Latin corpus linguistics and the study of language change

This chapter discusses some methodological aspects of the corpus work that constitutes the empirical foundation of this book. It starts by addressing the question why one would want to use corpus methods in the first place. Next, the Latin text corpus, which is reported on in the upcoming chapters, is presented on. To show that this corpus can indeed be considered a reliable source of information on how the Latin language evolved in the period from 200 BC to 600 AD, a case study is offered on the diachronic development of a particular type of periphrastic construction with esse ‘be’. Specifically, it is shown that the spread of future perfects of the type amatus fuero can be nicely fitted onto an S-curve, suggesting that the corpus reliably reflects the actual spoken language. The chapter concludes with some remarks on the distinction between synchronic and diachronic variation.