Quantitative Corpus Linguistics with R: A Practical Introduction (Paperback)

~ (Author) "This book is an introduction to corpus linguistics..." (more)
Key Phrases: world edition, annotated corpus, public license, The Three Central Corpus-linguistic Methods, Gabor Grothendieck, One Interval (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Current corpus linguistics (naturalistic language data) books inform us about what corpus linguistics is, but not HOW to do it. Books addressing R for introductory statitics are also available, however, this is the first textbook on using the programming language R for corpus linguistics. Computational linguists doing corpus work will find R to provide a range of services that currently require several programs to achieve - statistics, graphing, data organization, as well as the language corpus itself.

About the Author

University of California at Santa Barbara, USA

Product Details

• Paperback: 248 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (February 20, 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: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #535,002 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 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

Amazon Verified Purchase

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 (REAL NAME)

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!