Corpus Analysis Assignment - Introduction

For the corpus analysis, I chose to explore how language use differs between political speech and public writing during wartime America. Using AntConc, I compared the 1945 speeches of President Franklin D. Roosevelt (his Inaugural and State of the Union addresses) against a collection of 12 magazine and newspaper texts from the Corpus of Historical American English (COHA), dating from the early-to-mid 1940s. The goal was to analyze word frequencies, contextual use of key terms, and n-gram patterns in order to uncover differences in tone, purpose, and rhetorical strategy.

Word Frequency Analysis

The most frequent words in both sets of text were common stop words ("the" - "of" - "and"). However, a few content words stood out. In FDR's KWIC, the word "we" ranked #6 with 170 uses, signaling his rhetorical emphasis on unity. In the COHA's KWIC, "we" ranked #28 with 52 uses, and was often part of quoted speech or indirect commentary. The word "war" was not very common in COHA, ranking only #69 with 25 appearances, whereas in FDR's speeches, it was much more prominent with 52 uses. Interestingly, while FDR uses the word "peace" 40 times in his two speeches, out of COHA's 12 texts, it only appears once. This suggests that the media discourse remained focused on ongoing war events, logistics, and reporting rather than future ideals or emotional appeals.

COHA Word List — Figure 1: Word List from COHA

FDR Word List — Figure 2: Word List from FDR

N-Gram

Furthering analyzing word patterns, I used the N-Gram Clusters to visualize this.

In the COHA texts, clusters like "war labor board," "mayor la guardia," "of the president," and "of the board" emerged. These 3 and 4 word phrases are formal, administrative, or journalistic. They reflect external descriptions of governmental and bureaucratic events, often without emotional tone or persuasive voice.

In contrast, FDR's speeches showed clusters like "we have learned," "we must maintain," "the armed forces," and "peace and well." These emphasize shared experience, duty, and moral clarity. The language in his speeches are persuasive, collectivist, and emotionally charged-frequent use of "we" and "our" anchors the speaker with the people.

The contrast in N-Gram usage reinforces the broader pattern I noticed: FDR's speeches use emotionally resonant repetition to inspire, while COHA uses factual reporting.

KWIC

Three key terms were analyzed using AntConc's KWIC: "war," "peace," and "we."

War: In FDR's speeches, "war" appears in action-oriented and motivational phrases like "we must maintain" or "we cannot and will not shrink." This reflects urgency and collective duty. In contrast, COHA news texts used "war" in more administrative or legal contexts as "Labor Board decision" or "Labor Disputes Act," demonstrating a detached, procedural tone.

Peace: FDR frequently links "peace" with ideals, "an enduring peace," "a durable peace," "a peace that is secure." The term is tied to emotional, forward-looking phrases. In contrast, COHA only had one instance of the word "peace," appearing in a quote: "neither victory...nor peace." This was suprising to see with the COHA texts being written during WW2. This absence of emotional framing shows the difference in genre and purpose between the two.

We: FDR uses "we" to unify the call to action ("We have learned," "We must maintain..."). COHA texts use "we" far less, and it's generally within quoted speech or depersonalized historical commentary ("We have had the experience," "We can offer..."). The emotional impact is not the same.

Word-Cloud

FDR's word cloud has large, bold appearances of words like "we," "our," "war," "peace," and "must." These words are action-oriented and suggest collective responsibility and moral urgency. "We" and "our" are especially prominent, reflecting FDR's effort in unifiying the American public during WW2. Emotional and ideological words like "freedom," "victory," and "forces" are also seen in the word cloud, showing how the speeches were aimed to inspire and unify.

In contrast, the COHA word cloud is mostly comprised of neutral and functional terms such as "the," "of," "and," "is," "by," "his," and "he." These words suggest an emphasis on reporting or third-person description, rather than direct calls to action. The word "we" appears small, reflecting it's low rank. Words like "war" and "peace" are also either missing or extremely small, unlike FDR's.

Conclusion

This analysis reveals that FDR’s speeches use language that is motivational, emotional, and unifying, especially through the repeated use of “we,” “peace,” and “war.” COHA texts, while they discuss the same historical moment, are more fragmented and technical. They reflect information rather than inspiration. This difference demonstrates how political rhetoric aims to shape collective identity and emotional resolve, while public media writing focuses more on reporting facts, legal issues, or neutral observation.