[Corpora-List] How to use Chi-square correctly

[Yuri Tambovtsev]

Dear Corpora colleagues, some American linguists e.g.
Rob Malouf  and Stefan Th. Gries University of California, Santa Barbara wrote:
This is especially true when you're comparing really big counts with really small counts, which is I think what Adam's rule of thumb is meant to address.  Once you've decided that applying the chi-square test even makes sense, then questions like significance levels and Bonferroni corrections come into play. Rob Malouf 
Department of Linguistics and Asian / Middle Eastern Languages San Diego State University
I wonder if all the linguists on the Corpora list are so advanced in math. statistics. Being a simple linguist I did not understand anithing. I mean why it is not possible to use Chi-square criterion when the samples are different in size. On the contrary, I read in the books on Chi-square that it is also possible to use it when the samples are not equal. However, I want to be on the safe side, so I take the equal samples when comparing two transcribed texts. I usually take a sample of 10000 speech sounds from longer texts. I take the sentences from the long texts at random. When the sample is 10000 I stop. Is it not possible to use the Chi-square in this way? I am sure the discussion of how to use and how not to use the Chi-square criterion and other math. statistics criteria in linguistics is very important. Looking forward to hearing for your advice to yutamb at mail.ru  Remain yours sincerely Yuri Tambovtsev, Novosibirsk, Russia
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