Abstract:

Under the background of increasingly prominent quantitative turn in linguistic studies, the introduction of How to Do Linguistics with R: Data Exploration and Statistical Analysis has been widely concerned and praised. Taking R environment as the operation platform, this book presents through examples a series of methods of data exploration and statistical analysis for linguistic investigations, ranging from descriptive statistics through regression analysis to multidimensional scaling. Techniques of data visualization have been given much emphasis throughout the book and corresponding R scripts are provided. Another notable characteristic is that the introduction of the methods centers on solving intriguing linguistic problems. As a methodology reference book tailored for language researchers, it consists of four major parts that guide readers, in a step-by-step manner, through a variety of statistical methods and insightful analyses. Written in plain and friendly language, this book is particularly useful for linguists, whether they are experienced or inexperienced in statistical computing. It is also a valuable pedagogical resource for quantitative linguistics. This paper reviews the book by summarizing the contents of its four main parts, discussing its contributions and pointing out the limitations, with an aim to provide methodological support for domestic linguistic studies and promote the trend of quantitative turn.

Keywords: linguistic methodology; quantitative research methods; multivariate analysis; R-language

摘要：

在语言学研究定量转向趋势日益显著的背景下,《如何用R作语言学研究：数据挖掘与统计分析》一书的推出受到广泛关注和好评。该著作以R环境为操作平台,通过实例为语言学研究梳理了一系列数据挖掘和统计分析的方法。本书用平实易懂的语言,循序渐进地引介了各类研究方法,是一本为语言研究者量身打造的方法论工具书。本文对该书进行评介,简述书中四个主要组成部分的内容,评价该书的学术贡献并指出其不足之处,以期为国内的语言学研究提供方法论支持,推动和促进语言学领域实现更进一步的定量转向。

关键词: 语言学方法论, 定量研究方法, 多元分析, R语言