Corpus analysis of child language

Corpus research has a long-standing tradition in child language research: Observational data provide the basis for our knowledge about developmental processes including their individual and crosslinguistic differences (for more detail, see Behrens, 2008). But the analyses critically depend on an appropriate corpus design that provides sufficient information on and appropriate transcription and annotation of the linguistic structures at stake. In the following, I will discuss the implications for analysis that result from corpus design, and outline the main research questions addressed by corpus analyses of child language. I will conclude with a sketch of the research perspectives made possible by new achievements in corpus linguistic methodology.