Every method counts: Combining corpus-based and experimental evidence in the study of synonymy
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Antti Arppe
Abstract
In this study we explore the concurrent, combined use of three research methods, statistical corpus analysis and two psycholinguistic experiments (a forced-choice and an acceptability rating task), using verbal synonymy in Finnish as a case in point. In addition to supporting conclusions from earlier studies concerning the relationships between corpus-based and experimental data (e. g., Featherston 2005), we show that each method adds to our understanding of the studied phenomenon, in a way which could not be achieved through any single method by itself. Most importantly, whereas relative rareness in a corpus is associated with dispreference in selection, such infrequency does not categorically always entail substantially lower acceptability. Furthermore, we show that forced-choice and acceptability rating tasks pertain to distinct linguistic processes, with category-wise incommensurable scales of measurement, and should therefore be merged with caution, if at all.
© Walter de Gruyter
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Every method counts: Combining corpus-based and experimental evidence in the study of synonymy
- A variationist account of constituent ordering in presentative sentences in Belgian Dutch
- Grammar is to meaning as the law is to good behaviour
- Testing hypotheses about compound stress assignment in English: a corpus-based investigation
- There's two ways to say it: Modeling nonprestige there's
- Book Reviews
- Contents Volume 3 (2007)
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Every method counts: Combining corpus-based and experimental evidence in the study of synonymy
- A variationist account of constituent ordering in presentative sentences in Belgian Dutch
- Grammar is to meaning as the law is to good behaviour
- Testing hypotheses about compound stress assignment in English: a corpus-based investigation
- There's two ways to say it: Modeling nonprestige there's
- Book Reviews
- Contents Volume 3 (2007)
