English Corpus Linguistics: An Introduction (Studies in English Language) (Paperback)

~ Charles F. Meyer (Author) "When the first computer corpus, the Brown Corpus, was being created in the early 1960s, generative grammar dominated linguistics, and there was little tolerance for..." (more)
Key Phrases: many corpus linguists, elliptical coordinations, corpus compiler, American English, British National Corpus, Brown Corpus (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

'... a very welcome addition to the range of corpus linguistic publications. It offers the beginner a brief yet valuable introduction to the basic aims and - especially - the research procedures of corpus linguistics and thus serves a real need.' International Computer Archive of Modern and Medieval English

Product Description

This step-by-step guide to creating and analyzing linguistic corpora discusses the role that corpus linguistics plays in linguistic theory. It demonstrates that corpora have proven to be very useful resources for linguists who believe that their theories and descriptions of English should be based on real rather than contrived data. The author shows how to collect and computerize data for inclusion in a corpus and how to annotate and conduct a linguistic analysis once the corpus has been created.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 188 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press; 1 edition (July 8, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 052100490X
• ISBN-13: 978-0521004909
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,965,045 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Introduction to English Corpus Linguistics!, April 2, 2005

By	Always a Critic "apa" (Pittsburgh, PA USA) - See all my reviews

English Corpus Linguistics: An Introduction is a must read for anyone wanting to secure a first foothold of understanding in the field. I think it would also provide a good overview for experienced corpus linguists. The book is extremely well written. There is no fluff but the text is very readable and open to anyone with an interest. The author is consistent in his prose and does a good job of balancing practical and theoretical concerns. He doesn't waste the reader's time with trifles, but makes a good entry into each well-defined subject area, provides you with a content that presents itself without considerable prerequisites of knowledge, and makes a clean exit with an apt conclusion to each chapter. The material builds on itself but is also spread out - but not to thin to loose perspective - so as not to topple the reader. I think the only thing that I might have added would have been a summary checklist with cross-reference back to individual sections. However, with 141 reading pages, it is concise enough to do a quick review by flipping through the various sections. This is important, because there is much information to take from this book as one furthers their learning.