Tackling meaning and
aboutness with KeyWords
Corpus Linguistics
Summer Institute
Liverpool
2 July 2008
Mike Scott,
School of English
University of Liverpool
Keyness
1
Purpose
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To explore the notion of keyness
and its implications in corpus-based study
with reference to WordSmith
Keyness
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Keyness
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Words are not key in a language but in
a given text
Words can be key to a culture (Stubbs
2002, Williams 1976)
Keyness:


Importance
“Aboutness” (Phillips, 1989)
Keyness
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The Notion of Keyness

2 main qualities:


Importance
“a key player”, “a key
position”
the keystone of an arch
Aboutness (Phillips, 1989)
“a key point” = a main point
in the text’s
development and argument,
what the text is “about”
Keyness
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Overview
Keyness, as a new territory, looks
promising and has attracted colonists
and prospectors. It generally appears
to give robust indications of the text’s
aboutness together with indicators of
style.
Keyness
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the text’s aboutness
Keyness
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colonists …
Keyness
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and prospectors
Keyness
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Issues
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the issue of text section v. text v. corpus
v. sub-corpus
statistical questions: what exactly can
be claimed?
how to choose a reference corpus
handling related forms such as
antonyms
Keyness
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Of course it doesn’t actually
understand…
Keyness
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… or know what is “correct”
Keyness
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… only look at what is found
in text
… or context
… whether marked up or not …
<intro>Once upon a time ….</intro>
Keyness
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Context?
Keyness
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L e v e ls o f C o n te x t
P h y s ic a l e n v iro n m e nt
Keyness
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Corresponding units of
meaning

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

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morpheme
word
cluster / phrase
sentence
paragraph
section, chapter
text
(sub-) genre
Keyness
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If all this is so …

what is the status of the “key words” one
may identify and what is to be done with
them?
Keyness
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Issues
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
the issue of text section v. text v. corpus v.
sub-corpus
statistical questions: what exactly can be
claimed?
how to choose a reference corpus
handling related forms such as antonyms
what is the status of the “key words” one
may identify and what is to be done with
them?
Keyness
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text section v. text v. corpus
v. sub-corpus



text section: levels 1-5
text: level 6
corpus: levels 7 & 8
Keyness
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But these are often not
clearly differentiated



“text”, level 6: with or without mark-up,
images, sounds?
what do we mean by section, chapter
(4) and other non linguistically defined
categories?
is text itself mutating?
Keyness
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Internet text
Keyness
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Wikipedia homepage (part)
Keyness
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Wikipedia homepage (part)
Keyness
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Wikipedia article (3 parts of
same article)
Keyness
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Wikipedia discussion


from History of the stall article
latest contributor, “Talk” section
Keyness
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Statistics
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there is no statistical defence of the
whole set of KWs
but only of each one
comparing KW p values is not
advisable
Keyness
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Why?
Matrix text, describing a
series of troubles
affecting a set of
crops in a certain
place.
weevils and chickpeas
will be much rarer
words (if not rarer
entities in this
particular place)
and will float to the top
of the KW list
hail
wind
weevils
peas
chickpeas
potatoes
Keyness
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choosing a reference corpus
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using a mixed bag RC, the larger the RC the
better but a moderate sized RC may suffice.
the keyword procedure is fairly robust.
KWs identified even by an obviously absurd RC
can be plausible indicators of aboutness, which
reinforces the conclusion that keyword analysis is
robust.
genre-specific RCs identify rather different KWs
the aboutness of a text may not be one thing but
numerous different ones.
Scott (forthcoming)
Keyness
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related forms

WordSmith can be asked to treat members of
the same lemma as related
table
tables

and can handle clusters
at the end of

but otherwise ignores relations such as


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synonymy
antonymy
collocation
Keyness
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status of the KW
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not intrinsic to the word/cluster but
context-bound
a pointer to specific textual
aboutness
and/or style
statistically arrived at but not
established
sometimes pointing to a pattern
Keyness
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status of the set of KWs



indicative of the more general
aboutness of the source text(s)
and/or style
but (as a set) not statistically
proven
Keyness
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Shakespeare’s KWs
Keyness
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KWs of Hamlet

Characters:
FORTINBRAS, GERTRUDE, GUILDENSTERN, HAMLET,
HAMLET'S,HORATIO, LAERTES, OPHELIA, PYRRHUS,
ROSENCRANTZ

Places:
DENMARK, NORWAY

Pronouns:
I, IT, T, THEE, THOU

Themes, events:
MADNESS, PLAY,PLAYERS

Other (“unexpected”):
E'EN, LORD, MOST, MOTHER, PHRASE, VERY
Keyness
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Most of these are obvious &
probably uninteresting….

if you know the play you already know



it concerns Hamlet and some other
characters
it’s set in Denmark
Ophelia goes mad.
Keyness
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… but some are puzzling

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Why are IT, LORD and MOST
positively key in Hamlet…
if they are negatively key in the other
plays?
Which characters are they most key
of?
Where are they found, how are these
KWs dispersed throughout the play?
Keyness
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IT in Hamlet (1)

In the plays 0.95% (1 word in
100) but


in Hamlet’s speeches 1.48%: a 50%
increase in this one character’s
speeches…
in Horatio’s speeches 2.33%: nearly
250% of the average in this one
character’s speeches.
Keyness
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IT in Hamlet (2)

In Hamlet’s speeches, distributed
evenly:
per 1,000
1

Plot
173 14.67
In Horatio’s speeches:
per 1,000
1
Plot
23.74
Keyness
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DO in Othello


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Nearly twice as frequent as in the
other plays
Characteristic of Iago (nearly twice
as often) and Desdemona (more
than 3 times as often)
DOST characteristic of Othello
(more than 6 times as frequent)
Keyness
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Iago: commanding
Concordance
1
2
3
<IAGO> Do thou meet me presently at the
knows you not. I'll not be far from you: do you find some occasion to anger
time, man. I'll tell you what you shall do. Our general's wife is now the general:
4
vow I here engage my words. <IAGO> Do not rise yet. Witness, you ever-burni
5
out to savage madness. Look! he stirs; Do you withdraw yourself a little while, He
6
speak with me; The which he promis'd. Do but encave yourself, And mark the
7
8
9
10
mind again. This night, Iago. <IAGO> Do it not with poison, strangle her in her
him so That I may save my speech. Do but go after And mark how he
I am none such. <IAGO> Do not weep, do not weep. Alas the day! <EMILIA> Has
I am sure I am none such. <IAGO> Do not weep, do not weep. Alas the day!
Keyness
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Desdemona: conditional
Concordance
11
warrant of thy place. Assure thee, If I do vow a friendship, I'll perform it To the
12
go seek him. Cassio, walk hereabout; If I do find him fit, I'll move your suit And seek
13
tears, my lord? If haply you my father do suspect An instrument of this your
14
and ever did, And ever will, though he do shake me off To beggarly divorcement,
15
16
Good faith! how foolish are our minds! If I do die before thee, prithee, shroud me In
tell me, Emilia, That there be women do abuse their husbands In such gross
Keyness
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Othello’s DOST: questioning –
suspicion
Concordance
1
Ha! I like not that. <OTHELLO> What dost thou say? <IAGO> Nothing, my lord:
2
I love you. <OTHELLO> I think thou dost; And, for I know thou art full of love
3
thy brain Some horrible conceit. If thou dost love me, Show me thy thought.
4
for aught I know. <OTHELLO> What dost thou think? <IAGO> Think, my lord!
5
My noble lord,— <OTHELLO> What dost thou say, Iago? <IAGO> Did Michael
6
He did, from first to last: why dost thou ask? <IAGO> But for a
7
thought Too hideous to be shown. Thou dost mean something: I heard thee say
8
meditations lawful? <OTHELLO> Thou dost conspire against thy friend, Iago, If
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to me as to thy thinkings, As thou dost ruminate, and give thy worst of
10
know my thoughts. <OTHELLO> What dost thou mean? <IAGO> Good name in
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but keep 't unknown. <OTHELLO> Dost thou say so? <IAGO> She did
12
13
14
Farewell, farewell: If more thou dost perceive, let me know more; Set on
My noble lord,— <OTHELLO> If thou dost slander her and torture me, Never
you not hurt your head? <OTHELLO> Dost thou mock me? <IAGO> I mock
15
most cunning in my patience; But—dost thou hear?—most bloody. <IAGO>
16
And nothing of a man. <OTHELLO> Dost thou hear, Iago? I will be found most
17
t on the tree. O balmy breath, that dost almost persuade Justice to break her
18
in 's hand. O perjur'd woman! thou dost stone my heart, And mak'st me call
Keyness
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Keyword Clusters

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Text-initial sections of
“Hard News” (Guardian 1998-2004)
studying Hoey’s Lexical Priming
theory
Keyness
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Research Questions
Using the hard news corpus,
1. How many 3-5 word clusters are
found to be key in TISC sections?
2. How many are positively and how
many are negatively key?
3. What recurrent patterns can be
found in the two types of key
cluster?
Keyness
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RQs 1 & 2: Numbers of KW
clusters
using a p value of 0.0000001 and minimum
frequency of 3 and log likelihood statistic,



8,132 key clusters altogether (in 3.2 million
words of text)
of which 7,631 were positively key
and 501 negatively key
though there is repetition as these are 3-5
word n-grams
Research
Question 2
Keyness
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RQ 1: Numbers of KW
clusters



Is 8 thousand a large number of
distinct key text-initial clusters?
In the same amount of text there
are 84 thousand 3-5 word clusters
of frequency at least 5 altogether…
about one in 10 is associated with
text initial position at the .0000001
level of significance
Keyness
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RQ 1, continued





… is 1 in 10 a large number to be key?
In the case of SISC (sentences from
paragraphs with only one sentence in),
we get
507 thousand clusters, of which
2,192 are key (1,747 positively and 445
negatively)
which is about 1 in 230
Keyness
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IT + reporting verb –
positively key
IT WAS ANNOUNCED LAST NIGHT
IT WAS CLAIMED LAST NIGHT
IT WAS CONFIRMED LAST NIGHT
IT IS REVEALED TODAY
Keyness
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IT otherwise negatively key:
IT IS A
IT IS ABOUT
IT IS EXPECTED
IT IS GOING
IT IS ONLY
IT IS POSSIBLE
IT SEEMS TO
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Conclusions



keyness is a pointer
to importance
which can be



sub-textual
textual
intertextual
Keyness
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References
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