In this lesson we will have a look at how we can further specify query using various features of the KonText interface. EEBO is a historical corpus and therefore will especially be useful for diachronic searches that map how certain linguistic phenomena have developed over time.

Click on the KonText icon so we can start a new query. Select EEBO for the corpus and a basic query type. At the bottom of the form click on the Specify query according to the meta-information button and a menu will appear where you can place restrictions on the query. We can limit our search either to a specific period or even decade within which the linguistic phenomenon we wish to observe occured.

Form for specifying query

Between the fifteenth and seventeeth centuries a great number of new words were introduced into the English language. These words were either coined by some English writers or borrowed from other languages such as Latin and French.

One of such words is ablegate which according to Oxford English dictionary was introduced into English in 1621. We can verify the date of the first use of this word in English easily using the EEBO corpus.

• If we select the period between 1420-1500, there will be no results in the concordance list as the word was not used at that time yet.
• The same goes for the period between 1500-1570.
• After selecting the period 1570-1640, we get one result.
• On the left side of the concordance line, we can see that the text was written by Thomas Cooper.
• By clicking on his name, we can obtain even more information about the text. This piece of writing is from 1578. It is a Latin-English thesaurus which proves the word's foreign origin.
• In the period between 1640-1710, we get two hits. Both texts are in English which proves that by that time the word was part of the English lexicon.
• Using the EEBO corpus, we just proved the approximate date when the word was first used in the English language.

If we wish to see all of the frequencies of the word at once, we click on Frequency button in the KonText interface and select Text Types in the dropdown menu. This way we will see all of the frequencies of a given word and how they increase or descrease over time. The upper chart shows frequencies across periods, while the bottom chart displays frequencies over decades.The frequencies of absolutely are sorted according to their frequencies from the highest to the lowest. By clicking on the heading of the chart, we can change the order according to the period/decade, frequency or i.p.m.

Showing frequencies of Text Types

Frequency list of absolutely according to the period and decade

In KonText menu the item Frequency encompasses function for creating frequency distribution according to the document IDs. In the case of the EEBO corpus, we can sort the results according to the authors of the texts. If we want to know which writer used the word absolutely the most frequenly, we click on the Frequency button in the KonText interface and select Doc IDs in the dropdown menu. Similar chart than the previous one will appear, showing how often does the given word occur in texts written by various authors. The results reveal that the word occured with the highest frequency in the writings of Samuel Bold, an English clergyman.

Frequency list of absolutely according to the doc IDs