Basic structure
(Source: the PPCMBE corpus description.)
Like the PPCEME, the PPCMBE spans roughly 210 years (1700–1914) and can thus be divided into three 70-year time periods analogous to the e1, e2, and e3 time periods of the PPCEME. Table 1 contains a wordcount summary by time period. All wordcounts exclude punctuation and extralinguistic material such as page numbers or token ID numbers.
Word counts
Table 1. Word count summary by time period.
| Period |
Wordcount |
| 1700–1769 |
298,764 |
| 1770–1839 |
368,804 |
| 1840–1914 |
281,327 |
| Total |
948,895 |
Figure 1. Word count summary by time period.
Table 2. Word count summary by Helsinki Corpus text genre.
| Text genre |
Number of words |
Percentage |
| Bible |
52,909 |
5.60 % |
| Biography, autobiography |
25,880 |
2.70 % |
| Biography, other |
30,072 |
3.20 % |
| Diary |
69,584 |
7.30 % |
| Drama, comedy |
70,338 |
7.40 % |
| Educational treatise |
64,839 |
6.80 % |
| Fiction |
65,626 |
6.90 % |
| Handbook, other |
63,557 |
6.70 % |
| History |
61,621 |
6.50 % |
| Law |
65,748 |
6.90 % |
| Letters, non-private |
33,826 |
3.60 % |
| Letters, private |
66,362 |
7.00 % |
| Philosophy |
17,108 |
1.80 % |
| Proceedings, trials |
58,973 |
6.20 % |
| Science, medicine |
23,147 |
2.40 % |
| Science, other |
53,449 |
5.60 % |
| Sermon |
54,711 |
5.80 % |
| Travelogue |
71,145 |
7.50 % |
| Total |
948,895 |
100 % |
Figure 2. Word count summary by text genre.
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