Filling the gaps: Using the WebCorp Linguist’s Search Engine to supplement existing text resources

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the functionality of the WebCorp Linguist’s Search Engine (WebCorpLSE) by comparing it with two other freely-available online data resources: Google and the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA). In particular, the paper looks at how WebCorpLSE can fill gaps in these sources. It begins by contextualising the WebCorpLSE project in relation to its parent project, WebCorp, and other ‘web as corpus’ initiatives. It then outlines the advantages of WebCorpLSE over Google search, before turning to a comparison of WebCorpLSE with COCA. Comparisons are made by matching extracts of textual and graphical output generated by each system. It is shown that WebCorpLSE provides information not available via the other search mechanisms, and that it can thus, in accordance with Mair’s (2007) argument for a combined approach to diachronic text study, usefully serve not only as a stand-alone tool, but as a complementary resource.