DOING LINGUISTICS WITH LARGE CORPORA: TWO CASE-STUDIES IN
PHONOLOGY
Jacques DURAND
ABSTRACT
In this paper, I try to establish why corpora play a significant role within modern
linguistics and yet occupy a controversial place within the field. After some preliminary
remarks, I examine the place of data within Chomskyan linguistics. I then proceed to a
partial criticism of the classical Chomskyan position and argue that corpora can throw
important light on various phenomena. I explore two areas from the phonology of
English and French. First of all, I will illustrate the study of segmental variation in
English phonology through data collected within the PAC Project (Phonologie de
l'anglais contemporain). Secondly, I will explore a well-known area of French
phonology studied within the PFC project (Phonologie du français contemporain): i.e.
liaison (a linking strategy which is at the interface between phonology, morphology,
syntax and meaning). On the basis of these discussions, I will show how major changes
have affected the field in relation to data and mental representations. The emergence of
usage-based grammars, connectionism and other models force us to rethink our attitude,
even if we do not have to share all the theoretical presuppositions of such approaches.
Recent work by Chomsky and others within evolutionary theory paradoxically reinforce
the place of data within linguistics. In the conclusion, I try to suggest why intuition is
likely to remain an indispensable tool for theory-construction in linguistics. But this
should be no excuse for not strengthening our data-bases as bad or insufficient data
rarely lead to good theories.
INFORMATION
Name : Jacques DURAND
Professor, Département des Etudes du Monde Anglophone and Director, CLLE
Research Institute (Cognition, Langues, Langage, Ergonomie UMR5263), CNRS &
Université de Toulouse II.
Relevant recent contributions:
Durand, Jacques (2004). English in early 21st century Scotland: a phonological
perspective. La tribune internationale des langues vivantes 36 : 87-105.
Durand, Jacques, Carr, Philip & Pukli, Monika (2004). The PAC project: principles and
methods. La tribune internationale des langues vivantes 36 : 24-35.
Durand, Jacques and Lyche, Chantal (2003). Le projet 'Phonologie du Français
Contemporain' (PFC) et sa méthodologie. In: E. Delais and J. Durand (eds.), Corpus et
variation en phonologie du français : méthodes et analyses. Toulouse: Presses
Universitaires du Mirail. 212-276.
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Durand, Jacques & Lyche, Chantal (2008) “French liaison in the light of corpus data”.
Journal of French Language Studies. 18/1: 33-66.
Durand, Jacques (2006) “Mapping French Pronunciation. The PFC project.” In J.-P.
Montreuil & C. Nishida (eds).(2006). New Perspectives on Romance Linguistics. Vol.
2 : Phonetics, Phonology and Dialectology. Selected Papers from the 35th Linguistic
Symposium on Romance Languages (LSRL), Austin, Texas, February 2005.
Amsterdam : John Benjamins. 65-82
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