Multi-Dimensional Analysis: Research Methods and Current Issues

Description

Multi-Dimensional Analysis: Research Methods and Current Issues provides a comprehensive guide both to the statistical methods in Multi-Dimensional Analysis (MDA) and its key elements, such as corpus building, tagging, and tools. The major goal is to explain the steps involved in the method so that readers may better understand this complex research framework and conduct MD research on their own. Multi-Dimensional Analysis is a method that allows the researcher to describe different registers (textual varieties defined by their social use) such as academic settings, regional discourse, social media, movies, and pop songs. Through multivariate statistical techniques, MDA identifies complementary correlation groupings of dozens of variables, including variables which belong both to the grammatical and semantic domains. Such groupings are then associated with situational variables of texts like information density, orality, and narrativity to determine linguistic constructs known as dimensions of variation, which provide a scale for the comparison of a large number of texts and registers. This book is a comprehensive research guide to MDA.

Tony Berber Sardinha is Professor of Applied Linguistics at the Pontifical Catholic University in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Marcia Veirano Pinto is Adjunct Professor of English at the Federal University in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

The contributors to this volume, leading figures in multi-dimensional analysis, bring in these chapters experience and expertise to enhance existing corpus linguistics resources. The reader will accordingly find both a richness of analysis as well as clarity in explanation of MDA procedures. Essential reading for all researchers using corpus methods who wish to understand how register patterns vary, how the variation may be pinned down, and how such variation relates to underlying situational, social, and cognitive functions. * Mike Scott, Visiting Research Fellow in Corpus Linguistics, Aston University, UK * This book is a must-read for anyone who wishes to carry out multi-dimensional analyses of corpora. It consists of a collection of chapters written by experts in the field which take the reader through the origins of the approach and along its different methodological stages, drawing on a range of examples as well as offering a detailed account of existing MD research. It encourages, enlightens and enables future MD analysts. * Paul Baker, Professor of English Language, Lancaster University, UK *