English-Corpora.org

HISTORICAL VARIATION (1810s-2000s)
 COHA  475 million words, 1820s-2010s. 100-200 times as large as any other structured historical corpus of English.

• Lexical: the frequency of any word or phrase, e.g. bestow, swell (ADJ), guys, of no little, as though to, freak out

• Lexical: compare all words in different time periods, e.g. *ism words (compare earlier/later), *heart* words (earlier/later)

• Phraseology: so ADJ as to V, BE but, HAVE quite V-ed, a most ADJ NOUN

• Syntax/grammar: e.g. end up V-ing, post-verbal negation with need, need to VERB, sentence initial hopefully, get passive

• Semantics/meaning: use collocates to see change over time, e.g. gay (compare earlier/later), chip, engine, web

• Discourse/culture: use collocates to see what we're saying about topics over time: women (compare earlier/later), religion (earlier/later)

HISTORICAL VARIATION (recent: 1990-2019)
 COCA  1 billion words, 1990-2019. The only large corpus that keeps the same genre balance year to year (more...)

• Lexical: the frequency of any word or phrase, e.g. morph, old-school, FREAK out, (think) outside the box, throw someone under the bus, BE likely a|the

• Lexical: compare all words in different time periods, e.g. increases from 1990-94 (left) to 2010-2019 (right): *ism words, *gate words (potentially "scandal"), *friendly words (note increase), and phrasal verbs with up. Note that not every entry is relevant, but it's a good starting point.

• Syntax/grammar: e.g. END up V-ing, GET passive (got hired),  "quotative like" (he's like, I'm not going), so not ADJ (I'm so not interested in her)

• Semantics/meaning: use collocates to see change over time, e.g. green, web, engine

• Discourse/culture: changes in frequency: blacks, retarded; use collocates to see what we're saying about topics over time: crisis, terror, gay

HISTORICAL VARIATION (Google Books)
 Google Books (Advanced)  155 billion words, 1810s-2000s. Much more advanced interface/searches than the standard Google Books n-grams.

• Lexical: the frequency of any word or phrase, e.g. BESTOW, a swell NOUN (chart), guys, of no little, as though to, FREAK out

• Lexical: compare all words in different time periods, e.g. *ism words (compare earlier/later), *heart* words (earlier/later)

• Phraseology: so ADJ as to VERB (table), [be] but a NOUN (table), HAVE quite V-ed, a most ADJ NOUN (table)

• Syntax/grammar: e.g. [end] up VERB-ing (chart | table), VERB someone into VERB-ing (chart | table), VERB one's way PREP (e.g. force his way into), and who / whom + did + PRON (e.g. who/whom did you (VERB); see chart showing increase in who). Also, must VERB, should VERB, ought to VERB, has to VERB, or need to VERB.

• Semantics/meaning: synonyms: "beautiful" woman, "clever" person; collocates show change in meaning, e.g. gay (compare earlier/later)

• Discourse/culture: changes in frequency: negro, colored person, blacks, deaf and dumb, retarded, handicapped; use collocates to see what we're saying about topics over time (1800s vs 1970s-2000s): fast, art, women, music, food

VARIATION BETWEEN DIALECTS: compare 20 dialects of World English
 GloWbE  1.9 billion words, 20 different countries. 100 times as large as the next-largest corpus of English dialects (more...)

• Lexical: the frequency of any word or phrase, e.g. fortnight, on holiday, banjax*, bikkies, thrice, eve teas*, ACT the maggot, lah!, ackee

• Lexical: compare all words in different dialects, e.g. *ism words by dialect ("core" vs. South Asia), *ies nouns in Australian

• Phraseology: e.g. BE different to, rather more ADJ, take ADJ food, in over ~ head, USE ~ head, MAKE ~ head spin

• Syntax/grammar: VERB likely VERB (e.g. would likely remember), like construction, way construction, try and VERB,  go + ADJ, STOP someone V-ing

• Semantics/meaning: use collocates to see differences between dialects, e.g. scheme (US/CA = negative), cupboards (US/CA = mainly kitchen)

• Discourse/culture: frequency of words, e.g. Quran, Buddh*, feminism. With collocates, e.g. ADJ belief (South Asia vs "core"), ADJ wife (+/- "core")

VARIATION BETWEEN GENRES: American (COCA)
 COCA  1 billion words, 1990-2019. The largest freely-available, genre-balanced corpus currently available.

• Lexical: the frequency of any word or phrase, e.g. (spoken) I guess, , you know , (fiction) muffled, frowned (academic) validity, correlate

• Lexical: compare all words in different genres (give these 10-15 seconds each to run), e.g. verbs (past tense) in fiction, ADJ in academic, verbs in religion magazines, adjectives in medical academic

• Phraseology: e.g. . In particular , a lot of, kind of NOUN, type of NOUN; phrasal verbs with out (FIC/ACAD)

• Syntax/grammar: (spoken) and I'm like , get passive, end up V-ing (fiction) had been V-ing, (academic) be passive, appear to VERB, must + VERB

• Semantics/meaning: use collocates to see differences between genres, e.g. FIC (left) vs ACAD (right): chair, chain, string; synonyms of strong, weak

• Discourse/culture: frequency of words and phrase, e.g. global warming, climate change, crippled, people|person of color

VARIATION BETWEEN GENRES: British (BNC)
 BNC  100 million words, 1980s-1993. Note: somewhat lower counts than COCA, since the BNC is a much smaller corpus.

• Lexical: the frequency of any word or phrase, e.g. (spoken) I reckon, , you know , (fiction) muffled, frowned (academic) validity, correlate

• Lexical: compare all words in different genres, e.g. verbs (past tense) in fiction, ADJ in academic, verbs in sermons, ADJ in tabloid news

• Phraseology: e.g. . In particular , a lot of, kind of NOUN, type of NOUN; phrasal verbs with out (FIC/ACAD)

• Syntax/grammar: (spoken) get passive, BE V-ing, (fiction) had been V-ing, (academic) be passive, appear to V, HAVE to VERB, whom

• Semantics/meaning: use collocates to see differences between genres, e.g. FIC (left) vs ACAD (right): chair, chain, string; synonyms of strong, weak