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 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)
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 Example
Out 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
Political Speech Example
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
54.15 H
49.32
48.95
Master
Variables
Class = all texts
Communality 50.79
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”