Data Science for Linguists

Joseph V. Casillas, PhD

Rutgers UniversitySpring 2025
Last update: 2025-05-04

What is Data Science again?

You have learned how to version control this process!

So what is version control (again)?

Don’t forget the stats…

mtcars |>
  ggplot() + 
  aes(x = disp, y = mpg) + 
  geom_point() + 
  geom_smooth(method = 'lm', formula = "y ~ x")

This means we write code in a way that clearly documents what we did.
Instead of writing code with the purpose of telling the computer what to do, we write code that tells other humans what we told the computer to do and why.
Importantly, we don’t separate our code from the report/essay/manuscript we are writing. Everything is together, in a single document (usually).

In this class you have learned to…

manage version controlled research projects

in a way that facilitates collaboration and honesty

get and tidy data

transform and visualize your data

fit statistical models to your data and test hypotheses

communicate your results using literate programming

This is reproducible research

~~Frequentist~~

Unfortunately we don’t have enough time to go into more detail
Your journey with programming and statistics is just getting started
Use your knowledge to think critically about what you read and about your own data
New techniques and methods are constantly coming out, but it seems unlikely we will stray too far from the linear model
Book recommendations
- Data Analysis Using Regression and Multlilevel-Hierarchicaal Models (Gelman & Hill, 2007)
- Regression and other stories (Gelman et al., 2021)
- Statistical Rethinking (McElreath, 2015)

Data Science for Linguists

Gelman, A., & Hill, J. (2007). Data analysis using regression and multilevel/hierarchical models. Cambridge University Press.

Gelman, A., Hill, J., & Vehtari, A. (2021). Regression and other stories. Cambridge University Press.

McElreath, R. (2015). Statistical rethinking: A bayesian course with examples in r and stan. CRC Press.