Carl W. Roberts

A Generic Semantic Grammar for Quantitative Text Analysis: Applications to East and West Berlin Radio News Content from 1979

In a semantic text analysis the researcher begins by creating one of two types of semantic grammars, each of which provides one or more templates that specify the ways concepts (or more general themes) may be related. On the one hand, a phenomenal semantic grammar can be created to extract phenomenon-related information from a text population (e.g., “Among the populations grievances [the phenomenon of interest in this case], which were ones for the abolition of taxes?”). On the other hand, a generic semantic grammar may be developed to yield data about the text population itself (e.g., “Among all clauses in the text population, how many were grievances for the abolition of taxes?”). This paper describes a generic semantic grammar that can be used to encode themes and theme relations in every clause within randomly sampled texts. Unlike the surface-grammatical relations mapped by syntax grammars, the theme relations allowed in this grammar only permit unambiguous encoding according to the meanings that clauses were intended to convey within their social context. An application of the grammar provides a concrete illustration of its research potential

Computer-supported content analysis: some recent developments

This paper presents an overview of some recent developments in the clause-based content analysis of linguistic data. It introduces network analysis of evaluative texts, the analysis of cognitive maps, and linguistic content analysis. The focus is on the types of substantive inferences afforded by the three approaches. Keywords: content analysis, text analysis, computer programs.

Themes, syntax and other necessary steps in the network analysis of texts: A research paper

Recent approaches to the qualitative analysis of texts afford visual depictions of words as networks. Yet network characteristics can also be quantified, enabling one to draw probabilistic inferences about a population of texts from a sample of texts-encoded-as-networks. This article describes three types of ambiguity (and related methodological problems) that arise during three necessary steps in the quantification of texts as networks: idiomatic ambiguity (in the identification of themes [or nodes]); illocutionary ambiguity (in the identification of syntactic links [or arcs]); and relevance ambiguity (in the identification of network characteristics). As one moves from theme to syntax to network, not only does one add complexity to ones conclusions, but one also adds complexity to the encoding process as distinct types of linguistic ambiguity must be resolved. The added complexity of network encoding will be unnecessary for most research questions - questions that might better be addressed via thematic or semantic text analysis.

Traitor in our Midst: Cultural Variations in Japanese vs. Oklahoman Public Discourse on Domestic Terrorism in the Spring of 1995

When “one of our own” commits mass murder, mechanisms that sustain our social order are opened to question. Based on two samples of newspaper editorials written in 1995 ‐ either after the poison gas attack in the Tokyo subway or after the Oklahoma City bombing ‐ evidence is provided that Japanese editorialists advised strategies for retaining order, whereas Oklahoman authors endorsed ones for reestablishing it. In accordance with Simmel’s distinction between faithfulness and gratitude as social forms, Japanese advised faithful continuation of wholesome interactions with their terrorists, whereas Oklahomans expressed gratitude for rescue workers’ assistance. We apply modality analysis to identify those specific activities that authors presume their readers to accept as inevitable, possible, impossible, or contingent for each other. Working from this modal rhetoric in the two public discourses, we build more comprehensive inferences regarding the underlying logics of Japanese faithfulness versus Oklahoman gratitude ‐ logics that reflect the respective motivational dynamics underlying extant theories of identity and exchange.

Semantic text analysis and the measurement of ideological developments within fledgling democracies

This methodological article presents an introduction to the field of clause-based semantic text analysis. The method is introduced and elaborated with regard to the study of ideological developments within fledgling democracies. In such studies modality plays an important role. Democratic societies are maintained in accordance with either a modality of achievement or one of necessity. This is illustrated using editorial texts from Hungary, one of the countries in Central and Eastern Europe where people had to find their democratic way after communism disappeared in 1989.

Reply: The Curse of Chauvin

Sociology is dominated by quantitative work, Kiser reports. The three papers in this symposium “are outliers” that “illustrate a small and rather unrepresentative subset of contemporary qualitative work” to “be evaluated relative to the more informal type of text analysis that is more common in qualitative sociology.” Kiser then illuminates the limitations of these methods by arguing that they do not allow the researcher to do what more representative qualitative sociologists do. For example, applications of formal logic to eighteenth and nineteenth century figures’writings would be too precise to allow most scholars familiar with these texts to arrive at a consensus. Thus the less formal (less precise?) interpretations of informal qualitative sociologists are to be preferred. I see. In Kiser’s view, the second major limitation of formal text analysis methods is that they “are oriented primarily toward uncovering the most general features of texts, but they seem less well-suited to discovering . . . minor gaps and contradictions.” Certainly Kiser does not intend this sentence to apply to Péli’s paper, which describes a rigorous method for identifying just such logical gaps and contradictions in texts. However, it does most certainly apply to my method as well as to that ofAbbott and Barman. Our statistical methods gloss over many fine distinctions. Franzosi also points to this limitation in his commentary with numerous illustrations of valuational phrases in my radio news data: “flagrantly anew,” “not even,” etc. Quantitative methods such as ours require that one begin with a data matrix in which the rich qualities of units of analysis are divided into rather

On the social construction of democracy: Modal rhetoric in former East & West German journalists’ post-reunification editorials:

We report differences in political rhetoric within former East- and West-German journalists’ editorials written during the 7 years immediately following reunification. Whereas the former evoked frames inconsistently and disproportionately conveyed citizens’ possibilities during the 1994–1995 provincial, national, and European election period; the latter framed their rhetoric consistently and did so in overwhelmingly political terms. From these findings, we draw inferences on citizens’ mutual interpretations within authoritarian societies (what is permitted) versus functioning democracies (what is legal), suggesting that only the latter affords the basis for the social construction of democracy.

Political rhetoric in the Hungarian press during the communist regime

A previous analysis of post-1989 editorials in a Hungarian newspaper investigated ideological developments in Hungary in the first years after the communist regime had been replaced by elected governments. Using the same method, we here investigate whether the same developments may have extended prior to Hungary’s democratic changes. Such extension might have entailed a gradual increase in modal rhetoric indicative of free market or social justice. However, no support is found for this in Hungary’s pre-1990 state-controlled media. Instead, modal arguments only appear with noteworthy frequency after 1986 and then only ones emphasizing Hungarians’ inevitabilities and possibilities without any consistent rationale.