Theoretical Description and Practical Applications of Linguistic Corpora

This book is intended primarily as an introduction to linguistic corpora for any scholar, teacher or student who approaches them for the first time. To this aim, the author has provided an overview of their most typical features and contexts of exploitation, both in theoretical and in applied linguistics, together with a discussion on key issues pertaining to corpus design, compilation, and annotation. In so doing, an attempt has been made to clarify and systematize a few still foggy areas in this field, particularly from the terminological point of view. The book also includes three appendices, listing respectively all the corpora cited in the volume in alphabetical order, the software discussed and the other computerized resources quoted in the book. Every effort has been made to present the data and material in a clear, straightforward way, so as to enable the readers to glean information, to deepen their knowledge, and most of all to boost their desire for learning, which is the core of all theoretical knowledge and practical competence.