Corpus linguistics: where semantics and pragmatics are blended together

This paper presents the importance of dealing with linguistic phenomenon from an empirical perspective, a rather controversial issue due to the increasingly use of Corpus Linguistics as a theoretical tool. It makes a brief philosophical account on this theoretical framework; then, it presents its development within Linguistics and, more precisely, within Natural Language Processing. It also discusses the feasibility and reliability of the conventionalist framework on linguistic phenomenon. Finally, it reasons that this perspective is the most eloquent one for coping with an agenda of language studies focused on applications (such as Translation and Portuguese as a Second Language) and lexicography.