Lexical Complexity of Editorial Articles in the Spanish Press: A Selection of Four Newspapers

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5944/rhd.vol.6.2021.30861

Keywords:

Lexical Complexity, Lexical Diversity, Lexical Sophistication, NLP, Spanish Press

Agencies:

Sound and Meaning in Golden Age Literature (FWF Austrian Science Fund, P32563).

Abstract

This case study explores the differences in lexical complexity (LC) in the Spanish quality press. The results show variability of the lexical quality among papers and lack of correlation of number of readers and higher LC. The lexical sophistication indexes LS1 and CVS1 and lexical diversity indexes HD-D, MAAS, and MTLD were calculated for 2741 editorial articles of Abc, El Mundo, El País, and El Periódico published online in 2019. The results revealed significant differences in both LD and LS between the newspapers, with El Mundo producing the most and El Periódico the less complex texts overall. Posthoc analyses showed further differences between publications, being El Periódico the most disparate. Additionally, the comparison of HD-D, MAAS, and MTLD with TTR-based measures suggests benefits of the former for samples of heterogeneous sizes.

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Author Biography

Fernando Sanz-Lázaro, Universidad de Viena

Fernando Sanz-Lázaro es estudiante de doctorado en el Departamento de Estudios Románicos de la Universidad de Viena. Sus áreas de interés son la litera española del Siglo de Oro y  las humanidades digitales, particularmente la automatización de análisis dramétricos y escansión de obras teatrales áureas.

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Published

2021-11-26

How to Cite

Sanz-Lázaro, F. (2021). Lexical Complexity of Editorial Articles in the Spanish Press: A Selection of Four Newspapers . Revista de Humanidades Digitales, 6, 85–100. https://doi.org/10.5944/rhd.vol.6.2021.30861

Issue

Vol. 6 (2021)

Section

Artículos Académicos

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