The emergence of corpus linguistics was preceded by a centuries old period of the use corpus methods and the creation of text corpora. In connection with the non-electronic form of storage of these corpora, as well as non-automatic methods of data processing, a special period in the history of corpus linguistics called pre electronic can be distinguished. With the invention and widespread use of computers, a new stage of development corpus linguistics begins – the created corpora differ from the old ones not only in the storage format, but also in volume. Second generation corpora are the products of the Internet and are distinguished by their large size. The third generation corpora are large and have many technological advantages. In this period, a number of new corpora were created, with a total volume of several billion words.