Recent technological advances, coupled with the adoption of research

methods from fields such as psychology, neurology, and computer science,

had resulted in a boom in studies that employ experiments and quantitative

means to explore questions of linguistic structure and processing. This

volume addresses a number of these fields: sociolinguistics, connectionism,

exemplar models, experimental phonetics, chronometric experiments,

non-chronometric experiments, neuroimaging, and usage-based models.

Although a wealth of information exists in each field, most of what is

available is written to investigate a research question and is not meant as

an introduction to a particular field or its methodologies. The present

volume is designed to fill this need. It is not meant to detail what the

state-or-the-art in the fields is. Instead, it serves as a reference work

for those who are interested in learning more about experimental and

quantitative approaches to linguistics, or a particular sub-branch of

these. The chapters are designed to introduce the reader into the field,

and the methods commonly employed, as well as illustrating some of the

issues examined, and pointing the way to further studies.

Contents:

Preface

Linguistics and the Scientific Method

David Eddington

Sociolinguistics

Wendy Baker

Connectionism

Patrick Juola

Exemplar-based Models

Steve Chandler

Experimental Phonetics

Caroline Smith

Chronometric Psycholinguistic Techniques: Timing the Lexicon

Gary Libben

Non-chronometric Experiments in Linguistics

Bruce L. Derwing & Roberto G. de Almeida

Neuroimaging of Speech and Language

Martin Meyer

Usage-based Models of Language

Joyce Tang Boyland