What is KeyWords and what's it for?

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KeyWords > purpose

 

KEYWORDs32

This is a program for identifying the "key" words in one or more texts. Key words are those whose frequency is unusually high in comparison with some norm. Click here for an example.

 

The point of it…

Key-words provide a useful way to characterise a text or a genre. Potential applications include: language teaching, forensic linguistics, stylistics, content analysis, text retrieval.

The program compares two pre-existing word-lists, which must have been created using the WordList tool. One of these is assumed to be a large word-list which will act as a reference file. The other is the word-list based on one text which you want to study.

The aim is to find out which words characterise the text you're most interested in, which is automatically assumed to be the smaller of the two texts chosen. The larger will provide background data for reference comparison.

Key-words and links between them can be plotted, made into a database, and grouped according to their associates.