Entries on the History of Corpus Linguistics

Abstract

Corpus linguistics is anchored in a theoretical paradigm characterised by an empiricist approach and as well as by a conception of language as a probabilistic system. In linguistics, empiricism Empiricism is an approach that grants primordial status to data coming from the observation of language, generally grouped together in a corpus, as opposed to rationalism Rationalism. Rationalism is based on the study of language through introspection, which is regarded as a way of assessing models of structural functioning and the formation of the cognitive process of language. As a result, there is a chasm between the philosophical perspectives characteristic of the empiricist and rationalist conceptions of language, represented by its main contributors. On the one hand, there is Halliday, a representative of the empiricist conception, and, on the other hand, Chomsky, the greatest figure of Rationalism rationalism in linguistics. However, new approaches need to be taken into consideration. From all these conceptions the greatest number of works of corpus linguistics has been derived, in the areas of lexicography and terminology – production of dictionaries, glossaries, terminological databases, etc.