Emissive probe (EP) measurement of the electron temperature T-e, which was proposed by Shindo et al. [Rev. Sci. Instrum. 59 (1988) 2002] is applied to the measurement of T-e in the detached recombining plasma produced in the linear divertor simulator. In the determination of T-e by the EP method, we consider application limits based on the space-charge-limit effect studied by Ye and Takamura [Phys. Plasmas 7 (2000) 3457]. We have observed that as neutral pressure is increased for developing the plasma detachment, T-e obtained with the EP decreases from a few eV to 0.4 eV, on the other hand, the Langmuir probe (LP) method gives anomalously high T-e of 3-9 eV. The EP method yields more reliable value of T-e than the LP method does. The electron temperature obtained through the spectroscopic method is also shown. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.