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WordSmith Tools Manual

 

"Associates" is the name given to key-words associated with a key key-word.

The point of it…

The idea is to identify words which are commonly associated with a key key-word, because they are key words in the same texts as the key key-word is. An example will help.

Suppose the word wine is a key key-word in a set of texts, such as the weekend sections of newspaper articles. Some of these articles discuss different wines and their flavours, others concern cooking and refer to using wine in stews or sauces, others discuss the prices of wine in a context of agriculture and diseases affecting vineyards. In this case, the associates of wine would be items like Chardonnay, Chile, sauce, fruit, infected, soil, etc.

The listing shows associates in order of frequency. A menu option allows you to re-sort them.

 

Settings

You can set a minimum number of text files for the association procedure, in the database settings:

 

keyword_db_settings_in_controller

Minimum texts

These screenshot settings would only process those key-key-words which appear in at least 1 text file.

Statistic

Choose the mutual information statistic you prefer, apart from Z score which uses a span (here we're using the whole text).

Minimum strength

This will only show associates which reach at least the strength in the statistic set here, e.g. 5.000.

 

This screenshot shows the most frequent associates in the right-hand column of the main keywords data base window. Energy goes with bills, with renewable, etc. That is, in texts where energy is key, bills tends to be key too.

 

kwdb_climate

To see the detailed associates, double-click your chosen term in the KW column or the Associates column:

 

associates of climate

 

 

See also: definition of associate, related clusters.