The Geometry of Culture: Analyzing the Meanings of Class through Word Embeddings
The Geometry of Culture: Analyzing the Meanings of Class through Word Embeddings
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DOI：
10.1177/0003122419877135
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发表时间：
2019-09-25
影响因子：
9.1
通讯作者：
Evans, James A.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Kozlowski, Austin C.;Taddy, Matt;Evans, James A.
我们认为，词嵌入模型是一种有用的工具，可以通过对社会阶层共同理解的历史分析作为经验案例来研究文化。词嵌入将词之间的语义关系表示为高维空间中向量之间的关系，指定了一种与当代文化理论一致的意义关系模型。这些空间中由词汇差异（贫富）引起的维度与文化意义的维度相对应，词汇在这些维度上的投射反映了广泛共享的关联，我们通过调查验证了这一点。通过分析100多年来出版的数百万本图书的文本，我们发现，在20世纪的经济转型中，阶级的标志不断发生变化，但阶级的基本文化维度仍然非常稳定。值得注意的例外是教育，它与富裕紧密相连，而与培养的品味无关。
We argue word embedding models are a useful tool for the study of culture using a historical analysis of shared understandings of social class as an empirical case. Word embeddings represent semantic relations between words as relationships between vectors in a high-dimensional space, specifying a relational model of meaning consistent with contemporary theories of culture. Dimensions induced by word differences (rich - poor) in these spaces correspond to dimensions of cultural meaning, and the projection of words onto these dimensions reflects widely shared associations, which we validate with surveys. Analyzing text from millions of books published over 100 years, we show that the markers of class continuously shifted amidst the economic transformations of the twentieth century, yet the basic cultural dimensions of class remained remarkably stable. The notable exception is education, which became tightly linked to affluence independent of its association with cultivated taste.