Highlighting semantic connections

summary

This experiment explores the addition of a representation of semantic connections between the words of a text. Some of the words were given notation based on their emotive connotation going from 0 (bad) to 1 (good). Please excuse how naïve the choices might be, I tend to be more fluent with numbers than I am with words. Words will be more or less linked to others depending on the distance between their notations. The more they are linked, the more their link will be opaque. To each connexion made will be associated a notation, the average of the word notations on both extremities. The slider controls the “target” notation, which in turns controls which links should be displayed. Links are displayed wider the closer their notation is from the value of the slider.

This experiment demonstrates how easy a clear visual can bring useful insight to a text. In this case, choosing to link the words based on their emotionnal value is fairly simple, but we could imagine a display of more interesting data. The extract I chose is from Les thanatonautes, Bernard Werber.

6 - ADVERTISING

"Life is beautiful. Do not listen to gossip. Life is good. Life is a product tested and approved by more than seventy billion humans for three million years. This proves its quality irreplaceable. "
This is a message of ANPV, the National Agency for the promotion of life.

7 - MANUAL HISTORY

Until the appearance of thanatonautique, death was considered one of the main taboos of humanity. To better fight against his own image, men were using mental processes we would call superstition. Some considered, for example, a metal coin with the image of St. Christopher, attached to a dashboard, helped avoid fatal car accidents.
Before the third century, and commonly joked: "In case of car accident is the driver who has the biggest Christophe saint who is most likely to get out."

History textbook, Basic Course 2 year.

8 - LESS WHERE THE HERO DIES WE COULD BELIEVE

Hold. Nothing terrible happened.
Great-great-grandfather was wrong. Dying was not so awful as that. There is nothing going on and that was it.
The black and the silence lasted a long time.
Finally, I opened my eyes. A slender figure appeared in an opaque halo of light.
An angel, surely.
The angel leaned on me. The angel looked strangely like a woman, but a beautiful woman like you never see on earth. She was blonde, with brown eyes.
Her perfume smelled apricot.
Around us, everything was white and serene.
I had to be in Heaven because the angel smiled.
- Ouahé udéen ... ... ... éatu you.
Angels had to speak a language to them. Jargon incomprehensible to non-angel angels.
- Fou ... ... nafhé ludéhen ... éatuheu.
She repeated this chant with patience and passed me his soft, cool hand on my forehead smooth injured child.
- You ... have ... more ... temperature.
I looked around, somewhat dazed.
- Are you okay? You understand me? You have no temperature.
- Where am I? In Paradise?
- No. In the intensive care unit at St. Louis hospital.
The angel reassured me.
- You're not dead. You have just a few bruises. You're lucky that the hood of the car has cushioned your fall. You have a big gash in his knees.