This document outlines the corpus research method for analyzing the use of the present perfect versus the simple past in American English. It discusses using the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) to study how adverbs like "already" and "yet" influence whether the present perfect or simple past is used. The document also provides information on how to properly use COCA for linguistic research, noting the large amount of data it contains and things for researchers to be aware of like the written source of most of the language data.

1. THE CORPUS RESEARCH METHOD
Masahiro Nishimura
Applied Linguistics for Graduate Students
7 October 2014

2. CONTENTS
 (1) Research methods
 (2) Data from COCA
 (3) How to use COCA
 (4) Conclusion

3. ELSNESS (2009) … (1)
The present perfect (with Have, active/ passive) as percentage of all
past-referring verb forms.
From Elsness (1997)

4. ELSNESS (1997) … (1)
Relative frequencies of major past referring verb forms over last two centuries.
British and American English. Science texts disregarded in CONTCORP.
Elsness, Johan. (1997). The perfect and the preterite in contemporary and earlier
English. New York: Mouton de Gruyter.

5. GRADUATE RESEARCH … (1)
 Title: The Expansion of the Preterite Use
Present Perfect vs. Simple Past
 Research Question: In what language situation,
does AmE shift from the present perfective to the
simple past.

6. RESEARCH SUBJECTS … (1)
 Adverbs 1: already, just, recently, and yet
 Perfective meaning
 Adverbs 2: ever, never, since, and always
 Continuative or experiential meaning.
 Verbs: eat, live, see, know, come, and go
 Corpus: the Corpus of Contemporary
American English (COCA)

7. DATA FROM COCA …(2)
 (1) already and yet:
present perfect > simple past
 (2) just:
present perfect < simple past
 (3) recently:
present perfect < simple past
The simple past is spreading its area as a perfective
meaning.

8. DATA FROM COCA …(2)
 (1) never and always:
present perfect < simple past
 (2) ever:
present perfect ? simple past
 (3) since:
present perfect > simple past
The preterite is expanding its territory in the
continuative and experiential meaning.

9. HOW TO USE COCA …(3)
 Mark Davies, Brigham Young University
 More than 450 million words in 189,431 texts,
including 20 million words each year from 1990-
2012.
 The most recent addition of texts (Apr 2011 - Jun
2012) was completed in June 2012.

10. THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND…(3)
 The language from corpora might be different from
our natural language.
 You must refine your research methods.
 Pay attention to the data.
Where it is from? Written or Spoken?

11. THE CORPUS RESEARCH METHOD
Masahiro Nishimura
Applied Linguistics for Graduate Students
7 October 2014