subject-northCarolina-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 6 item(s) in this carrel, and this carrel is 130,754 words long. Each item in your study carrel is, on average, 21,792 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.

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histogram of sizes
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box plot of sizes

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 89. 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.

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histogram of readability
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box plot of readability

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:

shall, may, will, one, us, bee, make, sir, lord, must, first, virginia, time, made, much, proprietors, court, wee, every, heirs, great, wine, nature, two, part, john, within, yet, three, without, many, good, land, george, well, english, power, hundred, silke, province, berkeley, carolina, william, countrey, place, also, take, let, ground, man

Using the three most frequent words, the three files containing all of those words the most are The two charters granted by King Charles IId to the proprietors of Carolina with the first and last fundamental constitutions of that colony., Virginia, more especially the south part thereof, richly and truly valued viz. the fertile Carolana, and no lesse excellent Isle of Roanoak, of latitude from 31 to 37 degr. relating the meanes of raysing infinite profits to the adventurers and planters., and The fundamental constitutions of Carolina.

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

lords proprietors, grand council, sir john, john colleton, lord ashley, anthony lord, john lord, george duke, sir george, edward earl, george carterett, lord berkeley, sir william, william berkeley, must bee, fundamental constitutions, may bee, will bee, lord craven, court shall, english books, early english, william lord, proprietors courts, part thereof, hundred acres, man shall, william earl, books online, six councellors, let us, shall think, twelve assistants, council shall, wee shall, thereunto belonging, county court, wee may, one thousand, shall consist, page images, think fit, mulberry trees, freehold within, wee consider, sir vvilliam, pounds sterling, will make, text creation, creation partnership

And the three file that use all of the three most frequent phrases are A relation of a discovery lately made on the coast of Florida (from lat. 31 to 33 deg. 45 min. north-lat.) / by William Hilton, Anthony Long and Peter Fabian, in the ship Adventure, which set sayl from Spikes Bay, Aug. 10. 1663. and was set forth by several gentlemen and merchants of the Island of Barbadoes ; giving an account of the nature and temperature of the soyl, the manners and disposition of the natives, and whatsoever else is remarkable therein ; together with proposals made by the commissioners of the lords proprietors to all such persons as shall become the first setlers on the rivers, harbors, and creeks there. Virgo triumphans, or, Virginia in generall, but the south part therof in particular including the fertile Carolana, and the no lesse excellent island of Roanoak, richly and experimentally valued : humbly presented as the auspice of a beginning yeare, to the Parliament of England, and councell of state / by Edward Williams, Gent., and Virginia, more especially the south part thereof, richly and truly valued viz. the fertile Carolana, and no lesse excellent Isle of Roanoak, of latitude from 31 to 37 degr. relating the meanes of raysing infinite profits to the adventurers and planters..

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

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unigrams
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bigrams

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:

english, world, virginia, tcp, staple, south, silke, sea, nature, nation, mulberry, italy, indians, court, countrey, china, wormes, wine, west, water, vine, vessell, sunne, sir, river, proprietors, planters, palatine, oyle, olive, north, mulberries, moone, lords, lord, land, john, heirs, grape, grand, george, france, flesh, ellens, earl, creature, country, countries, climate, boat

And now word clouds really begin to shine:

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keywords

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 shall, and Virginia, more especially the south part thereof, richly and truly valued viz. the fertile Carolana, and no lesse excellent Isle of Roanoak, of latitude from 31 to 37 degr. relating the meanes of raysing infinite profits to the adventurers and planters. 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:

  1. bee - Virginia, more especially the south part thereof, richly and truly valued viz. the fertile Carolana, and no lesse excellent Isle of Roanoak, of latitude from 31 to 37 degr. relating the meanes of raysing infinite profits to the adventurers and planters.
  2. shall - The two charters granted by King Charles IId to the proprietors of Carolina with the first and last fundamental constitutions of that colony.
  3. river - A relation of a discovery lately made on the coast of Florida (from lat. 31 to 33 deg. 45 min. north-lat.) / by William Hilton, Anthony Long and Peter Fabian, in the ship Adventure, which set sayl from Spikes Bay, Aug. 10. 1663. and was set forth by several gentlemen and merchants of the Island of Barbadoes ; giving an account of the nature and temperature of the soyl, the manners and disposition of the natives, and whatsoever else is remarkable therein ; together with proposals made by the commissioners of the lords proprietors to all such persons as shall become the first setlers on the rivers, harbors, and creeks there.

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:

  1. bee, virginia, wee - Virginia, more especially the south part thereof, richly and truly valued viz. the fertile Carolana, and no lesse excellent Isle of Roanoak, of latitude from 31 to 37 degr. relating the meanes of raysing infinite profits to the adventurers and planters.
  2. shall, said, sir - The two charters granted by King Charles IId to the proprietors of Carolina with the first and last fundamental constitutions of that colony.
  3. river, land, shall - A relation of a discovery lately made on the coast of Florida (from lat. 31 to 33 deg. 45 min. north-lat.) / by William Hilton, Anthony Long and Peter Fabian, in the ship Adventure, which set sayl from Spikes Bay, Aug. 10. 1663. and was set forth by several gentlemen and merchants of the Island of Barbadoes ; giving an account of the nature and temperature of the soyl, the manners and disposition of the natives, and whatsoever else is remarkable therein ; together with proposals made by the commissioners of the lords proprietors to all such persons as shall become the first setlers on the rivers, harbors, and creeks there.
  4. great, good, english - Carolina, or, A description of the present state of that country and the natural excellencies thereof viz. the healthfulness of the air, pleasantness of the place, advantage and usefulness of those rich commodities there plentifully abounding, which much encrease and flourish by the industry of the planters that daily enlarge that colony / published by T.A., Gent ...
  5. inferiour, post, aim - Carolina, or, A description of the present state of that country and the natural excellencies thereof viz. the healthfulness of the air, pleasantness of the place, advantage and usefulness of those rich commodities there plentifully abounding, which much encrease and flourish by the industry of the planters that daily enlarge that colony / published by T.A., Gent ...

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

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topic model

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?":

part, time, nature, man, way, labour, trees, power, ground, profit, leaves, place, reason, person, others, men, pound, parts, water, things, t, acres, tree, selfe, order, staple, wine, owne, thing, seed, silke, season, text, perfection, number, benefit, quantity, people, places, use, nothing, s, knowledge, abundance, dayes, plenty, foot, day, hath, meanes

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:

be, is, have, are, said, being, make, made, bee, were, had, was, take, let, do, been, give, having, put, set, found, called, come, according, receive, aforesaid, chosen, planted, cut, cast, brought, taken, has, granted, hath, came, belonging, provided, use, discovered, kept, fall, know, sent, lay, grow, grant, given, transported, betwixt

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nouns
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verbs

Proper Nouns

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

●, sir, lord, virginia, court, proprietors, heirs, john, wee, george, province, berkeley, carolina, william, countrey, wine, land, england, parliament, vine, earl, palatine, lords, english, _, river, indians, grand, council, successors, silke, hath, bee, anthony, edward, colleton, china, duke, ashley, craven, tcp, clarendon, carterett, albemarle, proprietor, sea, south, time, assigns, nature

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?"

it, their, them, our, they, his, we, your, you, us, i, he, its, him, her, themselves, my, she, me, himself, theirs, ye, one, whosoever, wh, trodden, s, ourselves

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

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proper nouns
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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?"

other, such, same, great, first, many, good, more, much, full, large, several, particular, little, rich, greater, publick, excellent, better, next, small, noble, proper, new, best, happy, most, least, common, long, second, present, fit, convenient, extraordinary, eldest, strong, high, english, old, whole, own, necessary, last, early, able, curious, sufficient, industrious, capable

not, so, then, more, as, very, up, well, most, also, there, out, much, ever, together, whatsoever, too, thereof, therefore, onely, first, yet, never, now, off, far, easily, thus, already, in, especially, away, otherwise, further, else, only, all, over, almost, rather, sometimes, usually, therein, respectively, down, once, even, commonly, before, naturally

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adjectives
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adverbs

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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