LIWC Linguistic Inquiry & Word Count Jeff Spicer & Matthew Egizii

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CCountountJeff Spicer & Matthew Egizii

The Pennebaker The Pennebaker DictionaryDictionary

LIWC uses Dictionaries of Categories to define its search terms. The Pennebaker Dictionary is built in, but others can be

imported. The Pennebaker Dictionary (2001)

LIWC's default set of psychologically meaningful categories

74 subdictionaries (categories) {80 in LIWC 2007}

Each subdictionary is comprised of words chosen and assessed by a set of judges who then agreed upon a set of subdictionary scales (93%-100% of the time).

Many of these words are in multiple categories.

The Pennebaker The Pennebaker DictionaryDictionary

If you are able, use the Pennebaker 2007 rather than 2001: It removes several categories that had, “Consistently low

base rates and were rarely used: Optimism, Positive Feelings, Communication Verbs, Other References, Metaphysical, Sleeping, Grooming, School, Sports, Television, Up, and Down. The category of unique Words (also known as Type/Token ratio) has also been removed.”

It adds the categories of Conjunctions, Adverbs, Quantifiers, Auxiliary Verbs, Commonly-used Verbs, Impersonal Pronouns, Total Function Words, and Total Relativity Words.

Also, the categories themselves are much more fleshed out:

Religion is not strictly, “Catholicism,” as it was before (seemed a tad biased).

The Pennebaker The Pennebaker DictionaryDictionary

The LIWC website has a page with comparisons between the scores of each dictionary based on its library.

Means, SDs, Correlations

Comparing LIWC2007 with LIWC2001 Dictionaries

Preparing TextPreparing Text LIWC uses .txt or ASCII files for analysis.

Files should be checked for: Correct U.S. Spelling Spelled-out meaningful

abbreviations Removal of “Non-Fluency”

words

Reading the ResultsReading the Results Results are given as a % of the total text.

Except for: Word Count Words Per Sentence Sentences Ending with a Question

Mark (?) Results are placed in a .xls file (Spreadsheet)

The file is “Tab-Delimited” meaning that importing it into an SPSS data file is quite simple.

Opening & Processing FilesOpening & Processing Files

Opening: Allows you to read/edit the text within LIWC Processing: Runs the text analysis

Setting Dictionaries & Setting Dictionaries & CategoriesCategories

Each of the categories can be turned on/off with a checkbox.

Analyze FunctionAnalyze Function

Segmenting the File Segmenting the Selection allows you to divide the text

into multiple parts for analysis.

Analysis of Epic TextsAnalysis of Epic Texts

We decided to use the power of CATA on several huge literary blocks of text:

The Odyssey The Aeneid Beowulf

Analysis of Epic TextsAnalysis of Epic Texts

Textualization of Oral Epic Tradition Attempt to capture the Ekphrasis of the

original medium. Some elements are lost in translation.

Question: Which elements are both difficult to describe and also necessary to pass on to a culture?

Analysis of Epic TextsAnalysis of Epic Texts

Primarily we were interested in references to Gods, Religious Tradition and Worship

We chose the (now defunct) category, “Metaphysical,” rather than, “Religion.”

Its word choices are more in line with spirituality rather than modern, formalized religion.

We also used the Standard Information category Word Count, Words/Sentence, Sentences ending

with ?, LIWC dictionary words, Unique words, Words longer than 6 characters

Source of Error?Source of Error?

We had some trouble with the Psychological Processes group.

Several categories wouldn’t shut off, even after de-selecting them.

??? So we decided to

run them too!

Processed FilesProcessed Files

After hitting Process & choosing where to save the .xls file, it will open in plain text within LIWC.

Results & GraphsResults & Graphs Total Word Counts:

Odyssey: 117643 Aeneid: 101370 Beowulf: 23726

Results & GraphsResults & Graphs Words/Sentence

Odyssey: 37.43 Aeneid: 32.74 Beowulf: 25.19

Unique Words (%) Odyssey: 5.76 Aeneid: 8.54 Beowulf: 15.76

Results & GraphsResults & Graphs Metaphysical

(% of Words) Odyssey: 0.97 Aeneid: 1.37 Beowulf: 1.42

Exclamation Marks (% of Sentences)

Odyssey: 0.01

Aeneid: 0.1 Beowulf:

0.72

Question Marks (% of Sentences)

Odyssey: 0.23

Aeneid: 0.41 Beowulf:

0.03

FindingsFindings Odyssey is:

MASSIVE Has the longest

sentences Has the least % of

unique words Has the least % of

exclamations Is the least

interested in the Metaphysical.

FindingsFindings

Aeneid is: Also pretty big Has a larger

amount of Metaphysical text

Also isn’t interested in exclamations

And asks the most questions.

FindingsFindings Beowulf is:

Pretty short (comparatively)

Much shorter sentences

Filled with many unique words

Asks few questions

Is the most interested in the Metaphysical

And is very excitable!!!!!