Corpus Linguistics (Edinburgh Textbooks in Empirical Linguistics) [Paperback]

Tony McEnery (Author), Andrew Wilson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 30, 1996 | ISBN-10: 0748604820 | ISBN-13: 978-0748604821 | Edition: 2nd edition

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Editorial Reviews

Review

There are useful new sections on multilingual corpus alignment and paralled concordancing, which reflect the increasing importance of this type of corpus work ! The final chapter has been completely re-written ! Clearly delineated section headings, end of chapter summaries, study questions and comprehensive suggestions for further reading making it user-friendly for student use. Unfamiliar terminology (indicated in bold text) is explained by the end glossary or alongside in the text itself, and there are useful up-to-date appendices on corpora and software for the corpus research ! The book is attractively and well written, explaining complex issues clearly and succintly, and making effective use of illustrative diagrams, tables, and examples. Its tone is approachable and occasionally conversational, which will appeal to those looking for an accessible and, most importantly, a readable introduction to corpus linguistics ! McEnery and Wilson predict that corpus linguistics is moving with such momentum that another new edition may be required in a few years. If they maintain their 'fingers on the pulse' 'hands-on' approach to corpus studies, I expect the book will figure prominently on course reading lists for many years to come. Literary and Linguistic Computing praise for the first edition: Important [addition] to the fast growing literature in corpus linguistics, and should be read by anyone interested in utilization of large-scale corpora in linguistic research. Studies in the Linguistics Sciences There are useful new sections on multilingual corpus alignment and paralled concordancing, which reflect the increasing importance of this type of corpus work ! The final chapter has been completely re-written ! Clearly delineated section headings, end of chapter summaries, study questions and comprehensive suggestions for further reading making it user-friendly for student use. Unfamiliar terminology (indicated in bold text) is explained by the end glossary or alongside in the text itself, and there are useful up-to-date appendices on corpora and software for the corpus research ! The book is attractively and well written, explaining complex issues clearly and succintly, and making effective use of illustrative diagrams, tables, and examples. Its tone is approachable and occasionally conversational, which will appeal to those looking for an accessible and, most importantly, a readable introduction to corpus linguistics ! McEnery and Wilson predict that corpus linguistics is moving with such momentum that another new edition may be required in a few years. If they maintain their 'fingers on the pulse' 'hands-on' approach to corpus studies, I expect the book will figure prominently on course reading lists for many years to come. praise for the first edition: Important [addition] to the fast growing literature in corpus linguistics, and should be read by anyone interested in utilization of large-scale corpora in linguistic research. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

Tony McEnery is reader in multilingual corpus linguistics at the University of Lancaster and Andrew Wilson is lecturer in linguistics at the University of Lancaster.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Edinburgh University Press; 2nd edition edition (September 30, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0748604820
• ISBN-13: 978-0748604821
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,606,722 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars good introduction to the topic, July 30, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Corpus Linguistics (Edinburgh Textbooks in Empirical Linguistics) (Hardcover)

Even as a non-computational linguist, I found this book very readable. It covers a nice range of the relevant topics, and is very careful about defining terminology---a practice that other writers in computational linguistics would do well to follow. The book is unusually well-organized. Though there's not much depth of coverage of many topics, the references for further reading are very well selected, and do a lot to make up for this. The final chapter gives a very nice example of the application of empirical data to a theoretical question, and is worth the price of the book itself.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not useful as a textbook, February 27, 2006

By 

Sean A. Fulop "safulop" (Fresno, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Corpus Linguistics (Paperback)

I am a professor of linguistics, and was assigned to teach a general Corpus Linguistics course for the first time. This book was billed as a standard first textbook in the subject, suitable for uninitiated linguistics students. We have found that the book is chiefly an annotated bibliography of the field, and does not cover enough topics in sufficient depth to serve as a course textbook. I have had to supplement nearly every portion of the course with either additional readings or methodology that I provide on my own. The students find it dreadfully dry, it reads almost like a phone book, jumping lightly from one barely-treated topic to another without ever actually teaching a single thing.

Unfortunately, the publisher refused my efforts to contact them to get myself an advance copy. Now I know why this happened---by letting me see the book in advance, they would likely have lost a bunch of sales.