Logistic Regression

Logistic regression is used when the dependent variable is nominal (yes/no, you/you all/ you guys, fricative/stop/vowel/pause/, deleted/retained, pronoun/no pronoun) and usually when the independent variables are nominal as well.

The program we will use, GoldVarb, was designed especially for sociolinguistics. Click here for the first example and basic instructions on how to use it.

Example: Utah English. What features influence people to judge someone to be from Utah?

DATA SET (Right click to download.)

(Taken from survey done by class.)

Dependent variable: (y=yes, speaker is a Utahn, n=no, speaker is not a Utahn)

Independent variables:

Gender of speaker (F=Female, M=Male)

Age of speaker (2=20s, 4=40s, 7=70s)

Region of origin of speaker (U=Utah, n=non-Utahn)

Was Clinton pronounced with a [t] or [ʔ]? (t, ?)

Was tour pronounced with [u] or [o]? (u, o)

Was the /l/ in folk pronounced or not? (l, 0)

Example: Pronunciation of /l/ as either [l] or [w] in Ohio (e.g. milk, feel).

DATA SET (Right click to download.)

(Taken from http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/~kjohnson/quantitative/CD/data/Robins_data.txt)

Dependent variable: pronunciation of /l/

Independent variables:

Age (1=teens, 2=20s, 4=40s, 5=50s)

Gender (F=female, M=male)

Example: Does education affect the use of between you and I / me? (Taken from http://r1.chass.utoronto.ca/twpl/pdfs/twpl18/TWPL18_Easson.pdf)

Example: Pittsburgh PA English. General US [æw] pronounced [æ] (e.g. south, downtown, towel).

(Taken from http://www.pitt.edu/~kiesling/kiesling-wisnosky-aw.pdf)

Dependent Variable: [æw] or [æ]

Independent Variables: Gender, age, birth city, age and gender combined (interaction variable)

Survey items:

Can you name the Cleveland professional football team? {Browns}

Can you tell me what part of Pittsburgh the USX Tower is located? {downtown}

Can you tell me the name of the general area where Carson Street and Station? {South Side}

Can you name the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers? {Bill Cowher}

What is the yellow cloth thing that Steelers fans wave around called? {the Terrible Towel}