[Corpora-List] Identity crisis, re: Quantitive Corpus Linguistics

[J Washtell]

Dear corpus users,

I have just taken the time to read Wolfgang's "My version of corpus  
linguistics (in 25 theses)". I should have done so earlier, as it  
renders my own recent points (and some of the present discussion)  
rather impotent. Clearly, there are many like me, who value corpora,  
and who have linguistic pretensions, but who do not subscribe to the  
strict (perhaps occasionally intrinsically questionable??)  
disciplinary branch described therein; but that is certainly not to  
challenge that it is a valid pursuit.

As a PhD student with little (cognitive-)linguistic background, this  
is all very interesting to me. The trouble I am left with then, is  
knowing what to call myself. I suppose I am one of these  
"computational linguists". Only my interest in language does not  
necessitate the use of a computer. Where it does I use corpora quite  
intensively because my guilty inclination is to "trust the text"  
(especially when there it so much of it readily available).

I don't suppose any of this is a problem as long as nobody asks what  
my field is. I wonder if this situation is common amongst subscribers  
to this list?

Justin Washtell
University of Leeds
---
"This is an integral part of this, but this is not an integral part of this."
"What do you mean by 'this'?"
"That."
"No, I mean the other this."
"The stool."
"Ah! Sorry, I thought I'd flushed that."


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