Statistics in Corpus Linguistics
A Practical Guide

A comprehensive and accessible introduction to statistics in corpus linguistics, covering multiple techniques of quantitative language analysis and data visualisation.

Vaclav Brezina (Author)

9781107125704, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 20 September 2018

314 pages, 134 b/w illus. 75 tables
25.3 x 18.8 x 2.2 cm, 0.71 kg

'An excellent book which is timely and accessible and includes an impressive balance of theory and practice - definitely a book the field has been waiting for.' Bróna Murphy, University of Edinburgh

Do you use language corpora in your research or study, but find that you struggle with statistics? This practical introduction will equip you to understand the key principles of statistical thinking and apply these concepts to your own research, without the need for prior statistical knowledge. The book gives step-by-step guidance through the process of statistical analysis and provides multiple examples of how statistical techniques can be used to analyse and visualise linguistic data. It also includes a useful selection of discussion questions and exercises which you can use to check your understanding. The book comes with a Companion website, which provides additional materials (answers to exercises, datasets, advanced materials, teaching slides etc.) and Lancaster Stats Tools online (http://corpora.lancs.ac.uk/stats), a free click-and-analyse statistical tool for easy calculation of the statistical measures discussed in the book.

1. Introduction: statistics meets corpus linguistics
2. Vocabulary: frequency, dispersion and diversity
3. Semantics and discourse: collocations, keywords and reliability of manual coding
4. Lexico-grammar: from simple counts to complex models
5. Register variation: correlation, clusters and factors
6. Sociolinguistics and stylistics: individual and social variation
7. Change over time: working diachronic data
8. Bringing everything together: ten principles of statistical thinking, meta-analysis and effect sizes.

Subject Areas: Social research & statistics [JHBC], Research methods: general [GPS], Applied linguistics for ELT [EBAL], Semantics, discourse analysis, etc [CFG], Language: reference & general [CB]