Quantitative and Computational Text Analysis

Question 1

What is quantitative text analysis? What is computational text analysis?

Answer 1

Quantitative: Converting text into numerical values and use statistical analysis to identify patterns, trends & relationships within the text.
Computational: Using automated and semi-automated computational techniques to process, analyze & interpret textual data.

Question 2

What can quantitative textual analysis be used for?

Answer 2

Mapping semantic networks, identifying topics and estimating prevalence, classifying documents, identifying keywords, measuring ideology or sentiment.

Question 3

What is a lexical dispersion plot?

Answer 3

A lexical dispersion plot is a method that allows you to visualise the occurrences of specific terms throughout a text. Not only how often a term is used, but where.