Chapter 1 the study of collocations

4.2.2.1.4  Implicational Scaling for the Essay Data by Groups 
 
The implicational scaling was done by coding each subject as having 
used (1), or not used (0), each of the 37 types of collocations in their essays.  The 
two axes of the matrix for the implicational scaling consisted of the 37 
collocation types, ranked from most commonly used to least commonly used, 
and the subjects in each group ranked in order of their use of types of 
collocations, from subjects using the most types to subjects using the fewest.  
This matrix is summarised in Figures 9, 10, and 11 below. 
 
For Group 1, the coefficient of reproducibility was .94, which is 
considered to be valid (see Andersen 1978).  The coefficient of scalability was 
.40.  While the coefficient of reproducibility is at the level necessary for this 
implicational scale to be considered valid, the coefficient of scalability is below 
the recommended level of .6 (see Hatch & Lazaraton 1991:212).  This suggests 
that while the implicational scale for Group 1 is valid, the fact that most 
subjects did not use the majority of the 37 scaled collocation types resulted in 
the low coefficient of scalability.  The implicational scale shows that the first 
three collocation types are those that were found to be used significantly more 
than all the other types in the post-hoc analyses (see Table 33). 
 
For Group 2, the coefficient of reproducibility was .90, which is 
considered to be valid (see Andersen 1978).  The coefficient of scalability was 
.33, below the recommended level of .6 (see Hatch & Lazaraton 1991:212).  The 
implicational scale shows that the first five items are those types that were 
found to be used significantly more than all the other types in the post-hoc 
analyses (see Table 34). 
 
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For Group 3, the coefficient of reproducibility was .89, and the coefficient 
of scalability was .31.  As for the other two groups, the implicational scale for 
Group 3 was found to be below the recommended level of scalability.  The 
implicational scale shows that the first three items were those collocation types 
that were found to be used significantly more than all the other types according 
to the post-hoc analyses (see Table 35). 
 
0
.1
.2
.3
.4
.5
.6
.7
.8
.9
1
26
29
11
23
36
12
4
27
14
5
34
13
8
37
Collocation Tokens - Essay Data - Group 1
Collocation Types
 
Note.  Only those types with mean > .1 are included in this figure