Massimo Burattin

Academic English and translation 2014/2015

Lexicon and perspective:

What lexicon says about the approach in research articles.

Abstract
The aim of this article is to underline the importance of lexicon and
terminology in scientific researches about inter-disciplinary topic. The
analysis of lexicon reveals various information about a scientific paper, to
begin with, it can reveal the starting point of view of the given article. The
purpose of this research is to show how a preliminary quantitative analysis of
words in a given text, can help the reader understanding what is the research
field of the author, and selecting the texts that better fit his needs without an
in-depth reading.

With this objective in mind, we chose to analyse research articles about

dyslexia and to use Textalyser as analyser software. The analysis of the data
collected and their comparison with an in depth reading of the analysed
article, will point out how strong is the correlation between lexicon and
methodology in scientific papers, and, moreover, how this statical analysis is
a useful indicator of the approach behind a scientific text.
Keywords: lexicon, terminology, word analysis, quantitative analysis,
Textalyser, dyslexia.

Introduction

Collecting a good corpus of texts is the first step to an in depth examination

of a given topic. It is a crucial stage for every research: if the texts collected
are not appropriate, the whole work is not going to be appropriate itself. For
this reason, the selection of appropriate papers is a crucial problem for all
researchers. A good first step is to give more relevance to texts written by
well-known authors, or found in renowned magazines. Choosing a good
starting article and beginning the research from his bibliography, is, in
general, a good kick-off. However, things get even more complicated when
we have to analyse a topic that involves different approaches. The additional
problem is to recognise what methodology stands behind a specific scientific
article. Anyway, the solution to this problem is quite easy: an in depth reading
of the text will reveal to the reader the approach of the writer. Yet, this
operation can require a lot of time. The aim of this paper is to prove that it is
possible to make a first bare selection of the relevant texts for our branch of
study. Since there is a strong correlation between lexicon and methodology,
it is possible to pick up appropriate texts analysing the words used. For this
aim, we can utilise an analyser software that makes this operation easy and
fast, showing what are the most used words inside the text: as analyser

software we chose Textalyser. In he last part of this research we will

compare the collected data with the complete reading of the chosen articles.
In the conclusion we will underline how it is possible to understand what is
the scientific area related to the given text through the analysis of the lexicon
used, therefore we can opt for those that are more relevant for our research.

Why dyslexia?
In the first place, the study of dyslexia has acquired a new energy in the past
few years. A debate exists as to whether the condition represents primarily a
disorder of perception or a deficit in cognition and metacognitive processes.
The researches today are trying to explain if the condition arises from a
primary developmental disorder of language processing, either linguistic per
se or metalinguistic (cognitive), or from a fundamentally sensory/perceptual
failure1. Dyslexia is the most common learning difficulty, and it is related to
reading and speech. Although it is considered to be a receptive (afferent)
language-based learning disability, dyslexia also affects one's expressive
(efferent) language skills.
Concretely, the dyslexic has main difficulties in:

Connecting letters to sounds;

Decoding text;

Recognizing words;

Reading fluently;

Understanding the text.

Furthermore, these difficulties can also affect some basic everyday skills and
activities, such as:

1 Wikipedia, Dyslexia: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyslexia]

Social skills;

Listening comprehension;

Memory;

Space and time management.

The complexity of this disorder and the inner inter-disciplinary nature of the
argument implies the need of a multi-perspective approach of the research,
making the studies on dyslexia a perfect test bench for an analysis of the
correlations between lexicon and methodology in a scientific text.

About textalyser

Textalyser is a free web-based text analysis software offered by the Bernhard

Huber Internet Engineering Company. Textalyser provides detailed statistics
on the text to determine subject, analyse word grouping, determine keyword
density and determine the most prominent phrase. The Textalyser website is
no longer available as of late 2014. It as been captured by the Internet
Archive, and can still be viewed there (www.textalyser.net) 2.

Method of analysis
For this research, we picked up ten different scientific papers about dyslexia
from a corpus of random texts about the topic, and we analysed them with
Textalyser. The software analyse the frequency of words inside the selected
text, giving a quantitative analysis. We set up the software to search only for
words with a minimum of three characters. In this way we exclude from the
searching process the majority of function words that are not relevant for our
purpose.

2 Tapor.net, Textalyser: [http://www.tapor.ca/?id=177]

In the following paragraph we will present the results of our analysis. In a

very schematic way, we will display the top ten words of the given paper and
we will classify it, basing our choice on the semantic area related to these
words. The selected categories are: cognitive studies, neurology and
sociolinguistics.

Data

1. There Radiological Changes in the Brains Of Individuals With

Dyslexia? - M. LeMayAre

Frequency and top words:

Word

Occurrences

Frequency

Rank

right

31

2.6%

left

27

2.3%

brain

23

1.9%

dyslexia

20

1.7%

cerebral

16

1.3%

wider

14

1.2%

posterior

13

1.1%

asymmetries

13

1.1%

patients

12

1%

scans

12

1%

Classification: neurology.

2. Behind the Diagnosis - M. Byrd Rawson;

Frequency and top words:

Word

Occurrences

Frequency

Rank

dyslexia

63

2%

orton

45

1.4%

language

37

1.2%

you

33

1.1%

what

29

0.9%

brain

27

0.9%

many

22

0.7%

geschwind

21

0.7%

our

20

0.6%

say

17

0.5%

Classification: neurology

3. Children with dyslexia are slow writers because they pause more

often and not because they are slow at handwriting execution - E.

Sumner V.Connelly L. Barnett;
,
,

Frequency and top words:

Word

Occurrences

Frequency

Rank

children

154

3.2%

writing

140

2.9%

dyslexia

133

2.8%

spelling

91

1.9%

group

53

1.1%

handwriting

51

1.1%

task

50

1%

speed

43

0.9%

text

41

0.9%

age

40

0.8%

Classification: sociolinguistics

4. Developmental Dyslexia, Neurolinguistic Theory and Deviations in

Brain Morphology - G. Margaret, et al;

Frequency and top words:

Word

Occurrences

Frequency

Rank

dyslexia

64

1.6%

brain

61

1.5%

asymmetry

52

1.3%

left

50

1.3%

studies

49

1.2%

normal

40

1%

developmental

38

1%

right

34

0.9%

hynd

33

0.8%

subjects

5.

Classification: neurology

Frequency and top words:

Word

Occurrences

Frequency

Rank

learning

18

1.3%

mathematics

18

1.3%

language

17

1.3%

dyscalculia

16

1.2%

errors

14

1%

orton

12

0.9%

students

12

0.9%

written

12

0.9%

processing

12

0.9%

arithmetic

11

0.8%

Classification: cognitive studies

Identifying students with dyslexia in higher education - W. Tops et al;

0.8%

Dyscalculia and Dyslexia - K. Svien, D.Sherlock;

6.

32

Frequency and top words:

Word

Occurrences

Frequency

Rank

students

65

2.4%

dyslexia

60

2.2%

test

35

1.3%

reading

34

1.3%

education

27

1%

tests

27

1%

words

26

1%

number

24

0.9%

higher

23

0.9%

spelling

21

0.8%

Classification: sociolinguistics

7. The Current Status of Dyslexia in Great Britain - M. Welchman ;

Frequency and top words:

Word

Occurrences

Frequency

Rank

dyslexia

22

1.9%

education

19

1.7%

association

12

1.1%

local

11

1%

research

0.8%

learning

0.7%

associations

0.7%

groups

0.6%

chairman

0.6%

committee

0.6%

8.

Classification: sociolinguistics

Dyslexia-My "InvisibleHandicap" - T. S. Mautner;

Frequency and top words:

Word

Occurrences

Frequency

Rank

dyslexia

22

1.6%

school

19

1.4%

grade

18

1.3%

parents

17

1.2%

writing

12

0.9%

figure

12

0.9%

what

10

0.7%

age

10

0.7%

child

10

0.7%

reading

10

0.7%

Classification: sociolinguistics

9. Developmental Dyslexia: A Multilevel Syndrome - Albert M. Galaburda

Frequency and top words:

Word

10

Occurrences

Frequency

Rank

galaburda

39

1.5%

changes

35

1.4%

dyslexia

31

1.2%

rosen

30

1.2%

cortex

27

1.1%

visual

26

1%

processing

25

1%

perceptual

25

1%

sensory

25

1%

cognitive

24

0.9%

Classification: neurology

10. The representation and attainment of students with dyslexia in UK

higher education - J. Richardson, T. Wydell;

Frequency and top words:

Word

Occurrences

Frequency

Rank

students

367

5.9%

dyslexia

246

3.9%

education

153

2.5%

higher

143

2.3%

disability

81

1.3%

11

institutions

67

1.1%

reported

58

0.9%

first

56

0.9%

study

54

0.9%

programmes

49

0.8%

Classification: sociolinguistics

Data analysis

Each article is classified in one of the following categories: sociolinguistics,

cognitive studies and neurology. The classification is based on the semantic
field of the majority of the top ten recurring words.
For instance, we consider as related to neurology, papers who present the
repetition of words that describe some physical characteristic of the brain,
such has cortex, cerebral and brain itself. On the other side, for example, in
sociolinguistics paper there is a higher presence of words related to school
and language learning, as education, students, child and school, while in
papers based on a cognitive approach we can find the repetition of terms
related to cognition and processing.
To corroborate our thesis, the last step is an in depth reading of the
analysed articles. As we supposed, the final idea of the approach of a given
paper, matches the preliminary hypothesis made before the complete
reading of the text, and the categorisation remains unchanged.

12

Conclusions

The comparison of the classification based on the collected data with an in

depth review of the articles confirms our preliminary hypothesis on the
methodology behind texts. This result shows how strong is the correlation
between methodology and lexicon. Furthermore, it prove that the analysis of
the collected texts through a quantitative analyser software is a good way to
get started with a preliminary selection of texts for a corpus. This, of course
does not substitute an in depth reading of texts, anyway it could be a useful
tool to accelerate the process of building a corpus.

Bibliography

Analysed papers:

LeMayAre M (1981), There Radiological Changes in the Brains Of

Individuals With Dyslexia?, Bulletin of the Orton Society, vol. 1, pp 135141.

Byrd Rawson M (1986), Behind the Diagnosis, Annals of Dyslexia, vol. 36,
pp. 177-191.

13

Sumner E Connelly V Barnett L (2013) - Children with dyslexia are slow

,
,
writers because they pause more often and not because they are slow at
handwriting execution, Reading and Writing, vol. 26, pp. 991-1008.

Margaret G, Hynd W, Marshall R, Clikeman S (1991), Developmental

Dyslexia, Neurolinguistic Theory and Deviations in Brain Morphology,
Neuropsychology and Cognition, vol. 4, pp 157-174.

Svien K, Sherlock D (1979), Dyscalculia and Dyslexia, Bulletin of Orton

Society, vol. 29, pp. 269-276.

Tops W, Callens M, Lammertyn J, Van Hees V, Brysbaert M (2012),

Identifying students with dyslexia in higher education, Annals of Dyslexia,
vol. 62, pp. 186-203.

Welchman M (1981), The Current Status of Dyslexia in Great Britain,

Bulletin of the Orton Society, vol. 31, pp. 245-250.

Mautner T S (1984), Dyslexia-My "InvisibleHandicap", Annals of Dyslexia,

vol. 34, pp 297-311.

Galaburda A (1985) - Developmental Dyslexia: A Multilevel Syndrome,

Annals of Dyslexia, vol. 35, pp. 19-33.

Richardson J, Wydell T (2003) - The representation and attainment of

students with dyslexia in UK higher education, Reading and Writing, vol. 3,
pp 475-503.

Other papers from the corpus:

Benton A (1980), Dyslexia: evolution of a concept, Bulletin of the Orton

Society, vol. 30, pp. 10-26.

H. Catts (1989), Defining Dyslexia as a Developmental Language Disorder,

Annals of Dyslexia, vol. 39, pp. 50-64.

Pacheco A et. al. (2014), Dyslexia heterogeneity cognitive profiling, Reading

and Writing, vol. 27, pp. 1529-1545.

14

Yin W (2013), Dyslexia in Chinese Clues from Cognitive, Annals of

Dyslexia, vol. 53, pp. 255-279.

Welchman M (1977), Dyslexia in English Independent Systems, Bulletin of

the Orton Society, vol. 27, pp. 127-131.

Gibson S (2011), How do students with dyslexia perform in extended

matching questions, short answer questions and observed structured
clinical examinations?, Advances in Health Sciences Education, vol. 16,
pp. 395-404.

Oort J et al. (2014), Identifying dyslexia in adults: an iterative method

using the predictive value of item scores and self-report questions, Annals
of Dyslexia, vol. 64, pp 34-56.

15

Muller B (1999), Linkage analysis and genetic models in dyslexia considerations pertaining to discrete trait analysis and quantitative trait
analyses, European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, vol. 8, supplement, pp.
S40-S42.

Masland R (1979), Subgroups in Dyslexia Issues of Definition, Bulletin of the

Orton Society 1979, vol. 29, pp. 23-30.

Fink P (1998), Literacy Development in Successful Men and Women with

dyslexia, Annals of Dyslexia, vol. 48, pp. 311-346.