Two studies are presented, linking word-frequency information within the Global Corpus
of Web-based English to real world facts. The first study concerns how patterns of the use
of place names reflect geospatial and geopolitical relationships of English-speaking nations.
The second study concerns how the emotional connotation of words before place names
reflects general well-being in that place. Taken together, these studies demonstrate that
the surface structure of language, as embodied in word frequencies, is a useful source of
information about the real world. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc) / This thesis involves two studies, using the Global Corpus of Web-based English. The first study shows how you can reconstruct a rudimentary map of English speaking countries of the world purely on the basis of how often different words happen in texts. The second study shows that when we discuss countries of the world online, how happy and exciting the adjectives are before place names relate to how long people live in that country.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:mcmaster.ca/oai:macsphere.mcmaster.ca:11375/16353 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | Snefjella, Bryor |
| Contributors | Kuperman, Victor, Cognitive Science of Language |
| Source Sets | McMaster University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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