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Main > TourPortal > TAPoR > TaporRecipes > ExerciseOne



Identify Themes within a Text

This exercise uses this Recipe to identify simple themes within a sample text.

It applies a recipe to real textual example which is freely available on the Internet so you can do the steps yourself and see the results.

This recipe and exercise is available as a PDF download.

Exercise Steps

  1. This exercise uses Volume 2 of Thomas Macaulay's History of England which can be downloaded from Project Gutenberg.
  2. Run the TAPoR List Words Tool to generate a word list sorted by frequency. The result should resemble the following:
    Word Count
    The------3591
    Of------2057
    And------1360
    To------1234
    A------850
    Was------848
    In------758
    Had------686
    Been------265
    Be------255
    Not------246
    At------240
    On------213
    From------212
    Who------201
    They------187
    Their------174
    All------153
    King------139

    The most frequently used words are function words such as 'The', 'A', etc. They don't appear to be particularly unique, so we decide to eliminate common function words.


  3. Run the TAPoR List Words Tool again, applying a list of words to exclude from the list. One useful stop list, the Glasgow stop words list, is available here. The result should be similar to:
    Word Count
    King------139
    Great------115
    Parliament------92
    England------86
    House------83
    Men------81
    Time------75
    Government------74
    Charles------73
    Power------68
    Party------66
    Public------59
    Years------57
    France------56
    Long------56
    English------55
    Court------54
    Commons------53
    State------52
    Church------51
    New------46
    Man------46
    Country------46

    The list of frequent words is now more intriguing. Words such as : King, Great, Parliament, England, House, Men, Time, Government, Charles, Power, Party, Public Years, Just immediately stand out.


  4. Now that we have found some interesting words to explore, let's see how these are used within the context of the text.
  5. Using the TAPoR Find Words - Concordance Tool will list places in the text that a particular word appears.
  6. This search returns a list of these key words and the five words on either side of the target word. Several themes and paths for further exploration emerge from this process:

    the word Time occurs frequently. Does this suggests a focus on time passing or the importance of time to the story being related? Note the frequent use of the words ‘long’, ‘years’, ‘old’, ‘good’, ‘passed’, ‘life’, ‘day’, ‘make’, ‘passed’, ‘did’, ‘soon’ in relation to the word time.

    Is there a theme of Power in this text? – Note the focus on titles, ‘King’, ‘Parliament’, ‘Government’, ‘Charles, ‘Power’, ‘State’, ‘Man’, ‘Nation, ‘General’, ‘Crown, ‘Duke’, ‘Royal’, ‘Head’, ‘Monarchy’, ‘Chief’, ‘High’, ‘Lord’, ‘Prince’.


  7. How is power referred to in the text? Use the TAPoR Find Collocates Tool to explore the use of the word power.

    Power is treated not a single entity, but is most often qualified: ‘spiritual power', 'temporal power', 'coercive power', 'arbitrary power', 'uneasy power', 'power of the sword', 'political power'.


  8. What is the author's attitude towards the common man? Use the TAPoR Find Words - Concordance Tool and input Man as the target.

    Note that the word Men is are generally disparaged: ’worst sort of men’, ‘worthless men’, ‘unhappy men’, ‘small men’, ‘men merited clemency’, ‘ambitious men’, ‘worst set of men of the world'.


  9. What is the author's attitude towards the monarchy? Use TAPoR Find Collocates Tool to see how often the words 'King' and 'Charles' occur together.

    Note that the title the King is commonly used, but not King Charles or King James. The proper name Charles is used frequently, but collocation of King and Charles are rare.

    Parliament is superior. King is ‘detested’, ‘disliked’, ‘impeached’ – moreover, never used terms ‘executed’, killed.

    The word Court is paired with a variety of disparaging terms, ‘sycophants’, ‘concealed’, ‘quarreled with’, ‘…abused’, ‘extravagance of the …’, ‘the…excited the bitter indignation’, ‘vice and folly’, ‘disliked’, ‘faithlessness of the …’, ‘seditious’

    The Commons are collocated with positive terms: ‘undoubted power’, ‘should be governed’, ‘elected’, ‘ancient and undoubted power’, ‘legally’.


  10. Thus, these simple tools can easily identify the themes of power, monarchy, the common man and time in Macaulay's History of England.

Next Steps/Further Information

-- ShawnDay - 21 October 2006

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