Abstract
The present paper addresses several issues relating to the research goals and methodological techniques used in multi-dimensional analyses of register variation (e.g., Biber, 1988). The paper is prompted by the allegations of inadequacy and error published in Watson (1994). In my discussion, I point out that Watson fails to substantiate his claimed inadequacies with empirical evidence, and that previous investigations have shown that many of these criticisms are factually incorrect. In addition, I attempt to correct several fundamental misunderstandings of the multi-dimensional approach and the relationships among computational, statistical, and interpretive methodologies within the approach.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 341-370 |
Number of pages | 30 |
Journal | Text |
Volume | 15 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 1995 |
Keywords
- computer taggers
- corpus linguistics
- multi-dimensional analysis
- multivariate statistics
- register variation
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Language and Linguistics
- Linguistics and Language
- Literature and Literary Theory