Approcci quantitativi all’analisi della variazione linguistica: il caso di GOLDVARB

Abstract

The article provides an up-to-date view of quantitative sociolinguistics, paying more attention to variation analysis as carried out in American research during the last decades. The emerging directions concern on one side the feasible inclusion of probabilistic analysis of variation into a model of grammatical competence (probabilistic sociolinguistics), on the other side the workable combination of ethnographic methods and quantitative analysis within the same research design (variation ethnography). Within this picture the basic features of Varbrul’s latest PC version (Goldvarb 2001) will be illustrated, emphasizing advantages and drawbacks.