Quantitative Corpus Linguistics with R: A Practical Introduction [Paperback]

Stefan Thomas Gries (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 22, 2009 | ISBN-10: 0415962706 | ISBN-13: 978-0415962704 | Edition: 1

The first textbook of its kind, Quantitative Corpus Linguistics with R demonstrates how to use the open source programming language R for corpus linguistic analyses. Computational and corpus linguists doing corpus work will find that R provides an enormous range of functions that currently require several programs to achieve – searching and processing corpora, arranging and outputting the results of corpus searches, statistical evaluation, and graphing.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Stefan Th. Gries is Professor of Linguistics at the University of California, Santa Barbara, USA.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (February 22, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415962706
• ISBN-13: 978-0415962704
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 7.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,011,827 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Painful to use, November 28, 2010

By 

John S. Fry (Eagle, ID USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Quantitative Corpus Linguistics with R: A Practical Introduction (Paperback)

I evaluated this book for use in my course in quantitative corpus linguistics and decided not to use it. The problem is not with the content, which is impressive; Gries knows his stuff and I learned a lot. Unfortunately, the format, structure, and execution of this book are seriously botched, and in the end I didn't want to subject my students to the pain that I suffered having to read it. Here are the major problems: (1) The exercise boxes promised in the introduction are inexplicably missing from the text (you need to go to the web site to find them). (2) The typeface is painfully tiny. (3) Some chapters are way too long (Chapter 3 is close to 100 pages, almost half the book). (4) The R code listings are even more unreadable than normal because all the whitespace has been replaced, for no good reason (R ignores whitespace), with gigantic black dots. (5) The index is one of the worst I've ever seen; for example, you won't find "bigram" or "ordinal" in the index, but the entry for "retrieve/search" (whatever that means) points to almost 100 pages. Linguists who want a general introduction to quantitative methods (not specific to corpora) would be much better off with the excellent texts from Johnson or Baayen.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Considerate Corpus Linguistics and R Introduction, May 3, 2009

By 

John M. Ford "johnDC" (near DC, MD USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Quantitative Corpus Linguistics with R: A Practical Introduction (Kindle Edition)

This book was not just written, it was designed--and well designed to teach readers about both corpus linguistics and the R statistics package. This electronic version allows busy readers with Kindles or iPhones to study productively during long commutes, even longer delays at the doctor's office, and endless unpunctuated speeches by boorish colleagues in staff meeting.

The six chapters of Stephan Th. Gries' book unfold in an instructionally sound sequence. Chapter 1 briefly introduces corpus linguistics and directs readers elsewhere for a thorough treatment of its history and theories. The second chapter defines word frequency lists, word collocations, and concordances--three basic analysis tools of the discipline. Chapter 3 shifts focus and introduces the R software. This is an excellent and thorough coverage of R data manipulation, programming, and the text processing needed to analyze linguistic corpora.

Building on this foundation, the book integrates R with linguistic analysis. Chapter 4 revisits word lists, collocations and concordances, teaching readers to implement these methods in R. Chapter 5 reviews the basics of statistical reasoning and introduces additional analysis techniques in R. Chapter 6 presents case studies and points readers to the book's supporting web site for associated data files and R syntax files.

The book is considerate of the reader. It uses only freely-available, open source software such as R, the Tinn-R text editor, and OpenOffice Calc. Beyond the price of the book and access to a computer, the author intends no financial barriers to learning. The micro-design of the chapters is also reader-friendly. R code and output are clearly marked and helpfully annotated. Frequent "Think Breaks" in the chapters challenge readers to solve a small problem before reading the answer. This technique encourages active reading and produces a feeling of satisfaction as one progresses through each section. Chapters end with "For further study/exploration" sections that contain pointers to R documentation, web resources, and further reading.

I recommend this book as a self-contained source about statistical methods in corpus linguistics as implemented in R. I would supplement it with Svenja Adolphs' Introducing Electronic Text Analysis to learn how the results of statistical analysis are used in applied linguistics and related disciplines.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Useful book, April 25, 2009

By 

Andre L. Souza (Austin, TX USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Quantitative Corpus Linguistics with R: A Practical Introduction (Paperback)

If you already work with Corpus Linguistics or plan on doing so, this is a book you MUST have, read thoroughly and ensure its application. The use of R as a tool to both manipulate and analyze corpus data is surely an important step towards a more systematic and more quantitatively-oriented CL. Sure enough, this book is the biggest contribution towards this end thus far!