A key word database looks like this:

 

Here the 66 chapters of one novel have been used to create 66 sets of key words and this assembled into a database.

The key word TULKINGHORN (the name of a character) is key in 14 chapters (21% of the chapters). He appears in more than 14 but in some he is merely incidental. He appears 234 times as a key word in those 11 chapters. He is associated with the word SIR, LAWYER etc. That is, he is found as a key word in the same texts as SIR, LAWYER etc. are found to be key. In the novel the lawyer Tulkinghorn first threatens and later causes Lady Dedlock to die. The No. Ass. column shows the number of associates: every time a KW item is found in the same text as another KW, that adds one to the associates count for the first KW and one for the second KW. No. Ass. numbers are thus token counts, not type counts.  

 

       Which text files was that key word in?

 

See also: key key words, associates.