Why is it important to use corpora in studying language change?

• A. Because corpora enforce prescriptive rules.
• B. Because corpora are static archives with no time dimension.
• C. Because they track frequencies, senses, and collocations across periods to show patterns of shift.
• D. Because corpora only capture spoken language in real time.

Answer: (C)

The main idea is that corpora give you empirical, time-stamped data about how language is used, so you can observe real change rather than relying on intuition. By examining frequencies across different periods, you can see which forms rise or fall in use. Looking at senses shows when a word shifts meaning or broadens its range. Analyzing collocations reveals how a word’s typical companions change, signaling shifts in usage or nuance. Together, this diachronic evidence makes patterns of shift visible across years or centuries, across genres, and across registers.

This approach is powerful because it directly tracks what people actually say or write over time, rather than prescribing how language should be. It isn’t a static archive without a time dimension; many corpora are designed to compare multiple eras. And corpora aren’t restricted to spoken language in real time; they can include large amounts of written text as well, often spanning long periods so you can map how usage evolves.