Explore Themes within a Text
This is a recipe to explore simple themes within a text
This recipe is available as a PDF download.Ingredients
- An electronic text to explore
- A Theme of exploratory interest
- A List Words tool such as the TAPoR List Words Tool
- A Synonym Finding Tool such as Eva at POETS
- A Concordance tool such as the TAPoR Find Words - Concordance Tool
- A Collocation tool such as the TAPoR Find Collocates Tool
This recipe is applied to a sample text in Exercise to Explore Themes within a Text Steps
- Take an electronic text which is rich in known themes or obtain an appopriate text from a source such as Project Gutenberg
;
- Generate a list of words related to the theme you are interest in using a tool such as WordNet ;
- Determine the Sense(s) of the words that are related to that theme ;
- Use those words to Build a word list with synonyms, antonyms, and cognates using a tool such as WordNet ;
- Create a concordance for your word list using TAPoR Find Words - Concordance Tool;
- Explore different usages of the same word using Find Collocates Tool to determine usage patterns
;
- Repeat the above step for all words in the list.
Discussion
The Sense of a Word
A word’s sense is the way in which it is used within the context of the text. Word Sense Disambiguation is the process through which the various senses of a word are considered within the context of its specific usage. A service such as Eva at POETS provides a list of senses in which a word can be used.WordNet Service
WordNet is one of many web services available which will provide word senses, synonyms, antonyms and other related words for terms that you enter. For more information see WordNet or Eva at POETS.Glossary
- Collocation
- Collocation refers to the occurrence of words adjacently more often than would be expected by chance.
Further approaches
- Find words that avoid the theme
- Cluster analysis on themes
- Distribution of theme
- Comparison
Next Steps/Further Information
- List of All Recipes
- Exercise to Explore Themes within a Text
- Help with Particular Tools
- Background on Text Analysis
- Information about the TAPoR Concordance Tool
- Information about the TAPoR Collocation Tool
- Information about the TAPoR List Words Tool