Corpus Linguistics: Methods, Theory and Practice by Tony McEnery and Andrew Hardie

Abstract

‘Corpus Linguistics: Methods, Theory and Practice’ provides the reader with a good balance of detailed and interesting facts, figures and findings from the history and use of corpus analysis as well as in-depth discussions of the theoretical underpinnings of corpus linguistics. It documents how corpus linguistics perhaps ‘lives’ and ‘breathes’, and how the diverse nature of its utility and scope have helped to contribute to its ubiquitous appeal in modern day academia. Corpus linguistic approaches are ever-increasingly being seamlessly integrated with other methodologies used in applied linguistics (and beyond), and this textbook functions to present and discuss such developments in an accessible yet thought-provoking way. Building on seminal, entry-level works that exist in this field (such as those by Biber et al. 1998; Kennedy 1998; McEnery et al. 2006; Adolphs 2006), this volume manages to reflect a certain level of maturity in its content, maturity that is, in turn, reflective of advances witnessed in corpus linguistics over the past half century or so.