Review of Weisser, M. (2016).Practical Corpus Linguistics: An Introduction to Corpus-based Language Analysis

Citation

Wiegand V (2018) Review of Weisser, M. (2016).Practical Corpus Linguistics: An Introduction to Corpus-based Language Analysis. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 23 (2), pp. 244-249. https://doi.org/10.1075/ijcl.00004.wie

Abstract
First paragraph: Corpus linguistics is by definition a technical subject that is likely to require the newcomer to acquire new skills for the preparation and analysis of textual data. With a view to this, the book under review promises to be a useful addition to the market of corpus linguistic textbooks, positioned as a decidedly practical introduction. The author distances his approach from that of previous textbooks by declaring his objective to “stay as theory-neutral as possible” so that the reader can follow the exercises of the book “no matter which ‘flavour(s)’ of linguistics” they may be acquainted with (p. 1). I will comment on this rather theory-light approach later on. Another aim of the book is to introduce techniques for querying corpora, e.g. concordance analysis, searches for PoS-tags and clusters, with free tools in order to make them as accessible to students as possible. Overall, then, the book places emphasis on the technical considerations and steps that need to be taken when preparing and analysing data. Given Martin Weisser’s background in corpus annotation (see e.g. Weisser 2015), this area receives particular attention in the book under review.

Keywords
Linguistics and Language; Language and Linguistics

Journal
International Journal of Corpus Linguistics: Volume 23, Issue 2