This new edition of TUFS Studies in Linguistics, aims to showcase the various linguistics research conducted at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. This first volume reports on the international symposium hosted by the Global Center of Excellence Program "Corpus-based Linguistics and Language Education (CbLLE)" throughout 2008. This collection also considers the timeless linguistics issue of "variation" by utilizing the corpus analysis method. Whether socio-linguistic, stylistic or individual, variations manifest in a variety of ways throughout time and space and are closely related to issues surrounding linguistic theories. Additionally this volume includes other research upon diverse themes such as diachronic variation analysis, lexical variations, second language acquisition and bilingualism.