Discours numériques et approches outillées : quelques réflexions sur les apports des métadonnées

This paper examines the role of metadata and annotations in the analysis of digital corpora by linguistic analysis tools. The present study is grounded in a discursive approach to the analysis of linguistic data. This conceptual framework determines both the concept of the corpus adopted for the study and the methodological principles guiding its exploration. The structuring of the corpus through metadata represents a pivotal juncture between the digital constitution of the material observed and the way in which it can be explored by means of corpus analysis tools. The paper initially addresses the methodological transformations, and the epistemological implications produced by digital resources. The evolving conceptualization of empirical data and the nature of the objects of study are also highlighted. A typology of metadata is then proposed, based on two main parameters: the different types of information they represent, on the one hand, and the characteristics of the data, on the other. Specific focus is directed towards the digital discourses of Web 2.0.