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8 - Comparing Bayesian and Frequentist Models of Language Variation

The Case of Help + (to-)Infinitive

from Part III - Perspectives on Multifactorial Methods

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 May 2022

Ole Schützler
Affiliation:
Universität Leipzig
Julia Schlüter
Affiliation:
Universität Bamberg
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Summary

This chapter compares standard frequentist and more recent Bayesian approaches to logistic regression analyses. Starting out from a multifactorial case study of the verb help complemented by either the bare infinitive or the to-infinitive, the key components and the main conceptual differences of frequentist and Bayesian inference are discussed. Conceptually, the Bayesian rationale of directly testing hypotheses on the effects of multiple factors on an outcome variable is argued to be preferable and more sensitive than the conventional approach of testing null hypotheses. On the practical side, Bayesian statistics enables the researcher to recycle and integrate the results of previous analyses based on different datasets as informative priors, which can help improve and stabilize statistical modelling. Recourse to prior research can thus produce synergies and reduce data preparation expense. In cases of data sparsity, it can by the same token enable researchers to analyse small samples. Bayesian methods are thus put forward as powerful tools for overcoming the limitations of isolated corpus studies and for promoting synergies between data collected by individual researchers.

Type
Chapter
Information
Data and Methods in Corpus Linguistics
Comparative Approaches
, pp. 224 - 258
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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References

Further Reading

Gelman, Andrew, and Hill, Jennifer. 2007. Data Analysis Using Regression and Multilevel/Hierarchical Models. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gelman, Andrew, Jakulin, Aleks, Pittau, Maria Grazia and Yu-Sung, Su. 2008. A Weakly Informative Prior Distribution for Logistic and Other Regression Models. The Annals of Applied Statistics 2(4). 136083. https://doi.org/10.1214/08-AOAS191.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kruschke, John K. 2011a. Doing Bayesian Data Analysis: A Tutorial with R and BUGS. Oxford: Elsevier.Google Scholar
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Nicenboim, Bruno, and Vasishth, Shravan. 2016. Statistical Methods for Linguistic Research: Foundational Ideas: Part II. Language and Linguistics Compass 10. 591613. https://doi.org/10.1111/lnc3.12207.Google Scholar
van de Schoot, Rens, and Depaoli, Sarah. 2014. Bayesian Analyses: Where to Start and What to Report. The European Health Psychologist 16(2). 7584.Google Scholar
van de Schoot, Rens, David Kaplan, Jaap J. Denissen, Jens B. Asendorpf, Franz J. Neyer, Marcel A. G. van Aken, . 2014. A Gentle Introduction to Bayesian Analysis: Applications to Developmental Research. Child Development 85. 842860. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12169CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

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