A statistical method for the identification and aggregation of regional linguistic variation

Jack Grieve, Dirk Speelman, Dirk Geeraerts

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

This paper introduces a method for the analysis of regional linguistic variation. The method identifies individual and common patterns of spatial clustering in a set of linguistic variables measured over a set of locations based on a combination of three statistical techniques: spatial autocorrelation, factor analysis, and cluster analysis. To demonstrate how to apply this method, it is used to analyze regional variation in the values of 40 continuously measured, high-frequency lexical alternation variables in a 26-million-word corpus of letters to the editor representing 206 cities from across the United States.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)193-221
Number of pages29
JournalLanguage Variation and Change
Volume23
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jul 2011

Bibliographical note

© Cambridge University Press

Keywords

  • regional linguistic variation

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