Quantitative Reasoning in Linguistics

Abstract

The study of linguistic variation requires a familiarity with both the basic tools of qualitative linguistic analysis and quantitative methods of for pursuing that analysis to deeper levels. This presentation will assume a basic familiarity with both sets of tools, and focus upon how theyt are used to address the major questions of linguistic structure and linguistic change. Given the output of quantitative analyses, we ask, what good are they? what inferences and implications can be found in these numbers that justify the time and energy needed to produce them? What are the principles of quantitative reasoning that allow us to pass from the measurement of surface fluctuations to the underlying forms and principles that produce them? Variation: the central problem of linguistics It will be helpful to begin with the general considerations that lead us to the study of variation. From one point of view, linguistics is as diverse as the languages it studies; from another, linguistics centers upon a common problem: variation. If every yes-no question were related to the corresponding declarative in a uniform way, no linguist would be needed to describe the system or tell new learners how to use it. But

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