Exploring multimodality in historical texts: the value of paratextual features in the making of the Coruña Corpus (CC)

Abstract

In this article, we explain how the project of the Coruña Corpus of English Scientific Writing (CC) included non-linguistic elements in the corpus design from the very inception of the project, which allow for the analysis of paratextual devices such as layout, punctuation, decoration, and/or other visual language, this in order to explore how a text interacts with its context and hence how such aspects of a work are also important and meaningful in themselves. These elements are key to an understanding of how texts were perceived by their contemporary audiences, and can only be fully appreciated by considering their meaning to the reader. The considerable time and effort involved in the compilation of these minute details in the CC reflects the belief that paratextual features in the Late Modern English period can be considered vectors of additional meaning, and hence need to be included when designing and studying the linguistic material of the period. Multimodality, a current trend in various forms of linguistic analysis, provides the appropriate and necessary framework for the way we work with historical corpora and has the potential to open up new and enriching avenues of research.