Korpus

German

Alternative forms

• Corpus

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɔʁpʊs/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: Kor‧pus

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Latin corpus (“body”) with Germanized spelling but retention of the Latin gender and plural. Doublet of Körper and Korps.

Noun

Korpus n (strong, genitive Korpus, plural Korpora)

1. (linguistics) corpus

   Synonym: Textkorpus

Declension

	singular			plural
	indef.	def.	noun	def.	noun
nominative	ein	das	Korpus	die	Korpora
genitive	eines	des	Korpus	der	Korpora
dative	einem	dem	Korpus	den	Korpora
accusative	ein	das	Korpus	die	Korpora

Declension of Korpus [neuter, strong]

Derived terms

• Textkorpus, Korpuslinguistik

Etymology 2

As etymology 1, but possibly via or influenced by French corpus (“body”). The shift to masculine gender may be explained by French influence, as Latin neuter nouns regularly become masculine in French, or it may result from a reanalysis of the Latin i-declension as an o-declension, since in o-declension nouns, which are very common, the ending -us is regularly an indicator of masculine gender. Likewise the loss of the Latin plural could be explained either by an influence of the French word or simply by a lack of awareness of the original Latin.

Noun

Korpus m (strong, genitive Korpus, plural Korpusse)

1. (design, furniture, architecture) base
2. (religion) crucifix
3. (music) body

   Synonyms: Klangkörper, Resonanzkörper

   • 2010, Nicole Weber, Lernstationen Musik, Persen Verlag, →ISBN, page 15:

     Der Korpus der Geige ist in der Mitte schmaler, damit der Bogen, wenn er über die Seiten^[sic] streicht, nicht den Korpus berührt.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Declension

	singular			plural
	indef.	def.	noun	def.	noun
nominative	ein	der	Korpus	die	Korpusse
genitive	eines	des	Korpus	der	Korpusse
dative	einem	dem	Korpus	den	Korpussen
accusative	einen	den	Korpus	die	Korpusse

Declension of Korpus [masculine, strong]

Further reading

• “Korpus” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• “Korpus (neuter)” in Duden online
• “Korpus (masculine)” in Duden online
• “Korpus (feminine)” in Duden online
• Textkorpus on the German Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^de