Corpus of Historical American English (COHA)

 

Corpus of Historical American English (COHA)

Ah, the Corpus of Historical American English (COHA)! It's a wonderful resource for anyone interested in the evolution of American English. Here's what you need to know:

What it is:

• COHA is the largest structured corpus of historical American English, with over 525 million words from texts published between 1800 and 1910.
• It includes diverse materials like fiction, newspapers, magazines, and non-fiction books, providing a broad picture of how language was used across different genres and regions.

What you can do with it:

• Search for specific words or phrases: See their frequency and context over time, analyze their changing meaning, and track their rise and fall in popularity.
• Explore grammatical changes: COHA allows you to analyze how sentence structure, word order, and other grammatical features have evolved over time.
• Compare genres and regions: See how language use varied in different contexts, such as formal vs. informal writing, or in different parts of the country.
• Research historical topics: Use COHA to study how Americans discussed specific events, social issues, or cultural trends throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries.

How to access it:

• COHA is freely available online at https://linguistics.utah.edu/about/faculty-and-staff.php/.
• The interface is user-friendly, with various search options and visualizations to help you analyze the data.
• There are also tutorials and documentation available to guide you through the different features.

Additional resources:

• Check out the English Corpora website for more information about COHA and other historical corpora: https://www.english-corpora.org/
• If you need help interpreting the data or have specific research questions, you can contact the COHA team through their website.

I hope this information helps you get started with exploring the fascinating world of historical American English using COHA! If you have any specific questions about the corpus or your research, feel free to ask.