8.1323, Qs: Ling Sample for Descriptive Purpose

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List:  Vol-8-1323. Sun Sep 21 1997. ISSN: 1068-4875.

Subject: 8.1323, Qs: Ling Sample for Descriptive Purpose

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1)
Date:  Tue, 16 Sep 1997 14:19:18 +0100
From:  tallmo at nisus.se (Karl-Erik Tallmo)
Subject:  Linguistic Sample for Descriptive Purposes

-------------------------------- Message 1 -------------------------------

Date:  Tue, 16 Sep 1997 14:19:18 +0100
From:  tallmo at nisus.se (Karl-Erik Tallmo)
Subject:  Linguistic Sample for Descriptive Purposes

I wonder if anyone knows if researchers somewhere are using the
Internet (WWW or Usenet) as a linguistic sample or corpus for
descriptive purposes (as opposed to normative ones).

I am writing a short article about this for a Swedish newspaper and would
appreciate all tips.

It is of course a tremendous  resource, and I would be surprised if
language scientist were NOT using it. One problem is ouf course that the
English of the Net is written by many who do not have English as their
first language (like myself). So the relevance of a certain found usage
could be hard to determine.

Just imagine, however,  what a person like James Murray, the creator of
Oxford English Dictionary, or Mr Webster himself could have done, had they
had access to the Web!

Thanks in advance!

Best regards,

Karl-Erik Tallmo
Stockholm


 __________________________________________________________________

      KARL-ERIK TALLMO, Swedish writer, journalist. Writes for
        Nordic dailies, such as Dagens Nyheter. Has published
     three books. Expert in governmental committees on new media.

     Editor of THE ART BIN MAGAZINE | http://www.nisus.se/artbin

     Personal article archive | http://home5.swipnet.se/~w-50996



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