Corpus Linguistics and Lexicography

Hilary Nesi

doi:10.1016/B978-0-323-95504-1.01328-4

Corpus Linguistics and Lexicography

Hilary Nesi

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review

Abstract

In the past, dictionary makers did not have much evidence to support the information they included in dictionary entries. They relied on their own intuitions about register, word meaning and grammatical and lexical patterns, supplemented by the information contained in hand-gathered citations of word use collected from various sources by human listeners and readers. Computer corpora have enabled lexicographers to take a more thorough and less subjective approach to lexical description, working with large quantities of naturally occurring texts selected to represent a particular language or language variety, and examining the distribution of words and phrases and the way that they typically behave.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Reference Module in Social Sciences
Editors	Hilary Nesi, Petar Milin
Publisher	Elsevier
Number of pages	5
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-323-95504-1.01328-4
Publication status	Published - 14 Jan 2026

Bibliographical note

This chapter is in the Elsevier Reference Collection in Social Sciences https://www.sciencedirect.com/referencework/9780443157851/social-sciences - it will be incorporated in the Elsevier International Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics when published in June 2026.

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10.1016/B978-0-323-95504-1.01328-4

Cite this

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Corpus Linguistics and Lexicography

Abstract

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