說說 corpus

■先來看看幾本詞典對corpus的解釋：

◆《麥克米蘭英語詞典》對 corpus 的解釋是：

LINGUISTICS a collection of written and spoken language stored on computer and used for language research and writing dictionaries

◆《柯林斯高階英語詞典》對 corpus 的解釋是：

A corpus is a large collection of written or spoken texts that is used for language research. (TECHNICAL)

◆《美國傳統詞典》對 corpus 的解釋是：

A large collection of writings of a specific kind or on a specific subject.

A collection of writings or recorded remarks used for linguistic analysis.

◆《劍橋高級學習詞典》對 corpus 的解釋是：

the collection of a single writer's work or of writing about a particular subject, or a large amount of written and sometimes spoken material collected to show the state of a language

◆《牛津高階英語詞典》（第6版）對 corpus 的解釋是：

(technical) a collection of written or spoken texts

■corpus本身的用法說明

corpus 是一個可數名詞，其復數形式有兩種：corpora 或 corpuses。如：

a corpus of 100 million words of spoken English 含有一億單詞的英語口語語料庫

With the development of corpus linguistic, corpuses provide us a great deal of authentic language material. 隨著語料庫語言學的發展，語料庫為英語教學提供了大量真實的語言材料。

A corpus of spoken language has been gathered from all over the country for the purposes of examining regional differences. 他們從全國各地搜集了口語語料以考察其地區差異性。

■以下有關corpus 的用例來自“英國國家語料庫（BNC）”：

◆Corpus books, do also essays, many use audio, your transcription is long, let's see either side.

◆On the applicant's application for habeas corpus, the Divisional Court decided to allow the application.

◆As the chair is attached to Corpus Christi College, she had to resign her Fellowship at Somerville, where she had taught our biochemists for over twenty years.

◆William's suspension of habeas corpus in the early years of the war, his use of the royal veto, and his attempt to retain a standing army in peacetime after the Treaty of Ryswick in 1697, further aroused Country suspicions about the strength of the executive.

◆In this corpus we find that it is very rare for an ellipsis to occur without a linguistic antecedent, and in those cases where one does, it is usually for special effect.

◆The conclusion from psychological research that information processing is unusual in psychotic individuals thus finds an exact parallel in theories emphasising the functioning of the corpus callosum as the physiological vehicle for psychosis.

◆Even if it were not, there would be other problems, such as whether a book read by millions would count equally, in the corpus, with a private letter; whether some publications (eg literary magazines) would be weightier, in determining the norm for the language, than others.