Stefan Kaufmann
2009
Semantic Density Analysis: Comparing Word Meaning across Time and Phonetic SpacePDF
Proceedings of the EACL 2009 Workshop on GEMS: GEometical Models of Natural Language Semantics, pages 104-111, 2009
This paper presents a new statistical methodfor detecting and tracking changes in word meaning, based on Latent Semantic Analysis. By comparing the density of semantic vector clusters this method allows researchers to make statistical inferences on questions such as whether the ...MORE ⇓
This paper presents a new statistical methodfor detecting and tracking changes in word meaning, based on Latent Semantic Analysis. By comparing the density of semantic vector clusters this method allows researchers to make statistical inferences on questions such as whether the meaning of a word changed across time or if a phonetic cluster is associated with a specific meaning. Possible applications of this method are then illustrated in tracing the semantic change of `dog', `do', and `deer' in early English and examining and comparing phonaesthemes.