This four-volume collection is organized around linguistic research questions that can be investigated from a corpus perspective and includes amongst others studies of individual words, comparisons of supposedly synonymous words, studies of grammatical variation, and sociolinguistic studies of dialects, registers, styles, and world varieties. Corpus-based analysis has also proven to be important for the study of historical change.

Volume One: Lexical Studies focuses on the study of word use, describing the ′collocational′ associations of words, and describing phraseological patterns in a language.

Volume Two: Grammar moves on to research questions that relate to grammar, including the special uses of a grammatical feature in a particular register, the discourse factors influencing the choice among grammatical variants, and lexico-grammatical patterns of association.

Volume Three: Varieties investigates registers, dialects, and national varieties of English. Some of these studies describe the characteristics of a particular variety; describe the ways in which registers or dialects differ in their preference for particular linguistic variants.

Volume Four: Methods and Applications addresses two major considerations: corpus design and analytical methods. This volume also includes a section on analyses of the patterns of use for learners of English as well as a section on the pedagogical implications of corpus research.