ABSTRACT
This chapter presents definitions of the nature, qualities, and uses of a corpus of texts. A corpus is a text or a group of (generally complete) texts, selected by means of objective, consciously chosen, explicit, rigorous, relevant, and consistently respected criteria, and which is the object of analysis. The concepts covered include: the study corpus, which is the main object of analysis (e.g., Shakespeare’s sonnets); the reference corpus, with which the study corpus is contrasted (e.g., all of Shakespeare’s works, or all important sonnets written in Shakespeare’s time and culture); and the representativeness of the corpus and its homogeneity in terms of genre. The chapter also presents ten major mistakes to be avoided relating to the corpus (e.g., too big, too small, not homogeneous, etc.).
