CORPUS-BASED ANALYSIS OF HISTORICAL LANGUAGE CHANGE
Keywords:
Corpus linguistics, historical linguistics, language change, diachronic analysis, COHA, Helsinki Corpus, ARCHER Corpus, frequency, grammaticalization, collocation, lexical change, semantic shift, linguistic evolution, historical corpora, language variation, corpus-based study, empirical research, digital humanities.Abstract
This article explores how corpus linguistics contributes to the study of historical language change, focusing on how digital corpora reveal patterns of linguistic evolution over time. Corpus-based methods allow researchers to examine authentic texts from different historical periods, tracing changes in vocabulary, grammar, and meaning. Using large, time-structured corpora such as the Helsinki Corpus, the Corpus of Historical American English (COHA), and the ARCHER Corpus, linguists can quantify language development from Old English to Modern English.
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