Abstract
The paper introduces our new project on diachronic sociolinguistics, focusing on the problems of compiling a representative corpus for this purpose. We study long-term linguistic change in the Late Middle and Early Modern English periods (1420-1680) in a computer-readable corpus of personal letters, which is designed specifically for the purposes of sociohistorical research. When completed, the Helsinki Corpus of Early English Correspondence will comprise some 1.5 million running words representing all the literate social ranks of the time, both sexes, and different ages and occupations. In our case, the issues that a corpus compiler must deal with include the coverage of all the sociolinguistically relevant categories of data, authenticity of extant materials, and the quality of editing.
Highlights
Our new project investigates the extent to which modern sociolinguistic models and methods are applicable to diachronic linguistics
The Helsinki Corpus of Early English Correspondence consists of letters
Within the limits of our budget, we are aiming at a total of 1.5 million running words. This is estimated to furnish enough material for both real-time and apparenttime studies of language change. These figures are much higher than those for the letters sampled for the Late Middle and Early Modern English sections of the diachronic part of the Helsinki Corpus of English Texts, or any other historical corpus containing letters from our period
Summary
Our new project investigates the extent to which modern sociolinguistic models and methods are applicable to diachronic linguistics. The Helsinki Corpus of Early English Correspondence consists of letters It covers the Late Middle and Early Modern English periods from 1420 to 1680. Both these aspects will influence our corpus organization as a whole and the kind of information to be supplied for each text in the corpus.
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