<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>Statistical approaches in linguistics seem to have gained in importance in recent times, especially in the field of Corpus Linguistics. In particular, the last ten years have seen an upsurge of linguists being dedicated to statistical methods and the improvement of statistical knowledge. This has repeatedly been described as ‘the quantitative turn’ in linguistics. In the present paper, we assess how real this quantitative turn actually is and whether statistics can be considered the ‘new normal’ in (corpus) linguistics. To this end, we have analyzed the contributions to six high-impact journals (<italic>Corpora, Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory, ICAME Journal, English World-Wide, Journal of English Linguistics</italic>, and <italic>Language Variation and Change</italic>) for a period of eleven years (January 2011 until December 2021). Our results suggest that, indeed, statistical methods seem to be on the rise in linguistic studies. However, their frequency strongly varies between the journals, and, in general, we have identified some room for improvement in the use of advanced statistical methods, in particular the discussion of true prediction.</p>
</abstract>

Statistical approaches in linguistics seem to have gained in importance in recent times, especially in the field of Corpus Linguistics. In particular, the last ten years have seen an upsurge of linguists being dedicated to statistical methods and the improvement of statistical knowledge. This has repeatedly been described as ‘the quantitative turn’ in linguistics. In the present paper, we assess how real this quantitative turn actually is and whether statistics can be considered the ‘new normal’ in (corpus) linguistics. To this end, we have analyzed the contributions to six high-impact journals (Corpora, Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory, ICAME Journal, English World-Wide, Journal of English Linguistics, and Language Variation and Change) for a period of eleven years (January 2011 until December 2021). Our results suggest that, indeed, statistical methods seem to be on the rise in linguistic studies. However, their frequency strongly varies between the journals, and, in general, we have identified some room for improvement in the use of advanced statistical methods, in particular the discussion of true prediction.

How real is the quantitative turn? Investigating statistics as the new normal in linguistics

ICAME Journal

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Statistical approaches in linguistics seem to have gained in importance in recent times, especially in the field of Corpus Linguistics. In particular, the last...

How real is the quantitative turn? Investigating statistics as the new normal in linguistics

Publié en ligne: 28 mai 2024

Pages: 1 - 22

Reçu: 06 août 2023

Accepté: 19 janv. 2024

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/icame-2024-0001

Mots clés
quantitative turn, statistical analysis, significance, model evaluation, prediction

© 2024 Sarah Buschfeld et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

How real is the quantitative turn? Investigating statistics as the new normal in linguistics

Publié en ligne: 28 mai 2024

Pages: 1 - 22

Reçu: 06 août 2023

Accepté: 19 janv. 2024

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/icame-2024-0001

Mots clésquantitative turn, statistical analysis, significance, model evaluation, prediction

© 2024 Sarah Buschfeld et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Mots clés
quantitative turn, statistical analysis, significance, model evaluation, prediction