代表屬性：發音人的選擇和語料有效性

屬於實證研究的語言學研究，一般需要選擇發音人作為研究物件的有效代表，因此發音人必須符合研究所需的代表屬性。通過設定外顯研究物件主要特徵的參數，本文提出：（1代表屬性可最直接地通過參數來表述；（2）越滿足代表屬性參數的研究物件就越能成為研究的有效代表。本文通過幾個語言學研究示例展現了代表屬性在語言學研究中的根本性。儘管研究的問題、目的、甚至方法都不同，我們從中可以看到，釐定代表屬性直接影響研究所使用語料的有效性。
As an empirical study, linguistic investigations rely heavily on the selection of suitable subject speakers as representatives of a language community, which in turn underline the necessity of determining representativeness. Through explicit description of the parameters that define a target population, this paper argues that (i) representativeness can be most straightforwardly captured using the same parametric description; and (ii) the degree of representativeness of the subject increases with the degree of satisfaction of the parameters. On this footing, this paper exemplifies the fundamental quality of the parameters of representativeness across different linguistic research topics, purposes and even methodologies. Evidently, the clarification on what counts as representative through the use of parametric description is a founding stone to ensuring reliability of language data in the establishment of any linguistic theorizing. Copyright © 2016 John Benjamins Publishing Company.