Diction 5.0 General Inquirer

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Diction 5.0 General Inquirer

• E.B. E.N.
• Cleveland State University

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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

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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

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Sample Dictionary

• Dictionary 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)

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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)

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Sample Results
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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)

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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

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Sample Results
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Political Speech ExampleOut of range
scores highlighted
Calculated Variables Battle site Anniversary Address Nicuraguan Ambassador Welcome 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
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Political Speech Example
Master Variables Class all texts Battle site Anniversary Address Nicuraguan Ambassador Welcome Iraq War Resolution Address to Harvard Students 2004 Nomination Acceptance Speech
Activity 51.48 46.50 L 51.64 48.98 47.88
Optimism 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
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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
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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

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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)

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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

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Info http//www.wjh.harvard.edu/inquirer/
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(No Transcript)
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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

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(No Transcript)
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Selected Categories

• Harvard Pleasur, Ovrst, Academ, Econ_at_, Exprsv,
  COLL, SocRel, Race, Kin_at_, EMOT, Place, Object,
  Self, Our, You, Name
• Lasswell PowGain, RcEthic, AffTot, WltTot,
  WlbGain, EnlGain

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SocRel
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(No Transcript)
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Validity All Correlations
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Validity Group Correlations
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SocRel in Enlightenment Gain
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SocRel in Power Gain