Variations on Defining a Dialect Region

This paper explores various methods of defining a dialect region, using syntactic constructions characteristic of the American South. We consider three important characteristics of such a method: place, feature, and measure. ”Place” details how data points should be grouped, ”feature” details which data points should be used, and ”measure” details how the data should be analyzed. While we may not claim one method as superior to any other, this research can provide insight into how different techniques of characterizing geographic variation may affect the resulting dialect regions