwithcorporainanyperiodofferslinguiststheopportunitytorethink
5
Formorediscussionconcerningthisissue,aswellastheissueofsize,authenticity,
sampling,etc.seeforexampleTognini-Bonelli(2001),Sánchezetal.(1995),McEnryandWilson
(2001),Sinclair(2005),andWynne(2005).Moreover,theVARIENGsiteoftheUniversityof
Helsinki,availableonlineathttp://www.helsinki.fi/varieng/wouldbeparticularlyusefulhere.
