Where does bootstrap collide?

The bootstrap is a computer-based method for estimating the sampling distribution of a statistic by repeatedly drawing new samples, with replacement, from the observed data and recomputing the statistic on each: the spread of those recomputed values approximates a standard error or confidence interval that no formula could easily supply. Efron's 1979 Bootstrap methods: Another look at the jackknife introduced the procedure and showed it as a general way to gauge the accuracy of an estimate. The referent is a resampling algorithm run on a dataset to measure statistical uncertainty, not a computer's start-up routine, a child's route into grammar, or a firm financed from its own cash.[1]

Unit

One resample: the dataset redrawn with replacement, and the statistic recomputed on it

Recovery means

Not applicable

Measured by

Operationalised by drawing many resamples, often thousands, and reading off the standard error or percentile interval of the recomputed statistic

In accounts of how children learn language, bootstrapping is the idea that a learner uses information already in hand to break into knowledge that would otherwise be out of reach: in syntactic bootstrapping the child reads the meaning of a new verb from the sentence structures it appears in. Gleitman's 1990 The structural sources of verb meanings argued that the observable scene underdetermines a verb's meaning, so children exploit syntactic frames as evidence. The referent is a learning strategy that leverages existing linguistic structure to acquire new knowledge, not a resampling routine, a computer's start-up, or the self-funding of a business.[2]

Unit

One inference: a syntactic or semantic cue used to fix a new word's meaning

Recovery means

Not applicable

Measured by

Studied by experiments in which children infer a novel word's meaning from the sentence frames or contexts in which it occurs

In entrepreneurship, bootstrapping means starting and growing a business from its own internal resources, retained earnings, deferred payments, and personal funds, rather than raising outside equity or debt. Winborg and Landstrom's 2001 Financial bootstrapping in small businesses catalogued the methods founders use to meet their resource needs while minimising or avoiding external finance. The referent is a financing strategy that draws on a firm's own cash flow and improvisation, not a statistical algorithm, a computer's start-up routine, or a child's path into grammar.[3]

Unit

One bootstrapping method: a way of meeting a resource need without external finance

Recovery means

Not applicable

Measured by

Assessed by surveys and case studies of the financing methods founders use and their reliance on internal versus external funds