The case of Perrin and Thomson: An example of the use of a mini-corpus

Although recent trends have been towards large corpora, there is a valid place for the study of small corpora. This article is an example of one such study using a corpus of late 19th century texts, consisting of 1783 words in French by Perrin, and 2824 words in English by Thomson. Perrin uses more first person pronouns in a wider range of processes than Thomson. Thomson uses more passives than Perrin, and includes by-phrases more frequently. He also uses copula be more frequently than Perrin uses copula être; and he uses nominalized verbs to a greater extent. When themes and subjects are considered, Perrin has a bias towards the human category, whereas Thomson's bias is abstract. Perrin uses italics for the purpose of highlighting; Thomson never does this. On all of the parameters studied, Thomson's writing seems closer to the parameters of the contemporary research article. The results of this study of a mini-corpus fit into a paradigm of the development of the scientific research article.