The future of reference corpora

Abstract

Reference corpora, situated in the middle of a spectrum with massive corpora on one end and specialized corpora on the other, constitute a widely used resource in linguistic research. In this paper we aim to point out their most prominent characteristics, identify the factors that show their advantages and disadvantages compared to other types of corpora, and highlight the aspects in which their influence has been most notable in Spanish linguistics. Finally, we outline the potential main lines of their evolution in the coming years.