### Corpus description

- General information
- Wordcount information
  - By time period and subcorpus
  - By text genre
  - By individual text, broken down by time period and subcorpus
- Conventions governing filenames
  - General conventions
  - Name vs. title
  - Women's names
  - Modifications of Helsinki Corpus filenames
  - Summary of filename modifications and PPCEME-Helsinki correspondences

#### General information

The Penn-Helsinki Parsed Corpus of Early Modern English, consisting of nearly 1.8 million words, is part of an ongoing larger project at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of York to produce syntactically annotated corpora for all stages of the history of English. Each of the texts in the corpus is available in parsed, POS-tagged, and unannotated form, as explained in detail in the annotation guidelines. In addition, the corpus is divided into three subcorpora.

1. The Helsinki directories, consisting of roughly 573,000 words, contain the Helsinki Corpus in parsed, POS-tagged, and unannotated form.

2. The Penn1 directories, consisting of roughly 615,000 words, contain a first supplement to the Helsinki Corpus. As far as possible, we have used material by the same authors and from the same editions as the material in the Helsinki Corpus. Where necessary (where the Helsinki Corpus contains an exhaustive sample of a text), we have added new material as summarized below.

3. The Penn2 directories, consisting of roughly 606,000 words, contain a second supplement to the Helsinki Corpus. Again, we have tried to use material by the same authors and from the same editions as the material in the Helsinki Corpus. However, the Penn2 directories contain more new material than the Penn1 directories.

#### Wordcount information

As just explained, the PPCEME consists of texts from three time periods in three subdirectories. In the following three tables, we give the number of words in the corpus broken down (1) by time period and subcorpus, (2) by genre, and (3) by individual text. Table 1 contains a wordcount summary by time period and subcorpus.

> Table 1: Wordcount summary by time period and subcorpus
> | Helsinki | Penn 1 | Penn 2 | Total
> --- | --- | --- | --- | ---
> E1 (1500-1569) | 196,754 | 194,018 | 185,423 | 576,195
> E2 (1570-1639) | 196,742 | 223,064 | 232,993 | 652,799
> E3 (1640-1710) | 179,477 | 197,908 | 187,631 | 565,016
> Total | 572,973 | 614,990 | 606,047 | 1,794,010

Table 2 contains a wordcount summary by text genre.

> Table 2: Wordcount summary by text genre
> Text genre | Number of words | Percentage
> --- | --- | ---
> Bible | 134,275 | 7.5%
> Biography, autobiography | 41,379 | 2.3%
> Biography, other | 52,755 | 2.9%
> Diary, private | 123,106 | 6.9%
> Drama, comedy | 120,428 | 6.7%
> Educational treatise | 113,032 | 6.3%
> Fiction | 116,494 | 6.5%
> Handbook, other | 112,419 | 6.3%
> History | 108,706 | 6.1%
> Law | 115,863 | 6.5%
> Letters, non-private | 59,868 | 3.3%
> Letters, private | 116,915 | 6.5%
> Philosophy | 85,107 | 4.7%
> Proceedings, trials | 105,090 | 8.4%
> Science, medicine | 41,786 | 2.3%
> Science, other | 79,050 | 4.4%
> Sermon | 97,400 | 5.4%
> Travelogue | 125,337 | 7.0%
> Total | 1,794,010 | 100%

Finally, Table 3 gives wordcounts by individual text, broken down by time period and subcorpus. The information in the table is also contained in the file `WORDCOUNT-PPCEME` in the info directory for the PPCEME. That file contains only ASCII characters and is suitable for importing into a spreadsheet program; the record separator is the space character.

> Table 3: Wordcount information by individual text, broken down by time period and subcorpus
>                    Helsinki    Penn1    Penn2

>     abott-e1              0      363        0
>     ambass-e1             0        0     1410
>     aplumpt-e1         1863      319        0
>     apoole-e1             0        0      211
>     asch-e1            5050     5339     5209
>     bedyll-e1           448        0        0
>     boethco-e1        10144    11772    10514
>     chaplain-e1           0        0     5171
>     cromwell-e1         434      512      870
>     dacre-e1              0        0      991
>     delapole-e1           0      260        0
>     dplumpt-e1          397        0        0
>     ebeaum-e1           401        0        0
>     ecumberl-e1         190        0        0
>     edward-e1          6207     6566     6655
>     eliz-1560-e1          0        0      313
>     elyot-e1           5603     5752     6059
>     epoole-e1             0        0      919
>     fabyan-e1          5732     5907     5805
>     fisher-e1          4857     5382     5209
>     fitzh-e1           5264     5439     5613
>     friar-e1              0      907        0
>     gascoigne-1500-e1     0      536        0
>     gascoigne-1510-e1     0      305        0
>     gcromw-e1           500      526      242
>     gpoole-1500-e1        0        0     2033
>     gpoole-1510-e1        0        0     1119
>     grey-e1               0       88        0
>     harman-e1          5409     5910     5621
>     henry-1510-e1         0        0      206
>     henry-1520-e1       917     1117        0
>     henry-1530-e1         0        0      758
>     interview-e1          0        0      380
>     iplumpt-e1          356        0        0
>     kscrope-1530-e1     257        0        0
>     latimer-e1         5099     5430     5121
>     leland-e1          6772     7132     6742
>     lords-e1            433        0        0
>     machyn-e1          6908     7424     7394
>     manners-e1            0        0      284
>     marches-e1            0      493        0
>     merrytal-e1        6656     6950     6846
>     mhoward-e1            0        0      322
>     morelet1-e1         507        0        0
>     morelet2-e1        4207     4295        0
>     moreric-e1         5709     6398     6458
>     morewol-e1         1440     1589     1396
>     mowntayne-e1       6055     6243     1660
>     mroper-e1           858     4291     3368
>     mtudor-1510-e1        0      910      470
>     mtudor-1520-e1        0        0      197
>     nevill-e1             0      158        0
>     record-e1          6768     7206     6583
>     roper-e1           5674     5742     5766
>     rplumpt-e1          352      459        0
>     rplumpt2-e1           0      561      335
>     russell-e1            0        0      371
>     savill-e1             0     1734        0
>     stat-1500-e1       7848        0        0
>     stat-1510-e1          0        0     2318
>     stat-1530-e1          0     9155        0
>     stat-1540-e1       3979     3733        0
>     stat-1550-e1          0        0     5788
>     stat-1560-e1          0        0     4199
>     stevenso-e1        6501     6724     3309
>     surety-e1             0        0      146
>     thoward-e1          391      297        0
>     throckm-e1        17364        0        0
>     torkingt-e1        7446     7675     2764
>     tunstall-e1        1123      906        0
>     turner-e1          5142     5307     5215
>     turnerherb-e1         0        0      819
>     tyndnew-e1        11150    12365    10848
>     tyndold-e1        10079    10759    10292
>     udall-e1           4807     5072     8034
>     underhill-e1          0        0     5609
>     vicary-e1          6280     6779     6322
>     wcecil-1560-e1     1208        0        0
>     wolsey-e1          1064     1231     1139
>     wplumpt-1500-e1     336        0        0
>     wplumpt-1510-e1     227        0        0
>     wplumpt-1530-e1     342        0        0
>     -----------------------------------------
>     armin-e2           5267     5416     5219
>     authnew-e2        11625    12883    11290
>     authold-e2        10862    11348    10774
>     bacon-e2           5948     6139     6169
>     blundev-e2         6573     7190     6983
>     boethel-e2         7206     7942     7445
>     brinsley-e2        5669     5930     5900
>     clowes-e2          7330     7654     5330
>     clowesobs-e2          0        0     2091
>     conway-e2           720        0        0
>     coverte-e2         6206     6467     6304
>     deloney-e2         7729     8599     8211
>     dering-e2             0        0     1763
>     edmondes-e2        1264     1808     1087
>     eliz-1570-e2          0        0     1061
>     eliz-1580-e2          0     1660        0
>     eliz-1590-e2       1576        0      300
>     essex-e2           5912     3215        0
>     essexstate-e2         0     3604     7095
>     everard-e2          557        0        0
>     forman-diary-e2       0     4125     3173
>     forman-e2          4142        0        0
>     gawdy-e2            944     1027     1295
>     gifford-e2         6332     6632     6232
>     harley-e2          1737      461        0
>     harleyedw-e2          0     1569     1804
>     hatcher-e2            0      281        0
>     hayward-e2         5305     5706     5671
>     hoby-e2            6156     7136     6496
>     hooker-a-e2        2514     2751     2995
>     hooker-b-e2        2798     2833     2245
>     jbarring-e2         875      986      905
>     jotaylor-e2        9475     9679     9419
>     joxinden-e2           0      636     1540
>     jubarring-e2          0      777      582
>     judall-e2             0        0     9195
>     knyvett-1620-e2    2984     4419     3641
>     koxinden-e2         170      205      253
>     kpaston-e2          843     1164      733
>     kscrope-1580-e2       0      253        0
>     madox-e2           6438     6790     6744
>     markham-e2         6243     6443     6416
>     masham-e2           859     1022      901
>     middlet-e2         6401     6573     6432
>     moxinden-e2           0      332      497
>     nferrar-e2          127      429      498
>     perrott-e2         5283     5689     5158
>     pettit-e2           434      467      574
>     peyton-e2           343        0        0
>     proud-1620-e2       176        0        0
>     proud-1630-e2         0      472        0
>     raleigh-e2         9300     9503      996
>     rcecil-e2             0     1398     1157
>     rferrar-e2          199        0        0
>     rich-e2               0     1697        0
>     roxinden-1600-e2      0      319        0
>     roxinden-1620-e2    458       75        0
>     roxinden2-e2          0      212      439
>     shakesp-e2         6923     7498     7290
>     smith-e2           5399     6732     4683
>     stat-1570-e2          0     2406     2376
>     stat-1580-e2       1526        0     6618
>     stat-1590-e2       5193        0        0
>     stat-1600-e2       5175        0     2246
>     stat-1620-e2          0        0     4593
>     stat-1640-e2          0        0     7130
>     stow-e2            5559     6245     5327
>     talbot-e2             0        0      266
>     tbarring-e2         443      582      607
>     thoward2-e2           0    17685    18179
>     trincoll-e2         201        0        0
>     wcecil-1580-e2      905        0      665
>     wpaston2-e2         438        0        0
>     -----------------------------------------
>     alhatton-e3         758        0        0
>     alhatton2-e3          0      891        0
>     anhatton-e3         526      712      609
>     aungier-e3         1065     1010     1302
>     behn-e3            5742     6137     5680
>     boethpr-e3         9075    11272     9737
>     boyle-e3           5423     4340        0
>     boylecol-e3           0     1349     5790
>     burnetcha-e3       5813     5928     5849
>     burnetroc-e3       6432     6557     6454
>     capel-e3            480      570      558
>     charles-1650-e3       0      959        0
>     charles-1670-e3     824        0     1075
>     chatton-e3          587      747      576
>     commiss-e3          715        0        0
>     conway2-e3            0        0     1794
>     counc-e3            190        0        0
>     dell-e3               0      591        0
>     drummond-e3           0     2065        0
>     ehatton-e3          360        0        0
>     ehatton2-e3           0        0      856
>     eoxinden-1650-e3      0      344        0
>     eoxinden-1660-e3   1868      519        0
>     eoxinden-1680-e3      0      558        0
>     evelyn-e3          5945     6268     6325
>     farquhar-e3        6369     6891     6098
>     fhatton-e3          469        0        0
>     fiennes-e3         5171     5444     5640
>     fox-e3             5540     6118     6012
>     fryer-e3           5733     6052     6045
>     hooke-e3           6381     7275     7189
>     hoole-e3           6345     6587     6700
>     hoxinden-1640-e3      0     3357        0
>     hoxinden-1650-e3      0        0     3817
>     hoxinden-1660-e3   3395        0        0
>     jackson-e3            0      500        0
>     jetaylor-e3        6417     5362        0
>     jetaylormeas-e3       0     1344     6735
>     jopinney-e3         407      525     2012
>     jpinney-e3          879      189        0
>     langf-e3           7123     7750     7811
>     lisle-e3           6428     7249     6685
>     locke-e3           5237     5864     5453
>     memo-e3               0      863      452
>     mhatton-e3            0      550        0
>     milton-e3          6661     7320     7313
>     montague-e3           0        0     1321
>     nhadd-1700-e3       255      520      456
>     oates-e3           8689     9758     9233
>     osborne-e3          988      474        0
>     penny-e3           6893     8315     5894
>     pepys-e3           5189     5821     5346
>     phenry-e3           576      808      585
>     proposals-e3          0        0      460
>     rhaddjr-e3          208        0        0
>     rhaddsr-1650-e3       0     1936        0
>     rhaddsr-1670-e3     710        0     2501
>     rhaddsr-1680-e3       0        0      205
>     rhaddsr-1700-e3     989        0      186
>     somers-e3           726        0        0
>     southard-e3           0      405        0
>     spencer-1680-e3     793        0        0
>     spencer-1700-e3       0      979        0
>     spencer-1700-e3       0        0      822
>     stat-1660-e3          0        0    10615
>     stat-1670-e3          0        0     3455
>     stat-1690-e3      13241    14269        0
>     strype-e3          1016     1354        0
>     tillots-a-e3       3201     2814        0
>     tillots-b-e3       3708     5066        0
>     tillots-c-e3          0        0     6784
>     vanbr-e3           8061     8659     8786
>     walton-e3          5876     6673     6089
>     zouch-e3              0        0      326

#### Conventions governing filenames

#### General conventions

As in the Helsinki Corpus, the filenames for the texts contain an indication of the time period to which they belong. See Philological information for more details about the individual texts.

- `e1` indicates that the text dates from 1500-1569.
- `e2` indicates that the text dates from 1570-1639.
- `e3` indicates that the text dates from 1640-1720. Note that the Helsinki Corpus officially includes texts until 1710, but itself contains one or two texts from the 1710's, as do our supplements.

In addition, the filenames in the PPCEME contain an indication of which subcorpus they belong to.

- `h` indicates that the text is part of the Helsinki Corpus.
- `p1` indicates that the text is part of the first Penn supplement.
- `p2` indicates that the text is part of the second Penn supplement.

A few examples:

- `anhatton-e3-h` indicates that the `anhatton` file dates from the third time period and belongs to the Helsinki corpus.
- `zouch-e3-p2` indicates that the `zouch` file, also from the third time period, belongs to the second Penn supplement.
- `mroper-e1-p1` indicates that the `mroper` file dates from the first time period and belongs to the first Penn supplement.

In tripling the size of the samples from the Helsinki Corpus, we have sometimes had to include texts by new authors (either because the Helsinki Corpus sample for an author was itself already exhaustive, or because we ran out of text in the course of tripling the sample size). In what follows, we describe the conventions that we have followed in assigning filenames to these new authors. Our general rule has been to leave Helsinki Corpus filenames unchanged, but we have sometimes slightly modified the original Helsinki filenames for clarity and consistency. These modifications as well as which PPCEME files supplement which Helsinki Corpus files are set out in Table 4 at the end of this section.

#### Name vs. title

> Following the conventions of the Helsinki Corpus, authors are identified by name rather than by title. Sovereigns of England are identified by their given name. For instance, Charles II is identified as charles. Other members of the nobility, including members of the royal family, are identified by their surname. For instance, Thomas Howard, earl of Surrey, 2nd duke of Norfolk, is identified as thoward (not norfolk), and Mary Tudor (Henry VIII's sister, not to be confused with his daughter, Mary I, who is not represented in the corpus) as mtudor.

> | In one or two cases, the Helsinki Corpus uses a title rather than a surname as the basis for a filename. For instance, Eleanor Clifford, countess of Cumberland, is identified as ecumberl (not clifford). In such cases, we retain the Helsinki filename in order to minimize confusion.

#### Women's names

> As a general rule, women are identified by their surname at the time of writing. Generally (though not always), this is a married name. In order to minimize confusion, we do not change filenames to reflect a later marriage. Two examples:
> - Mary Tudor, Henry VIII's sister, is identified as mtudor, whether before her first marriage to Louis XII, king of France, after that marriage, or after her second marriage to Charles Brandon, duke of Suffolk.
> - Elizabeth Oxinden, née Edwards, is identified as eoxinden, even after her second marriage, when she becomes Elizabeth Greenstreet.

> In the correspondence of important families (such as that of the Barringtons, the Hattons, or the Plumptons), the Helsinki Corpus tends to identify women by their birthname, and we retain those filenames. So Anne Finch, countess of Nottingham, nee Hatton, is identified as anhatton (not finch).

> | In one or two cases, a woman appears in the Helsinki Corpus under her married name despite belonging to one of the important correspondence families. For instance, Joan Everard and Elizabeth Masham, both n&ecutee;e Barrington, are identified as everard (not jobarring) and masham (not ebarring). In such cases, we use the Helsinki filenames in order to minimize confusion.

#### Modifications of Helsinki Corpus filenames

> Under certain circumstances, we have modified the filenames in the Helsinki Corpus for clarity and consistency. The conventions governing these modifications are given here, and the correspondence between the old and new filenames are set out in Table 4 at the end of the section.

> - We have supplemented some Helsinki Corpus files with text samples by authors that happen to have the same name as the Helsinki Corpus authors. In such cases, we use the original filename for the Helsinki Corpus authors and distinguish the new authors by means of Arabic numbers immediately following the author's name. So the Alice Hatton of the Helsinki Corpus is identified as alhatton, whereas her aunt, who is not represented in the Helsinki Corpus, is identified as alhatton2.

>   Where the Helsinki Corpus distinguishes individuals with the same name by means of "jr" and "sr", we retain that usage. However, in texts added at Penn, we do not specially distinguish the father-son relationship. We follow this convention in order to avoid having to change Helsinki filenames. So the Valentine Pettit of the Helsinki Corpus is identified as pettit, and his son of the same name, who is not represented in the Helsinki Corpus, is identified as pettit2.

> - In the Helsinki Corpus, Arabic numbers following an author name are polysemous. For instance, in hooker1 and hooker2, they indicate two (contemperaneous) works by the same author. In wplumpt1, wplumpt2, and wplumpt3, they indicate samples by the same author from different decades. In stat3, stat4, and stat7, the Arabic numerals indicate the volume number from which the texts (in this case, statutes) are taken.

>   For clarity and consistency, we have adopted the convention that Arabic numbers immediately following an author's name always indicate distinct authors. This forces us to modify Helsinki filenames of the type mentioned in the preceding paragraph. hooker1 and hooker2 become hooker-a and hooker-b. In the case of the wplumpt and stat files, we distinguish the individual files by decade, as described directly below.

> - Several samples by a single author can span more than a decade (either already in the Helsinki Corpus or as a result of our work). In all such cases, we have divided the samples by decade, and appended the decade (indicated by the first year of the decade) to the filename. For instance, rhaddsr-1670 contains the letters of Richard Haddock, Sr. (rhaddsr) from the 1670s.

>   Similarly, the wplumpt files mentioned earlier are identified as wplumpt-1500, wplumpt-1510, and wplumpt-1530, and the statute files appear as stat-1500, stat-1510, and so on.

>   | In one or two cases, it is not clear whether a Helsinki Corpus file contains material spanning more than a decade or not. In such cases, we have divided the file into the two identifiable time chunks, but not identified them by decade. For instance, tillots is divided into tillots-a (from before 1671) and tillots-b (from 1679). In one or two cases, material by a single author spans more than a decade, but we identify the samples in some other way than by decade in order to avoid changing a Helsinki filename. For instance, Brilliana Harley's letters to her husband (all but one of which are part of the Helsinki Corpus) are identified as harley, and her later letters to her son, which are not included in the Helsinki Corpus, are identified as harleyedw. Thomas More's one personal letter from the 1620s (included in the Helsinki Corpus) is identified as morelet1, and his personal letters from the 1630s (some from the Helsinki Corpus, and some added by us) are identified as morelet2.

Table 4: Summary of filename modifications and PPCEME-Helsinki correspondences
Helsinki filename | PPCEME filename (if different from Helsinki) | Supplemented by
--- | --- | ---
alhatton | --- | alhatton2, ehatton2
bedyll | --- | friar, russell
boyle | --- | boylecol
clowes | --- | clowesobs
conway | --- | rich
counc | --- | dell
ebeaum | --- | mtudor-1510, mtudor-1520
ecumberl | --- | manners, delapole
ehatton | --- | mhatton, montague
eliz1, eliz2 | included in eliz-1590 | eliz-1560, eliz-1570, eliz-1580
eoxinden | included in eoxinden-1660 | dering, eoxinden-1650, eoxinden-1680, jackson, zouch
essex | --- | essexstate
everard | --- | jubarring
fhatton | --- | mhatton
harley | --- | harleyedw
henry1, henry2 | included in henry-1520 | henry-1530
hooker1 | included in hooker-a | ---
hooker2 | included in hooker-b | ---
hoxinden | hoxinden-1660 | hoxinden-1640, hoxinden-1650
jetaylor | --- | jetaylormeas
jpinney | --- | southard, part of jopinney
knyvett | included in knyvett-1620 | knyvett-1630
kscrope | kscrope-1530 | grey, kscrope-1580, mhoward
lords | --- | interview, marches, surety
morelet1, morelet2 | --- | part of mroper (see Remarks therein)
mowntayne | --- | underhill
nhadd | included in nhadd-1700 | nhadd-1710
osborne | --- | conway2
pettit | --- | pettit2
peyton | --- | moxinden
Plumpton correspondence | --- | abott, apoole, epoole, gascoigne, gpoole, nevill, rplumpt2, savill
proud | proud-1620 | proud-1630
raleigh | --- | judall
rferrar | --- | part of nferrar
rhaddsr | included in rhaddsr-1670 and rhaddsr-1700 | rhaddsr-1650, rhaddsr-1710
roxinden | included in roxinden-1620 | roxinden-1600, roxinden2
somers | --- | drummond
stat3 | stat-1500, included in stat-1540; see info for stat-period1.e1 | stat-1510, stat-1530, stat-1550, stat-1560
stat4 | stat-1590, included in stat-1600; see info for stat-period2.e2 | stat-1570, stat-1580, stat-1620, stat-1640
stat7 | included in stat-1690; see info for stat-period3.e3 | stat-1660
stevenso | --- | part of udall
strype | --- | joxinden
thoward | --- | dacre
throckm | --- | thoward2
tillots | divided into tillots-a, tillots-b | tillots-c
torkingt | --- | chaplain
trincoll | --- | hatcher, talbot
tunstall | --- | ambass
turner | --- | turnerherb
wcecil | included in wcecil-1580 | wcecil-1560
wpaston2 | --- | joxinden
wplumpt1 | wplumpt-1500 | ---
wplumpt2 | wplumpt-1510 | ---
wplumpt3 | wplumpt-1530 | ---