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7 - Change over Time

Working Diachronic Data

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 September 2018

Vaclav Brezina
Affiliation:
Lancaster University
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Summary

This chapter discusses statistical procedures that can be used to explore historical or diachronic data. First, specific features of diachronic studies are outlined and techniques that provide effective visualizations of diachronic change are introduced. Second, the chapter focuses on the statistical comparison of two time periods using a procedure called bootstrapping. Next, the diachronic application of the cluster analysis (introduced in chapter 5) is discussed. A specific type of the cluster technique (neighbouring cluster analysis), which takes into account the diachronic ordering of data, is introduced. Finally, the chapter presents a method for statistical identification of peaks and troughs in diachronic data and an extension called Meaning Fluctuation Analysis (MFA). The Peaks and Troughs technique applies a non-linear regression model to the data to identify extreme points in time (outliers), where a dramatic change in discourse occurred. MFA, traces the development of collocates of a word of interest over time; using the peaks and troughs technique it identifies points where a major change in the use of a word took place.
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Chapter
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Statistics in Corpus Linguistics
A Practical Guide
, pp. 219 - 256
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2018

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References

Advanced Reading

Baker, P. (2011). Times may change, but we will always have money: diachronic variation in recent British English. Journal of English Linguistics, 39(1), 6588.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brezina, V., McEnery, T. & Baker, H. (in prep.). Usage fluctuation analysis: a new way of analysing shifts in historical discourse.Google Scholar
Hilpert, M. & Gries, S. Th. (2009). Assessing frequency changes in multistage diachronic corpora: applications for historical corpus linguistics and the study of language acquisition. Literary and Linguistic Computing, 24(4), 385401.Google Scholar
McEnery, T. & Baker, H. (2017). Corpus linguistics and 17th-century prostitution. London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar
Säily, T. (2014). Sociolinguistic variation in English derivational productivity: studies and methods in diachronic corpus linguistics. Mémoires de la Société Néophilologique de Helsinki XCIV, Helsinki. Available at: https://helda.helsinki.fi/handle/10138/136128.Google Scholar

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  • Change over Time
  • Vaclav Brezina, Lancaster University
  • Book: Statistics in Corpus Linguistics
  • Online publication: 14 September 2018
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316410899.008
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  • Change over Time
  • Vaclav Brezina, Lancaster University
  • Book: Statistics in Corpus Linguistics
  • Online publication: 14 September 2018
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316410899.008
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Change over Time
  • Vaclav Brezina, Lancaster University
  • Book: Statistics in Corpus Linguistics
  • Online publication: 14 September 2018
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316410899.008
Available formats
×