Introduction: Complicating Corpus Methods in Historical English Language Studies

This essay introduces a special issue exploring strategies for complicating corpus methods in historical English language studies: both the ways that corpus methods can accommodate the complications of historical work and the ways that scholars can productively complicate the tools in order to enrich our use of digital archives. It highlights limitations of data, issues of variable orthography, and deductive versus inductive approaches. The essay also addresses why it is valuable to use mixed methods, statistical models, LLMs, and interdisciplinary approaches in corpus work—insights that may benefit scholars working with language from any historical period, including the present day. This introduction provides brief summaries of the three research articles in the special issue.