And “languages ” (I think you mean linguistics) are now heavily using (applied) statistics, especially since corpus linguistics became mainstream. The other issue is that “traditional” linguists usually “somewhat” lack their statistics background and thus the methods are creeping in very slowly, and often there is a tension between traditional and computational linguists.
Literature (if you mean literary theory) is much slower on the uptake, but even there some people admit that these new ideas about calculating number of words and their distribution can help sometimes.
By languages I had in mind university programs that produce language teachers, translators and interpreters. I’m not sure if such programs exists in the US, nor if they can be properly called a “field”.
Statistics was invented for social science, especially political and demographic studies; hence the name.
Oops. Thanks for catching my blunder in this safe environment :)
I’m not sure what it is about the internet that incentivises talking out of your ass.
And “languages ” (I think you mean linguistics) are now heavily using (applied) statistics, especially since corpus linguistics became mainstream. The other issue is that “traditional” linguists usually “somewhat” lack their statistics background and thus the methods are creeping in very slowly, and often there is a tension between traditional and computational linguists.
Literature (if you mean literary theory) is much slower on the uptake, but even there some people admit that these new ideas about calculating number of words and their distribution can help sometimes.
By languages I had in mind university programs that produce language teachers, translators and interpreters. I’m not sure if such programs exists in the US, nor if they can be properly called a “field”.