Corpus linguistics is a research method which draws on authentic language examples, collected and organized into 'corpora', or searchable 'bodies' of data. The method was established in the 1960s, and has rapidly developed since then. Now in its second edition, this book provides a step-by-step guide on how to create and analyze linguistic corpora. It has been extensively updated to reflect the most recent developments in this ever-evolving field, and now covers the empirical foundation of corpus-based research, new methodological considerations that guide the creation of a corpus, new kinds of research that can be conducted on corpora, and the most up-to-date information on how qualitative and quantitative analyses of corpora are conducted. Theoretical approaches are introduced in an accessible, easy-to-read way, and the book is illustrated with a wide range of different linguistic corpora, making it essential reading for researchers and students in a number of subfields of linguistics.

‘Corpus linguistics is an essentially different field today from what it was twenty years ago. The second edition really brings the book up to date-no small task with over two decades of furious progress in the field-without losing the essential practical information of the original. Meyer has captured its main features while still offering students the DIY approach that so distinguished the first edition.’

Bill Kretzschmar - Willson Professor in Humanities, University of Georgia

‘The revised second edition of this textbook offers an up-to-date, practical account of recent developments in the expanding field of English corpus linguistics. It discusses engagingly how corpora are built, annotated and analyzed. Warmly recommended.’

Bas Aarts - Department of English Language and Literature UCL

‘In a most reachable way, this book invites the reader to the fascinating world of digitized text collections. It provides the up-to-date information needed to build, annotate and exploit English language corpora, and clarifies the theoretical and empirical foundations underlying the corpus-based methodology.’

Merja Kytö - Uppsala University