MATSUDA Kenjiro: VARBRUL Primer

by MATSUDA Kenjiro

VARBRUL is a logistic regression program that has been used in variationist sociolinguistics since the 1970s. Although it is by now the default analysis tool in the field, the software is far from popular in Japanese sociolinguistics,partly due to the poverty of introductory texts for this sophisticated freeware. This paper is intended to be a general introduction to the software, covering the statistical problems it is intended to deal with, as well as the practical how-to's of the program.