Data Collection and Analysis in Sociolinguistics

1. Enrico Giai BA in Translating and Interpreting MA Student in Translation Studies Turin University Email: enrico.giai@gmail.com Data Collection and Analysis in Sociolinguistics Practical elements for research methods in sociolinguistics Turin, 07-08 April 2014

2. Monday, April 7thMain topics • Sociolinguistics: basic notions • Collecting data • Tool for data analysis • Descriptive statistics: basic notions • Example: using Excel for basic statistics

3. Sociolinguistics and sociology of language Sociology of language Effects of language use on society Who speaks what language to whom and when Sociolinguistics • Effects of society on language use • Language variation & change (variationist sociolinguistics)

4. Quantitative and qualitative approaches Quantitative approach • Data collection • Data analysis • New theory Qualitative approach • New theory • Data analysis • Theory test

5. Quantitative sociolinguistics • Quantitative analyses are all about counting something […]. In order for something to be counted, two conditions are normally considered to be necessary: (a) what you want to count must itself be ‘countable’ (i.e. quantifiable), and (b) what you want to count must have the potential to be variable (i.e. be able to change). Levon(2010:68)

6. Interviews: how to • 1st type: Structured • Guided by set of questions on the topic • Standardised & replicable • Low degree of digression from the topic • Yes/No, True/False, closed questions • 2nd type: Unstructured • Free flowing • Non standardised • Higher degree of digression from the topic • W-, open questions • 3rd type: Semi-structured • Mix

7. Interviews: pro & con Cons Possible bias and manipulations Problems with generalisation interviewees/society Expensive in terms of time and money Must be transcribed Pros • Immediate results • Face-to-face • Prosodic features of the language can be analysed • Elements of culture and self identity can be grasped The transcription process can be made easier by means of computer programmes (e.g. ELAN)

8. Interviews: analysis • Content analysis • Discourseanalysis • Relational analysis • Three mainsteps: • Noticingconcepts • Collectingexamples • Analysingexamples to find commonalities

9. Questionnaires and language surveys: how to • 1sttype: desctiprivequestionnaires • How manypeopleparticipate in a certainbehaviour • 2nd type: analytical questionnaires • Theory building and testing • Questionnaireadmininistration • Self-administration • Interviewtype situation • Types of questions (level of measurement) • Category type questions • Ordinal type questions • Continuousquestions

10. Questionnaires and language surveys: pro&con Cons Not face-to-face Low response rate No certainty whether: Who filled it out When was filled out In what order was filled out How much time did it take to fill it out Pros • Useful for surveying people from different locations • Not expensive • Perfectly standardised & replicable • Easy to compare with other questionnaires The analysis of questionnaires can be made easier by means of computer programmes (e.g. Excel)

11. Questionnaires and language surveys: analysis • Code the questions • Transfer the information • Establishstrategy for analysis • Summarise the responses • Category and ordinalquestions: frequency, charts • Continuousquestions: mean, median, mode, distribution • Univariate vs bivariate vs multivariate analysis

12. Web: how to • Using the Web as a source for corpora • Tools: • Google Advanced Search (e.g. http://www.google.com/advanced_search) • WebCorp (e.g. http://www.webcorp.org.uk/live/) • Twitter (e.g. https://twitter.com/search-advanced) • Facebook (e.g. https://www.facebook.com/imatitikua.kokolet/about)

13. ELAN • ELAN: freely downloadable (http://tla.mpi.nl/tools/tla-tools/elan/download/) • For audio and video interviews • Helps the user to transcribe audio and/or video texts • Transcription process in two steps • Segmentation phase • Transcription phase

14. ELAN: the basics (1) Main page New transcription

15. ELAN: the basics (2) Grid selection and main controls Sound spectrum Tier bar

16. ELAN for Interview Transcription – An example • Interview with a member of the Nigerian community in Turin, Italy • Recorded file audio in .wav format • Number of speakers • 1 interviewer • 1 interviewee • Transcription work step-by-step • Create a tier for each speaker • Segment the utterances • Annotate the utterances • Save the transcription

17. ELAN for Interview Transcription – Create New Tiers (1) • “Tier” → “Add new tier” • One for each participant to the interview • Add Tier Name • Write your name in the “Annotator” blank space

18. ELAN for Interview Transcription – Create New Tiers (2) • The tiers referred to the two participants should appear

19. ELAN for Interview Transcription – Segment the Utterances (1) • “Options” → “Segmentation mode” • Double click the tier to select the speaker • Hit the Enter key once to open a new segment. Another time to close it • Click on the play button to start and stop the file

20. ELAN for Interview Transcription – Segment the Utterances (2)

21. ELAN for Interview Transcription – Annotate the segments (1) • “Option”→ “Annotation mode” • Double-click the segment you want to transcribe and write the utterance down

22. ELAN for Interview Transcription – Annotate the segments (2)

23. ELAN for Interview Transcription – What now? (1) • You can • Export it as an interlinear text, to have a Word version of the transcription

24. ELAN for Interview Transcription – What now? (2) • You can • Export it as a Tab-delimited text, which can be transferred to an Excel document and analysed

25. PRAAT • PRAAT: freely downloadable (http://www.fon.hum.uva.nl/praat/download_win.html) • For speech analysis • Source: audio files (.wav and .mp3) • Annotation: • Phonetic • Orthographic

26. PRAAT – Main page

27. PRAAT – An example (1) Open > Read from file Example: interview with a Nigerianimmigrant

28. PRAAT – An example (2) Annotate > To TextGrid

29. PRAAT – An example (3) Definenumber and name of tier(s) for each speaker(s)

30. PRAAT – An example (4) Select both > View&Edit

31. PRAAT – An example (5)

32. PRAAT – An example (6) Mouse on spectrogram > selectpassage(Tab=play)

33. PRAAT – An example (7) Click on spectrogram>click on circle: delimitate tag

34. PRAAT – An example (8) Enterkey > annotate

35. WordSmith Tools • Wordsmith Tools: freely downloadable (http://www.lexically.net/wordsmith/) • For concordances & word lists • Source: corpus/linguistic database in .txt format • Example: seenext slide

36. WordSmith Tools – Excel to .txt Source .txt file

37. WordSmithTools – Main page

38. WordSmith Tools – An example (1)

39. WordSmith Tools – An example (2)

40. WordSmith Tools – An example (3)

41. WordSmith Tools – An example (4)

42. WordSmith Tools – An example (5)

43. Basic statisticsnotions • Average/aritmethicmean • Median • Mode • Frequency • Minimum values • Maximum values • Range/standard deviation

44. Microsoft Excel (1)

45. Microsoft Excel (2) Font selection and customisation;cellborders Insert/delete rows/columns Find Merge cells Alignment

46. Microsoft Excel (3) Columns Rows Cell: A1

47. Microsoft Excel (4) Insert text: double click on cell Right click>’Formato celle’

48. Microsoft Excel – Basic Notions • Formulae are inserted clicking on the “Inseriscifunzioni” button, or typing them in a cell • Rules • Preceded by an equal sign; • Use of coordinates; • Types of formulae: • Arithmetic • Statistical • Logical

49. Microsoft Excel – Entering data • Collect data usingquestionnaires or languagesurveys • Codifyyourquestions and answers • Arrangethem • Row 1: questions. Eachcolumnrepresents a question • Row 2 to ∞: answers

50. Microsoft Excel – Coding a questionnaire/language survey • Codingyourresponses/data • Allocating a number to the answers of eachquestion • Codingcategorytypequestions • e.g. gender (M=1; F=2) • Codingordinalquestions • e.g. agebrackets (1=15-20; 2=21-25; …) • Codingcontinuousquestions • Alreadynumbers