CLAVIER (Corpus and LAnguage Variation In English Research) is an interuniversity research centre founded in 2008 at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia and is currently based there. Among the original members were the Universities of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Bergamo, Firenze, Milano, Modena and Reggio Emilia, Roma “La Sapienza”, Siena and Trieste. The Universities of Bari, Calabria, Pisa, Roma Tre, and Verona have since joined CLAVIER.
The members of CLAVIER share a methodological framework combines two complementary strands of linguistic investigation – corpus analysis and discourse analysis – to research on language variation in English, both in quantitative and qualitative terms. Thus, one of the main aims of CLAVIER is to contribute to an integration of quantitative and qualitative methods in research on language variation in terms of diachronic, geographic and socio-cultural dimensions through the methodological tools offered by corpora. Particular attention is also given to the analysis of different genres and methodological registers.