Methodology of the corpus-based studies in the field of contrastive punctuation

The paper refines the methodological approach to the contrastive studies of punctuation. Given the recent achievements of information science, computer linguistics, and translation theory, such studies are most likely to be corpus-based. The paper presents a methodological model of research into interlingual punctuation asymmetry, the aim of which is to shed light on the functional scope of the same punctuation marks in different languages. It shows what methodological trends are characteristic of this research area. The focus is also on the specificities of corpus methodology in the contrastive study of punctuation. It is argued that one of the methodological tools, tailored specifically to the needs of contrastive punctuation research, may be the supracorpora databases developed at the Federal Research Center “Computer Science and Control” of the Russian Academy of Sciences.