Corpus-based research is often assumed to have begun in the early 1960s with the availability of electronic, machine-readable corpora. However, before then, there was a considerable tradition of corpus-based linguistic analysis of various kinds occurring in five main fields of scholarship. (Kennedy 1998: 13)
For a historical dictionary database, have a look at Ian Lancashire’s work on An Early Modern English Dictionaries Corpus 1499-1659.
Biblical and literary studies |
Alexander Cruden’s Concordance of the Authorized Version of the Bible (1736) |
Lexicography |
Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language (Restricted Access) |
The Oxford English Dictionary (1928) |
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Noah Webster’s An American Dictionary of the English Language (1828) |
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Dialect studies |
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The Existing Phonology of English Dialects (Ellis, 1889) |
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Language education studies |
Thorndike, E.L. (1921). Teachers Workbook. |
Thorndike & Lorge (1944). The Teacher’s Workbook of 30,000 Words. |
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Grammatical studies |
Jepersen, Otto. (1909-49). A Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles. I–VII. |
Kruisinga, E. (1931–32). A Handbook of Present-Day English. |
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Poutsma, H. (1926–29). A Grammar of Late Modern English. |
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Fries, C.C. (1940). American English Grammar. |
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Fries, C.C. (1952). The Structure of English. |
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The Survey of English Usage (SEU) Corpus (Quirk, 1968) |
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