CORPUS

views updated Jun 27 2018

CORPUS [From Latin corpus body, plural usually corpora, sometimes corpuses].
1. A collection of texts, especially if complete and self-contained: the corpus of Anglo-Saxon verse
.
2. In contemporary LINGUISTICS and LEXICOGRAPHY, a body of texts, utterances, or other specimens considered more or less representative of a language, a language area, a writer's work, etc., usually stored as an electronic database. Currently, computer corpora may store millions of running words whose features can be analysed by means of tagging (adding identifying and classifying tags to words and other formations) and concordancing programs (which draw up citations of words in context). Corpora of this kind can be created in three ways: (1) by keying texts into a computer and storing on disk; (2) by using optical equipment to scan text directly on to disk; (3) by acquiring MACHINE-READABLE texts directly from such sources as newspapers and publishers. In recent years, many print media have made their own corpora (for example, a year's issues of a newspaper), storing and marketing them on CD-ROMs which can be scanned and searched on screen. Such collections are of considerable interest to linguists, lexicographers, and others. Corpus linguistics is the study of corpora and the nature and use of the data in corpora. See BRITISH NATIONAL CORPUS, BROWN CORPUS, COBUILD, CONCORDANCE, GRAMMATICALITY, HYPERTEXT, INTERNATIONAL CORPUS OF ENGLISH, LONDON-LUND CORPUS, USAGE.

corpus

views updated Jun 11 2018

cor·pus / ˈkôrpəs/ • n. (pl. -po·ra / -pərə/ or -pus·es) 1. a collection of written texts, esp. the entire works of a particular author or a body of writing on a particular subject: the Darwinian corpus. ∎  a collection of written or spoken material in machine-readable form, assembled for the purpose of studying linguistic structures, frequencies, etc.2. Anat. the main body or mass of a structure. ∎  the central part of the stomach, between the fundus and the antrum.

corpus

views updated May 29 2018

corpus (kor-pŭs) n. (pl. corpora) any mass of tissue that can be distinguished from its surroundings. c. callosum the broad band of nervous tissue that connects the two cerebral hemispheres. c. cavernosum either of a pair of cylindrical blood sinuses that form the erectile tissue of the penis and clitoris. c. luteum the glandular tissue in the ovary that forms at the site of a ruptured Graafian follicle after ovulation. It secretes the hormone progesterone, which prepares the uterus for implantation. If implantation fails the corpus luteum degenerates. If an embryo becomes implanted the corpus luteum continues to secrete progesterone until the fourth month of pregnancy. c. spongiosum the blood sinus that surrounds the urethra of the male. Together with the corpora cavernosa, it forms the erectile tissue of the penis. c. striatum the part of the basal ganglia in the cerebral hemispheres of the brain consisting of the caudate nucleus and the lentiform nucleus.

Corpus

views updated May 23 2018

CORPUS

[Latin, Body, aggregate, or mass.]

Corpus might be used to mean a human body, or a body or group of laws. The term is used often in civil law to denote a substantial or positive fact, as opposed to one that is ambiguous. The corpus of a trust is the sum of money or property that is set aside to produce income for a named beneficiary. In the law of estates, the corpus of an estate is the amount of property left when an individual dies. Corpus juris means a body of law or a body of the law. Corpus Juris Secundum (C.J.S.®) is an all-inclusive, multivolume legal encyclopedia.

corpus

views updated May 18 2018

corpus
1. The body of a pollen grain that has bladders, or air-filled sacs (e.g. Pinus).

2. In angiosperms, the cells below the tunica of the apical meristem.

corpus

views updated May 09 2018

corpus a collection of written texts, especially the entire works of a particular author or a body of writing on a particular subject. The word (Latin, literally ‘body’) is recorded from late Middle English denoting an animal or human body; the textual sense dates from the early 18th century.

Corpus is now also used for a collection of written or spoken material in machine-readable form, assembled for the purpose of studying linguistic structures and frequencies.

Corpus

views updated Jun 11 2018

Corpus

collection of writings on a subject; writings by an author or group of authors.

Examples: corpus of Christian tradition, 1865; of civil law, 1727; of Oriental numismatics, 1886; of the Greek poets, 1727; of scripture, 1876.

corpus

views updated May 23 2018

corpus pl. corpora body XIV; body of writings XVIII. — L. ‘body’. In XIV–XVI perh. a var. of corpes, CORPSE.