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Article published In:
International Journal of Corpus Linguistics
Vol. 25:4 (2020) ► pp.461–488

Author and register as sources of variation

A corpus-based study using elicited texts

ORCID logo | Charles University
ORCID logo | Charles University
ORCID logo | Charles University
ORCID logo | Charles University
ORCID logo | Charles University
ORCID logo | Charles University

This paper investigates the contribution of author/idiolect vs. register/type-of-text – as the most salient factors influencing the final shape of a text – towards explaining the variation observed in Czech texts. Since it is almost impossible to explore the effect of these factors on authentic data, we used elicited letters collected in a fully crossed experimental design (representative sample of 200 authors × four elicitation scenarios serving as a proxy to register variation). The variation encompassed by the elicited texts is analyzed through the lens of a general-purpose multi-dimensional model of Czech. Using triangulation via three established statistical methods and one devised for the purpose of this study, we find that register matters a great deal, explaining 1.5 times as much variation overall as idiolect. This should be taken into account when designing research in sociolinguistics or variation studies in general.

Keywords: variation, idiolect, register, multi-dimensional analysis, Czech
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Sources of variation in linguistic research
  • 3.Methods and data
    • 3.1General-purpose model of language variability
    • 3.2CPACT elicited data
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Effect size
    • 4.2Distances between texts
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 27 October 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ijcl.19020.cvr
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