Diction 5.0 General Inquirer E.B. & E.N. Cleveland State University.
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Transcript of Diction 5.0 General Inquirer E.B. & E.N. Cleveland State University.
Diction 5.0 General Inquirer
E.B. & E.N.Cleveland State University
Diction Software- Originally created for the study of
political discourse, expanded to 36 categories of communications.
- Searches the text word frequency of 10,000 words in 31 word list dictionaries
- Creates scores for the 31 dictionaries and
9 computed variables. - Analyzes in 500 word units
Diction Dictionaries-31 Categories-Size ranges from 10 – 745 words- No words duplicated across
dictionaries- Ability to create custom dictionaries
- Maximum of ten - Maximum of 200 words per dictionary
Sample DictionaryDictionary: Leveling
-Contains words used to ignore individual differences and to build a sense of completeness and assurance.(Examples: Everybody, anyone, each, fully, always, completely, inevitable, consistent, unconditional, consummate, absolute, open-and-shut)
What does a score mean?- A normative range derived from
20,000+ texts analyzed by Diction- 36 distinct text types
- Normal range equals the -1/+1 standard deviation from the mean (68%)
Sample Results
Five Semantic Variables Based on Dictionary Formulas
-ACTIVITY = +(Praise + Satisfaction + Inspiration) – (Blame + Hardship + Denial)
OPTIMISM = +(Praise + Satisfaction + Inspiration) – (Blame + Hardship + Denial)
CERTAINTY = +(Tenacity + Leveling + Collectives + Insistence) – (Numerical Terms + Ambivalence + Self-Reference + Variety)
REALISM = +(Familiarity + Spatial Awareness + Temporal Awareness +
Present Concern + Human Interest + Concreteness) – (Past Concern + Complexity)
COMMONALITY = +(Centrality+ Cooperation + Rapport) – (Diversity + Exclusion + Liberation)
Calculated Variables Insistence Score- Words repeated three or more times in a 500 word text
Embellishment- Ratio of descriptive words to functional words
Variety- Measure of linguistic dispersion
Complexity- Measure of word size
Sample Results
Political Speech ExampleOut of range scores highlighted
Calculated Variables
Battle site Anniversary Address
Nicuraguan AmbassadorWelcome
Iraq War Resolution
Address to Harvard Students
2004 Nomination Acceptance Speech
Insistence 31.72 11.24 43.86 9.70 13.78
Embellishment
0.62 2.27 H 0.52 0.51 1.73 H
Variety 0.48 0.57 H .050 0.50 0.64 H
Complexity 4.60 5.05 H 4.62 4.11 L 4.42
Political Speech Example
MasterVariablesClass = all texts
Battle site Anniversary Address
Nicuraguan AmbassadorWelcome
Iraq War Resolution
Address to Harvard Students
2004 Nomination Acceptance Speech
Activity 51.48 46.50 L 51.64 48.98 47.88Optimism 47.63 56.82 H 48.71 49.46 62.40 H
Certainty 48.10 46.40 L 48.07 45.22 L 44.81 L
Realism 49.65 48.45 49.58 50.89
Communality
50.79 54.15 H 49.32 48.95
Convocation Addresses Dr. Michael Schwartz President, Cleveland State University
Year
2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Insistence 53.11 94.65 29.79 47.26 17.36 48.79
Embellishment
0.64 0.68 0.45 2.01 H 0.38 0.42
Variety 0.50 0.52 0.48 0.59 0.75 H 0.52
Complexity 4.66 5.00 4.15 L 4.65 5.08 H 4.77
Activity 49.96 47.84 49.89 47.30 39.83 L
48.73
Optimism 57.41 H
54.38 H
53.18 59.75 H
74.48 H
51.68
Certainty 51.12 49.37 51.03 46.83 L
40.20 L
50.05
Realism 50.29 50.10 51.88 50.52 49.75 48.29
Communality
51.79 49.25 52.05 51.50 50.04 51.47
Limitations- Samples of less than 350 words handled
by extrapolation and standardization to a 500 word basis
- Wide variance in sample size (n) of the 36 communication types- Out of range not referenced to 2nd or 3rd
deviation
General Inquirer• Standard dictionaries (“custom”
allowed)• Descriptive (f and %)• “Harvard-IV-4” and “Lasswell” general-
purpose dictionaries; 182 tag categories
• Harvard: objects, animals, people, institutions, relationships, etc.
• Lasswell: Dynamics of Culture (power, respect, skill, enlightenment, wealth, etc)
Basically…• Put text file in a folder, name it
“testdir”• Testdir must be in the same folder
as General Inquirer (in Program Files)• Can run multiple files within testdir• Output opened in Excel can be
transferred to SPSS
Info http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/~inquirer/
Selected Texts• 32 University Presidents’ speeches on university websites•One speech form each institution•Converted into text files •All saved in testdir folder•Used the standard dictionary
Selected Categories• Harvard: Pleasur, Ovrst, Academ,
Econ@, Exprsv, COLL, SocRel, Race, Kin@, EMOT, Place, Object, Self, Our, You, Name
• Lasswell: PowGain, RcEthic, AffTot, WltTot, WlbGain, EnlGain
“SocRel”
Validity: All Correlations
Validity: Group Correlations
“SocRel” in “Enlightenment Gain”
“SocRel” in “Power Gain”