Distant Reader - subject-indiansOfNorthAmerica-freebo

Introduction

This is a Distant Reader "study carrel", a set of structured data intended to help the student, researcher, or scholar use & understand a corpus.

This study carrel was created on 2021-05-24 by Eric Morgan <emorgan@nd.edu>. The carrel was created using the Distant Reader zip2carrel process, and the input was a Zip file locally cached with the name input-file.zip. Documents in the Zip file have been saved in a cache, and each of them have been transformed & saved as a set of plain text files. All of the analysis -- "reading" -- has been done against these plain text files. For example, a short narrative report has been created. This Web page is a more verbose version of that report.

All study carrels are self-contained -- no Internet connection is necessary to use them. Download this carrel for offline reading. The carrel is made up of many subdirectories and data files. The manifest describes each one in greater detail.

Size

There are 25 item(s) in this carrel, and this carrel is 884,810 words long. Each item in your study carrel is, on average, 36,867 words long. If you dig deeper, then you might want to save yourself some time by reading a shorter item. On the other hand, if your desire is for more detail, then you might consider reading a longer item. The following charts illustrate the overall size of the carrel.

Readability

On a scale from 0 to 100, where 0 is very difficult and 100 is very easy, the documents have an average readability score of 96. Consequently, if you want to read something more simplistic, then consider a document with a higher score. If you want something more specialized, then consider something with a lower score. The following charts illustrate the overall readability of the carrel.

Word Frequencies

By merely counting & tabulating the frequency of individual words or phrases, you can begin to get an understanding of the carrel's "aboutness". Excluding "stop words", some of the more frequent words include:

xml, id, facs, reg, lemma, pos, pc, acp, cs, av, hi, vvd, pns, cc, vvi, vvn, nn, rendition, po, great, sentence, god, unit, one, crq, vvb, pno, will, men, us, make, much, many, may, two, made, time, good, crd, vvg, man, christ, vvz, yet, shall, people, river, haue, also, first

Using the three most frequent words, the three files containing all of those words the most are A new discovery of a vast country in America extending above four thousand miles between New France and New Mexico, with a description of the great lakes, cataracts, rivers, plants and animals : also the manners, customs, and languages of the several native Indians ... : with a continuation, giving an account of the attempts of the Sieur De la Salle upon the mines of St. Barbe, &c., the taking of Quebec by the English, with the advantages of a shorter cut to China and Japan : both parts illustrated with maps and figures and dedicated to His Majesty, K. William / by L. Hennepin ... ; to which is added several new discoveries in North-America, not publish'd in the French edition., Noua Francia: or The description of that part of Nevv France, which is one continent with Virginia Described in the three late voyages and plantation made by Monsieur de Monts, Monsieur du Pont-Graué, and Monsieur de Poutrincourt, into the countries called by the Frenchmen La Cadie, lying to the southwest of Cape Breton. Together with an excellent seuerall treatie of all the commodities of the said countries, and maners of the naturall inhabitants of the same. Translated out of French into English by P.E., and The generall historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles with the names of the adventurers, planters, and governours from their first beginning. an⁰: 1584. to this present 1624. With the procedings of those severall colonies and the accidents that befell them in all their journyes and discoveries. Also the maps and descriptions of all those countryes, their commodities, people, government, customes, and religion yet knowne. Divided into sixe bookes. By Captaine Iohn Smith sometymes governour in those countryes & admirall of New England..

The most frequent two-word phrases (bigrams) include:

pos acp, pc xml, cs reg, pos av, pos vvd, vvd reg, pos pns, pns reg, cc reg, pos vvi, vvi reg, av reg, pos cc, vvn reg, pos vvn, nn reg, po reg, pos po, rendition hi, pc unit, sentence xml, unit sentence, pos crq, pos vvb, vvb reg, pos pno, pno reg, pos cs, pos crd, crd reg, vvg reg, pos vvg, vvz reg, pos vvz, pos pn, pn reg, vmd reg, pos vmd, hi xml, ab reg, make pos, lemma make, lemma great, great pos, pos xx, xx reg, pos vmb, reg great, great xml, reg us

And the three file that use all of the three most frequent phrases are A new discovery of a vast country in America extending above four thousand miles between New France and New Mexico, with a description of the great lakes, cataracts, rivers, plants and animals : also the manners, customs, and languages of the several native Indians ... : with a continuation, giving an account of the attempts of the Sieur De la Salle upon the mines of St. Barbe, &c., the taking of Quebec by the English, with the advantages of a shorter cut to China and Japan : both parts illustrated with maps and figures and dedicated to His Majesty, K. William / by L. Hennepin ... ; to which is added several new discoveries in North-America, not publish'd in the French edition. Strength out of weakness. Or A glorious manifestation of the further progresse of the gospel amongst the Indians in New-England. Held forth in sundry letters from divers ministers and others to the corporation established by Parliament for promoting the gospel among the heathen in New-England; and to particular members thereof since the last treatise to that effect, / formerly set forth by Mr Henry Whitfield late pastor of Gilford in New-England. ; Published by the aforesaid corporation., and The light appearing more and more towards the perfect day. Or, a farther discovery of the present state of the Indians in New-England, concerning the progresse of the Gospel amongst them. Manifested by letters from such as preacht to them there. / Published by Henry Whitfeld, late pastor to the Chuch [sic] of Christ at Gilford in New-England, who came late thence..

While often deemed superficial or sophomoric, rudimentary frequencies and their associated "word clouds" can be quite insightful:

Keywords

Sets of keywords -- statistically significant words -- can be enumerated by comparing the relative frequency of words with the number of times the words appear in an entire corpus. Some of the most statistically significant keywords in the carrel include:

indians, english, god, lord, tcp, new, england, christ, sea, king, spaniards, land, gospel, country, word, river, nation, man, chap, captaine, west, thomas, spirit, people, north, natives, island, corne, church, christians, william, virginia, town, south, sir, sachem, riuer, richard, religion, powhatan, monterinos, master, john, jewes, jesus, hist, haue, french, fort, fathers

And now word clouds really begin to shine:

Topic Modeling

Topic modeling is another popular approach to connoting the aboutness of a corpus. If the study carrel could be summed up in a single word, then that word might be a43326, and The Day-breaking, if not the sun-rising of the Gospell with the Indians in New-England is most about that word.

If the study carrel could be summed up in three words ("topics") then those words and their significantly associated titles include:

If the study carrel could be summed up in five topics, and each topic were each denoted with three words, then those topics and their most significantly associated files would be:

Moreover, the totality of the study carrel's aboutness, can be visualized with the following pie chart:

Noun & Verbs

Through an analysis of your study carrel's parts-of-speech, you are able to answer question beyonds aboutness. For example, a list of the most frequent nouns helps you answer what questions; "What is discussed in this collection?":

xml, p, pc, >, pos="n1, pos="n2, cs, pos="vvi, unit="sentence, men, r, pos="pns, time, people, pos="n1-nn, man, av, day, lemma="make, w, things, place, heart, cc, way, p., others, hee, part, land, world, thing, reg="savages, word, ▪, reg="river, reg="those, parts, work, fr, hath, end, reg="other, x, hand, rest, name, sins, life, pos="vvg

An enumeration of the verbs helps you learn what actions take place in a text or what the things in the text do. Very frequently, the most common lemmatized verbs are "be", "have", and "do"; the more interesting verbs usually occur further down the list of frequencies:

is, be, was, are, had, were, have, lemma="i, did, being, made, pos="pns, said, make, pos="av_j, come, came, lemma="by, do, see, found, lemma="great, called, know, haue, say, take, been, pray, pos="vvg, sent, heard, done, went, lemma="those, brought, having, let, set, rendition="#follows, put, am, thought, hath, give, doe, lemma="country, call, reg="being, lemma="savage

Proper Nouns

An extraction of proper nouns helps you determine the names of people and places in your study carrel.

id="a43326, facs="a43326, w, pos="acp, lemma="the, reg="the, pos="j, reg="of, lemma="of, pos="cc, pos="vvn, pos="d, lemma="be, reg="to, lemma="and, reg="and, pos="po, lemma="they, pos="crq, god, pos="vvb, pos="pns, pos="pno, lemma="a, pos="av, lemma="that, pc, lemma="have, lemma="in, reg="a, reg="in, pos="cs, pos="crd, pos="vvi, lemma="we, christ, pos="vvz, unit="sentence, reg="their, lemma="their, lemma="with, reg="i, pos="pn, lord, lemma="he, lemma="it, indians, lemma="as, lemma="for, reg="as

An analysis of personal pronouns enables you to answer at least two questions: 1) "What, if any, is the overall gender of my study carrel?", and 2) "To what degree are the texts in my study carrel self-centered versus inclusive?"

they, i, their, it, them, his, he, we, our, him, my, you, me, us, your, her, themselves, thy, she, thee, himself, one, its, ours, theirs, vp, mine, w, vnto, lemma="throw, yours, reg="sick, ye, pos="n1-nn, whereof, hee, lemma="back, ●, u, yee, ay, thou, reg="himself, p, ourselves, o, n="49, lemma="thyself, lemma="shelf, lemma="himself

Below are words cloud of your study carrel's proper & personal pronouns.

Adjectives & Verbs

Learning about a corpus's adjectives and adverbs helps you answer how questions: "How are things described and how are things done?" An analysis of adjectives and adverbs also points to a corpus's overall sentiment. "In general, is my study carrel positive or negative?"

pos="n1, pos="av, pos="n1-nn, great, many, other, such, good, reg="for, reg="had, reg="we, much, more, first, reg="be, reg="us, little, reg="great, same, pos="cs, small, reg="me, reg="some, most, lemma="very, next, reg="an, true, new, old, long, full, lemma="give, reg="two, best, last, few, own, better, lemma="where, w, able, lemma="time, haue, present, english, lemma="several, common, large, reg="several

not, so, then, lemma="which, now, very, also, more, there, well, as, much, yet, up, r, therefore, here, out, onely, thus, most, away, first, together, vs, long, in, thereof, about, again, forth, never, off, ever, sometimes, still, rather, only, further, all, even, too, before, especially, indeed, w, neere, far, lemma="before, over

Next steps

There is much more to a study carrel than the things outlined above. Use this page's menubar to navigate and explore in more detail. There you will find additional features & functions including: ngrams, parts-of-speech, grammars, named entities, topic modeling, a simple search interface, etc.

Again, study carrels are self-contained. Download this carrel for offline viewing and use.

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