■先来看看几本词典对corpus的解释：
◆《麦克米兰英语词典》对 corpus 的解释是：
LINGUISTICS a collection of written and spoken language stored on computer and used for language research and writing dictionaries
◆《柯林斯高阶英语词典》对 corpus 的解释是：
A corpus is a large collection of written or spoken texts that is used for language research. (TECHNICAL)
◆《美国传统词典》对 corpus 的解释是：
A large collection of writings of a specific kind or on a specific subject.
A collection of writings or recorded remarks used for linguistic analysis.
◆《剑桥高级学习词典》对 corpus 的解释是：
the collection of a single writer's work or of writing about a particular subject, or a large amount of written and sometimes spoken material collected to show the state of a language
◆《牛津高阶英语词典》（第6版）对 corpus 的解释是：
(technical) a collection of written or spoken texts
■corpus本身的用法说明
corpus 是一个可数名词，其复数形式有两种：corpora 或 corpuses。如：
a corpus of 100 million words of spoken English 含有一亿单词的英语口语语料库
With the development of corpus linguistic, corpuses provide us a great deal of authentic language material. 随着语料库语言学的发展，语料库为英语教学提供了大量真实的语言材料。
A corpus of spoken language has been gathered from all over the country for the purposes of examining regional differences. 他们从全国各地搜集了口语语料以考察其地区差异性。
■以下有关corpus 的用例来自“英国国家语料库（BNC）”：
◆Corpus books, do also essays, many use audio, your transcription is long, let's see either side.
◆On the applicant's application for habeas corpus, the Divisional Court decided to allow the application.
◆As the chair is attached to Corpus Christi College, she had to resign her Fellowship at Somerville, where she had taught our biochemists for over twenty years.
◆William's suspension of habeas corpus in the early years of the war, his use of the royal veto, and his attempt to retain a standing army in peacetime after the Treaty of Ryswick in 1697, further aroused Country suspicions about the strength of the executive.
◆In this corpus we find that it is very rare for an ellipsis to occur without a linguistic antecedent, and in those cases where one does, it is usually for special effect.
◆The conclusion from psychological research that information processing is unusual in psychotic individuals thus finds an exact parallel in theories emphasising the functioning of the corpus callosum as the physiological vehicle for psychosis.
◆Even if it were not, there would be other problems, such as whether a book read by millions would count equally, in the corpus, with a private letter; whether some publications (eg literary magazines) would be weightier, in determining the norm for the language, than others.