[R-lang] Re: "Zero" problem with lmer

[Daniel Ezra Johnson]

I think sometimes we get carried away with our wonderful tools like lmer().

> , , Construction = Classifier
>
>           Agent
> Handshape  agent no_agent
>   handling    36        1 (added)
>   object      27       65
>
> , , Construction = Lexical_item
>
>           Agent
> Handshape  agent no_agent
>   handling     1        1 (added)
>   object      45       54

For this data:

a) in the Classifier construction, it is very clear that Agent favors
Handling, compared to No Agent

b) in the Lexical Item construction, there is no evidence of an effect
of Agent/No Agent on Handshape (because Handshape is largely or
totally invariant*)

You can call this an interaction between Agent and Classifier, if you wanted...

*Are all three 1's "added" or is one of them real?

Either way, you're very close to a situation where Handling only
occurs in one of the four cells, only in Classifier/Agent.

I don't think an extreme distribution like that lends itself to (aka
needs) ordinary quantitative regression analysis (and it's also not
clear how there _could be_ a Subject effect).

Just my two cents,
Daniel