The Organizing of Scientific Fields: The Case of Corpus Linguistics

Abstract

This paper focuses on the processes through which scientific fields are organized over time. It is argued that new approaches in scientific work are hampered by authority structures within national systems for research and established approaches within disciplines, but that these obstacles can be overcome by means of external funding, particularly through new funding sources, as well as the international developments of an innovation. As far as the latter are concerned, they are expected to first lead to informal collaboration among scholars. In the passage of time this informal collaboration becomes more and more formalized. In order to analyse such processes the paper presents a model with three phases labelled as creating, gathering and communicating. This model is then used in an empirical study of corpus linguistics, i.e. the systematic analysis of well-defined populations of written and/or spoken language material. It is shown in the paper how corpus linguistics was developed by scientific innovators who were initially questioned. With the passage of time they created a number of international organizations, which have eventually become more and more formalized, many of them publishing their own journals. In this way the paper demonstrates the significance of organizing for the development of scientific fields.