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Empirical Methods of Linguistic Research. What you will learn. How to write an empirical research paper How to design an experiment / a questionnaire How to describe frequency data (tables, graphs) How to analyse frequency data (statistics) Introduction to relevant computer software. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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Empirical Methods of Linguistic Research
What you will learn
• How to write an empirical research paper • How to design an experiment / a questionnaire• How to describe frequency data (tables, graphs)• How to analyse frequency data (statistics)• Introduction to relevant computer software
Linguistic data
• Collection of written texts • Transcripts of spoken language• Large electronic corpora• Experiments• Questionnaire• Dictionaries• Diary data (child language)• Reference grammars (linguistic typology)• Videos
Language acquisition
(1) What’s dat?(2) Who’s dat?(3) When do we leave?(4) Where’s Daddy?(5) Why’s dat?
1. Which WH-word is most frequent in early child language?2. In which order do the WH words occur?3. Does input frequency determine the order of acquisition?
Language acquisition
What Who When Where Why
Child 1Child 2Child 3Child 4
1132072722
561016760
1272218
4257205
441585
Language acquisition
What Who When Where Why Total
Child 1Child 2Child 3Child 4
1132072722
561016760
1272218
4257205
441585
267387144110
Total 369 284 59 124 72 908
Table 1. Raw frequencies
Language acquisition
What Who When Where Why %
Child 1Child 2Child 3Child 4
42,353,918,820,0
21,026,146,554,5
4,51,815,316,4
15,714,713,94,5
16,53,95,64,5
100100100100
Total 33,8 37,0 9,5 12,2 7,6 100
Table 2. Mean proportions
Language acquisition
Table 3. Age of first appearance
What Who When Where Why
Child 1Child 2Child 3Child 4
1;91;101;81;10
1;92;01;111;11
2;22;32;12;6
1;112;02;41;11
2;32,62,52,4
Mean age 1;9 1;11 2;3 2;1 2;5
Language acquisition
Table 4. Correlation
Total Input frequency (mean) First appearance (mean)
WhatWhoWhenWhereWhy
28,031,417,815,07,8
1;91;112;32;12,5
Language acquisition
Table 5. Correlation (paired)
Mother&Child 1 Mother&Child 2 ...
Child 1 Mother 1 Child 1 Mother 1 …
WhatWhoWhenWhereWhy
18,041,415,817,17,6
2;02;02;52;42;7
38,321,125,813,111,6
1;92;12;42;62;5
(1) a. When Peter arrived, Sally left.b. Sally left, when Peter arrived.
(2) a. If you had talked to her, you would have heard about it.
b. You would have heard about it, if you had talked to her.
What determines the positioning of the adverbial clause?
Corpus linguistics
Corpus linguistics
Meaning Percentage
Initial Conditional 73.0
Causal 5.1
Temporal 53.7
Final Conditional 27.0
Causal 95.8
Temporal 46.3
Corpus linguistics
Meaning Percentage Length (words)
Initial Conditional 73.0 4,1
Causal 5.1 4,3
Temporal 53.7 3,7
Final Conditional 27.0 6,7
Causal 95.8 7,5
Temporal 46.3 5,7
Corpus linguistics
Meaning Percentage Length (words)
Same Subject
Initial Conditional 73.0 4,1 45.3
Causal 5.1 4,3 22.3
Temporal 53.7 3,7 56.7
Final Conditional 27.0 6,7 12,0
Causal 95.8 7,5 17,9
Temporal 46.3 5,7 22,0
Corpus linguistics
Meaning Percentage Length (words)
Same Subject
Bound
Initial Conditional 73.0 4,1 45.3 91.9
Causal 5.1 4,3 22.3 85.1
Temporal 53.7 3,7 56.7 89.9
Final Conditional 27.0 6,7 12,0 50,1
Causal 95.8 7,5 17,9 37,0
Temporal 46.3 5,7 22,0 54,2
English has lost about 200 irregular verbs since Old English. In a few cases, regular verbs have become irregular (e.g. catch –caught). Today there are only 180 irregular verbs left.
1. Is there still pressure to regularize irregular verbs in English?
2. What determines the regularization of irregular verbs?3. Why have some regular verbs become regularized?
Historical linguistics
Historical linguistics
Regularized
throwstrivedreamhanglightcleave
1234252332
Historical linguistics
Regularized Frequency
throwstrivedreamhanglightcleave
1234252332
462601337755347125
Historical linguistics
Regularized Frequency Class
throwstrivedreamhanglightcleave
1234252332
462601337755347125
234135
Historical linguistics
Regularized Frequency Class Phonetics
throwstrivedreamhanglightcleave
1234252332
462601337755347125
234135
++--+-
Complete the sentence:
(1) Das ist der Mann ….
(2) Das ist das Buch …
(3) Das ist die Stadt …
(4) Das ist jemand …
(5) Das ist derjenige …
Psycholinguistics/Cognitive Linguistics
Historical linguistics
Subject 1 Subject 2 Subject 3 Subject 4
Das ist der Mann …
Historical linguistics
Subject 1 Subject 2 Subject 3 Subject 4
Das ist der Mann … SUBJ SUBJ SUBJ OBJ
Historical linguistics
Subject 1 Subject 2 Subject 3 Subject 4
Das ist der Mann …
Das ist das Buch …
SUBJ SUBJ SUBJ OBJ
Historical linguistics
Subject 1 Subject 2 Subject 3 Subject 4
Das ist der Mann …
Das ist das Buch …
SUBJ
OBJ
SUBJ
SUBJ
SUBJ
OBJ
OBJ
OBJ
Historical linguistics
2006 Subject 1 Subject 2 Subject 3 Subject 4
Das ist der Mann …
Das ist das Buch …
Das ist die Stadt …
SUBJ
OBJ
SUBJ
SUBJ
SUBJ
OBJ
OBJ
OBJ
Historical linguistics
2006 Subject 1 Subject 2 Subject 3 Subject 4
Das ist der Mann …
Das ist das Buch …
Das ist die Stadt …
SUBJ
OBJ
OBL
SUBJ
SUBJ
OBL
SUBJ
OBJ
SUBJ
OBJ
OBJ
OBL
Historical linguistics
2006 Subject 1 Subject 2 Subject 3 Subject 4
Das ist der Mann …
Das ist das Buch …
Das ist die Stadt …
Das ist jemand …
SUBJ
OBJ
OBL
SUBJ
SUBJ
OBL
SUBJ
OBJ
SUBJ
OBJ
OBJ
OBL
Historical linguistics
2006 Subject 1 Subject 2 Subject 3 Subject 4
Das ist der Mann …
Das ist das Buch …
Das ist die Stadt …
Das ist jemand …
SUBJ
OBJ
OBL
OBJ
SUBJ
SUBJ
OBL
SUBJ
SUBJ
OBJ
SUBJ
OBJ
OBJ
OBJ
OBL
OBJ
Historical linguistics
2006 Subject 1 Subject 2 Subject 3 Subject 4
Das ist der Mann …
Das ist das Buch …
Das ist die Stadt …
Das ist jemand …
Das ist derjenige …
SUBJ
OBJ
OBL
OBJ
SUBJ
SUBJ
OBL
SUBJ
SUBJ
OBJ
SUBJ
OBJ
OBJ
OBJ
OBL
OBJ
Historical linguistics
2006 Subject 1 Subject 2 Subject 3 Subject 4
Das ist der Mann …
Das ist das Buch …
Das ist die Stadt …
Das ist jemand …
Das ist derjenige …
SUBJ
OBJ
OBL
OBJ
SUBJ
SUBJ
SUBJ
OBL
SUBJ
SUBJ
SUBJ
OBJ
SUBJ
OBJ
OBJ
OBJ
OBJ
OBL
OBJ
SUBJ
Linguistic typology
VO OV
AUX VV AUX
6622
1258
