[Corpora-List] Boot Camp (Continued...)

[Mark Davies]

> Err.. I need access to the original source, so that I can
> run it through my tools.  I suppose that exploring the
> landscape by looking through a peephole in a wall
> is appropriate for some approaches, but clearly fails
> if what you need is not visible in the peephole.

Sorry that the corpus interface and architecture aren't precisely to your liking, Linas. Presumably, other web interfaces like BNCweb, SketchEngine, VISL, etc etc wouldn't be either. (In fact, come to think of it, I don't think there are ANY web interfaces that would meet your needs).

I'm sure you're aware of copyright issues. That's the main reason that there are restrictions on access. Sure, we could give everyone full-text access, but then we'd probably end up in prison. But these interfaces certainly aren't "peepholes"  -- far from it. Thousands of people use them each month for an extremely wide range of research topics.

At any rate, if you want to have access to a large, current corpus -- with complete and total and thoroughly satisfying full-text access -- then why not just create your own corpus, and then keep it updated? The texts ARE there in electronic form (believe me, I didn't scan in 370+ million words from print sources). With 3-4 months and the right tools, it's quite doable.

Mark D.

============================================
Mark Davies
Professor of (Corpus) Linguistics
Brigham Young University
(phone) 801-422-9168 / (fax) 801-422-0906
Web: davies-linguistics.byu.edu

** Corpus design and use // Linguistic databases **
** Historical linguistics // Language variation **
** English, Spanish, and Portuguese **
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