Читать книгу Introduction to Experimental Linguistics - Sandrine Zufferey - Страница 17

Experimental research can be applied to all areas of linguistics, even if historically some areas have used such a methodology more consistently than others. Research questions vary widely between linguistic fields, meaning that many different methods and measures can be used in experimental linguistics. In this book, we do not aim to offer a detailed presentation of every research field and the methods associated with each, but rather to provide an overview of the principles of experimental methodology and the available techniques for linguists. Here, we will introduce some major classes of experiments that can be carried out in linguistics, and we will then develop these in every dedicated chapter.

In general, the experimental studies carried out in linguistics can be classified depending on the aspect of the language under study. Alternately, we will discuss studies on linguistic production and those relating to language comprehension. We will see that the study of comprehension poses many challenges, since this process is not directly observable. For this reason, research on language comprehension is based on the observation of indirect measures, which can be explicit or implicit. We will also see that it is possible to study comprehension by observing different stages of this process, either while it is in progress or once it has been completed.