Projects in Linguistics A Practical Guide to Researching Language

by Wray, Alison; Trott, Kate; Bloomer, Aileen; Reay, Shirley; Butler, Chris

• ISBN13: 9780340652107
• ISBN10: 0340652101
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1998-06-25
• Publisher: Hodder Education Publishers

Summary

This is an invaluable companion for students undertaking a piece of independent research for the first time. It introduces the most commonly used tools and techniques of research and offers practical advice on how to choose a research topic, how to collect data, how to analyze it, and how to write up the results. The authors incorporate over 250 project ideas and cover plagiarism, referencing, the use of corpora, phonetic and orthographic transcription, and writing good English.

Table of Contents

Preface	xiii	(1)
Why we wrote this book	xiii	(1)
Who the book is for	xiii	(1)
What the book does	xiv	(1)
What the book doesn't do	xiv	(1)
A note on the textbook review tables	xiv	(1)
Acknowledgements	xv	(1)
International Phonetic Alphabet	xvi
1 Introduction: starting on the right foot	1	(18)
Choosing an area	1	(2)
Getting organized	3	(2)
Using resources	5	(2)
Being a researcher	7	(2)
Setting up data-based research	9	(5)
Being streetwise: keeping on the right side of your assessor	14	(5)
PART I AREAS OF STUDY AND PROJECT IDEAS	19	(134)
2 Psycholinguistics	19	(20)
Textbooks and major journals	20	(1)
Central themes and project ideas	21	(18)
Modularity	22	(2)
Themes in comprehension	24	(6)
Themes in production	30	(6)
The units of normal processing	36	(1)
Language and thought	36	(3)
3 First-language acquisition and development	39	(15)
Approaches to research	39	(1)
Terminology	40	(1)
Textbooks and major journals	40	(2)
The CHILDES database	42	(1)
Things to think about	42	(2)
Central themes and project ideas	44	(10)
Longitudinal case studies	44	(1)
Pre-linguistic development	45	(1)
Over- and under-extension: lexical and semantic development	46	(1)
Children's morphology	47	(1)
Development of phonology and intonation	47	(1)
Comprehension of complex grammatical structures	48	(1)
Children's metalinguistic awareness	48	(1)
Colour terms	49	(1)
Carer language (or `child-directed speech')	50	(1)
Conversational development	51	(1)
Sources of variation in child language	52	(1)
Literacy development	52	(2)
4 Conversation analysis	54	(9)
Textbooks	55	(2)
Major journals	57	(1)
Central themes and project ideas	57	(6)
Scripted versus non-scripted conversation	58	(1)
Radio and TV interviews	59	(1)
The development of children's conversational skills	59	(1)
Conversation and gender	60	(1)
Language, power and hierarchy	61	(2)
5 Second-language acquisition	63	(15)
Terminology	63	(2)
Textbooks and major journals	65	(1)
Things to think about	66	(1)
Central themes and project ideas	66	(12)
Developmental sequences and the process of acquisition	66	(1)
Comparison of L1 and L2 acquisition	67	(1)
Language-learning targets	67	(1)
Grammar-based and communication-based teaching	68	(2)
Vocabulary acquisition	70	(1)
Different concepts expressed in different languages	70	(1)
The learner's approach and experience	71	(1)
Interlanguage, error analysis and contrastive analysis	71	(1)
Language assessment and testing	72	(1)
Bilinguals, multilinguals and polyglots	73	(1)
Foreign language teaching policy	74	(2)
Effect of the year abroad	76	(1)
Role of the social and political status of English as L2	76	(2)
6 Style in texts	78	(10)
Textbooks and major journals	79	(1)
Finding and approaching a text	80	(1)
Central themes and project ideas	80	(8)
Interpersonal function	80	(2)
Sound patterns	82	(1)
Lexical choice	83	(2)
Grammatical structure	85	(1)
Authorship	86	(1)
Ideology and power	86	(2)
7 Sociolinguistics	88	(11)
Terminology and central concepts	89	(1)
Textbooks and major journals	90	(1)
Central themes and project ideas	91	(8)
Types and causes of variation	92	(1)
Quantitative approaches	93	(1)
Social networks	94	(1)
Qualitative approaches	95	(4)
8 Accents and dialects of English	99	(13)
Terminology	100	(1)
Textbooks	100	(1)
Other resources	101	(1)
Major journals	102	(1)
Which accent/dialect to choose	102	(1)
What to look for in an accent	103	(1)
What to look for in a dialect	103	(3)
Possible angles and project ideas	106	(5)
Comparing the speech of three generations	106	(1)
Explaining why a variety has come about	107	(1)
The political dimension of a variety	108	(1)
Accent and dialect in literature	109	(1)
Update study	109	(1)
Comparison of two varieties	110	(1)
Things to think about	111	(1)
9 Structure and meaning	112	(15)
Textbooks and major journals	113	(2)
Central themes and project ideas	115	(12)
Pragmatics	115	(2)
Metaphor	117	(1)
Sentence structure	118	(1)
Lexicon and collocation	119	(3)
Morphology and etymology	122	(2)
Punctuation	124	(1)
`Correct' grammar	124	(3)
10 Historical linguistics	127	(12)
Textbooks, reference sources and major journals	128	(3)
Central themes and project ideas	131	(6)
Researching words	131	(3)
Pronunciation and spelling	134	(1)
History of English dialects	135	(1)
The profile of a feature of English across time	135	(1)
Socio-political trends and influences on English	136	(1)
English as a world language	136	(1)
The influence of literacy on language	137	(1)
Things to think about	137	(2)
11 Language and gender	139	(14)
Terminology	140	(1)
Useful skills and knowledge	140	(1)
Textbooks	140	(2)
Major journals	142	(1)
Central themes and project ideas	142	(11)
The history and development of language and gender as a branch of linguistics	143	(1)
Attitudes towards male and female language	143	(1)
Male-female differences in accent and dialect	144	(1)
Differences in conversation and style of language use	145	(2)
Explanations of difference	147	(1)
Language and sexism	148	(1)
Gender-differentiated language in first-language acquisition	149	(1)
Language, gender and education	150	(3)
PART II TECHNIQUES FOR COLLECTING DATA	153	(42)
12 Tape-recording data	153	(5)
Places to get data	153	(1)
Audio or video?	154	(1)
Ethics and legality	154	(1)
Quality	154	(1)
Practicalities	154	(1)
Things to think about	155	(1)
How much data do you need?	156	(1)
Eliciting data from informants	157	(1)
13 Experiments	158	(9)
What does experimentation involve?	159	(1)
Advantages of experimental research	160	(1)
Disadvantages of experimental research	160	(1)
Designing an experiment	161	(2)
Things to think about	163	(4)
Order effects	164	(1)
Floor and ceiling effects	164	(1)
Practice and fatigue effects	164	(1)
Emergencies	165	(2)
14 Questionnaires	167	(15)
What is a questionnaire?	167	(1)
What research areas can a questionnaire be used for?	167	(1)
Subjects	168	(1)
Handling personal information	169	(1)
Presenting a questionnaire	169	(2)
Designing a questionnaire	171	(2)
Types of data	173	(4)
Specific techniques	177	(1)
Things to think about	178	(1)
Relating the questionnaire to the study	179	(1)
Written questionnaires	179	(1)
Spoken questionnaires	180	(2)
15 Interviews	182	(4)
General procedures	182	(1)
Approaches to interviewing	183	(3)
Data elicitation	183	(1)
Asking for intuitions	183	(2)
Gathering general data for later analysis	185	(1)
16 Observation and case studies	186	(9)
Observation studies	186	(3)
Advantages	187	(1)
Disadvantages	187	(1)
Things to think about	188	(1)
Case studies	189	(6)
Advantages	190	(1)
Disadvantages	190	(1)
How to set up a case study	191	(1)
Dealing with the results	191	(4)
PART III TOOLS FOR DATA ANALYSIS AND PROJECT WRITING	195	(79)
17 Transcribing speech phonetically and phonemically	195	(6)
The difference between phonetic and phonemic transcription	195	(2)
A few notes on phonemes	197	(1)
Hints on writing about pronunciation	198	(1)
Checklist of phonemes	199	(2)
18 Transcribing speech orthographically	201	(12)
Basics	201	(1)
Dealing with silence	202	(2)
Dealing with complexity	204	(1)
Dealing with obscurity and unusual pronunciations	205	(2)
Use of conventional punctuation	207	(1)
Dealing with pitch, emphasis, speed and volume	208	(2)
External events	210	(1)
Layout problems	210	(1)
Other problems	211	(2)
19 Using computers to study texts	213	(11)
Corpora and other computer-readable textual materials	213	(1)
Why you might want to study texts using a computer	213	(1)
Compiling your own corpus: potential problems	214	(1)
Corpora and other texts of English available for academic use	214	(2)
How to get hold of a corpus	216	(1)
Types of corpus annotation	216	(1)
Linguistic analyses that can be done using computers and how to do them	217	(3)
Programs that are available for text analysis	220	(1)
Other applications of computers in relation to texts	221	(1)
Textbooks	222	(2)
20 The Data Protection Act	224	(4)
What is the Data Protection Act?	224	(2)
Registration	226	(1)
Important note	227	(1)
21 How to reference	228	(13)
Basics	228	(4)
The Harvard system	232	(6)
The Humane system	238	(3)
22 Plagiarism and how to avoid it	241	(14)
What is plagiarism?	241	(1)
How to avoid accidental plagiarism: some strategies	242	(1)
An exercise in using published sources, creating a sophisticated account, and avoiding plagiarism	242	(13)
23 Statistics	255	(10)
Why use statistics?	255	(1)
What can statistics do?	256	(2)
Statistics and hypotheses	258	(2)
Choosing statistical tests	260	(2)
Gaining confidence	262	(1)
Textbooks	262	(1)
Key to the most common algebraic symbols used in basic statistics	263	(2)
24 Using an abstracting journal	265	(3)
What are abstracting journals?	265	(1)
What abstracting journals are available?	266	(1)
What to do	266	(2)
25 Handy hints on writing good academic English	268	(6)
Before you write	268	(1)
As you are writing	269	(2)
After you have written	271	(1)
The uses of apostrophes	271	(1)
Using punctuation	272	(1)
Other common problems	273	(1)
References	274	(19)
Index	293