A445: Applying computational stylistics to the words women use

Applying computational stylistics to the words women use

Approved: 2013

Collaborators:

Prof Hugh Craig
Prof Julie Byles
Prof Deborah Loxton
Mr Kim Colyvas
Dr Jane Rich
Alison Ferguson
Dr Elizabeth Spencer
Mr Bill Pascoe
Ms Megan Valentine

Synopsis

This project builds on the work of EoI 382A in examining the free-text comments in ALSWH to determine changes and patterns in the respondents' writing in relation to their life courses but applies different methods. We aim to detect trends and clusters in the styles of the respondents by statistical methods. We seek, for instance, to determine whether there are marked and consistent changes in the way respondents write which correspond with their age at the time of writing. This will help in the understanding of the shared stages these women as a group have passed through in attitudes and in world view. Do these women, who wrote comments without reference to each other, and from an individual perspective, in fact share many themes and ways of looking at the world at a particular age and stage?