Word Frequency Analysis of Diskusjon.no

Diskusjon.no is a website with all kinds of forums in Norwegian. For this thesis we have selected this forum about politics to be used as a text collection for comparison with the Vigrid website. The Norwegian politics and society forum is dominated by the following words:

mars (March, used 48390 times), norge (Norway, 37625), våpen (weapon, 29702), innlegget (the entry, 26766), redigert (edited, 25182), helt (hero, 21390), norske (Norwegian, 18423), venstre (name of a Norwegian, liberal party, 18110), staten (the state, 18009), anarki (anarchy, 16467), høyre (name of a Norwegian, conservative party, 16252), februar

(February, 15026), ønsker (wishes, 14874), kvinner (women, 14301), sosialistisk (Socialist, 13662), venstreparti (Solististisk Venstreparti = a Norwegian socialist party, 13662), politiet (the police, 13474), arbeiderparti (Labour party, 13464). “mars” is most likely a month when many of the messages in the forum were posted, namely March, and has nothing to do with the planet. We also see the word “februar” (February).

The words “innlegget” (the entry) and “redigert” (edited) are not so interesting, because they are in the most cases used together in the phrase “Dette innlegget har blitt redigert av” (“This

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entry is edited by”), and is used in all forum entries that have been edited after the first publishing. There is no point in finding a particular quote for “norske” (Norwegian) because that word is used simply to tell that something or someone is Norwegian.

Among these words we find the names of Norwegian political parties: Venstre, Høyre,

Sosialistisk Venstreparti og Arbeiderparti(et). The word “staten” (the state) and “politiet” (the police) are related to the government.

The word “staten” obviously occurs when one discusses different aspects of the state, which can be the Norwegian state, or any other state it is compared to. Here is an entry from a forum thread where “anarki” (anarchy) is discussed as an alternative to governing Norway. In an anarchy, there is no government, and hence no state. The thread includes arguments for and against anarchy in Norway. The following entry says that freedom from the state is desirable, but other states would attack and occupy the territory, if the Norwegian state ceased to exist. If anarchy should work, according to the author, all states in the world must have ceased to exist, as described in line 13874:

“('Diskusjon', '100_t38', 'Ville et anarki ha fungert i Norge?', 'Anarki i Norge i dag ville antageligvis ikke fungert, da andre stater i nærheten ville ha angrepet og drept deler av befolkningen for å få makt over området. Frihet(fra staten) er noe jeg ønsker og strever etter, men det er nok umulig å bare legge ned en state, man måtte lagt ned alle statene som finnes på jorden.', 'Anonymous', '4. februar 2013 - 16:39')”

Weapons (våpen) are discussed in the context of whether the police should always be armed or not. Amongst others the author of the following post thinks that violence between the police and criminals will escalate if the police carry weapons all the time, instead of storing them in the car until there is need for them. Other people think the police should be armed all the time, so they can use them at once when they need to. The author of the following post from line 138289, suggests that the police stop violent people with tazers (electric shock pistols) first, instead of starting directly with ordinary guns.

“('Diskusjon', '100_t42', 'Gjør dere klar til økenede bruk av våpen ifra Politiet', 'Legg merke til denne tråden viss politiet blir generelt bevæpnet, det kommer til å ta helt av dessverre, Sverige tilstander her kommer vi.. http://www.dagbladet...rbund/24260556/ Jeg er helt enig at politiet skal ha våpen i bilen og at operasjonsleder/operasjonssentral skal være den som bestemmer bevæpning, men at de skal gå med våpen på seg 24/7 er ekstremt negativt å vil føre politiet mer vekk ifra oss sivile samt økende bruk av våpen unødvendig.. Hva med først ta ibruk tazer som faktisk er ganske effektiv selv mot ekstremt rusa mennesker, da

nervesystem treffes. Dette innlegget har blitt redigert av DaniNichi: 8. november 2012 - 19:09', 'Anonymous', '8. november 2012 - 19:07')”

“ønsker” is the third person singular in the present tense of the verb “å ønske” (to wish) or the plural of the noun “ønske” (wish). It is always used for describing what somebody wants. In the following message, the author wishes freedom to do what he/she wants without a small political party (Sosialistisk Venstreparti, SV) in the red-green government coalition

introducing prohibition against for instance stripping.

Line 138383:

“('Diskusjon', '100_t46', 'SV-ledelsen vil forby stripping', 'http://www.abcnyhete...forby-stripping Når skal dette formynder partiet få siste spiker i kista slik at vi normale liberale

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mennesker som ønsker frihet kan leve uten frykt for at et mikro parti skal få igjennom diverse flere nisje forbud ?', 'Anonymous', 'i dag, 13:28')”

How women shall be treated in society is often discussed in the political forum at Diskusjon.no. The following excerpt is from an information forum thread. The message includes lists of different political cases, and for each case, one sees a list of which parties are for the case. Here is a case that the managing board in each Norwegian company must have at least 40 % women. We see which parties are for and against (“mot”) in line 138893:

“('Diskusjon', '100_t64', 'Det politiske landskap - Informasjonstråd', '(…)Minst 40% kvinner i bedriftenes styrer(kvotering) For: Det Norske Arbeiderparti, Sosialistisk Venstreparti, Venstre, Høyre, KRF Mot: Fremskrittspartiet, DLF Intet offisielt standpunkt: Uvisst:

Demokratene, Pensjonistpartiet, Rød Valgallianse, Senterpartiet, Kristent Samlingsparti, Kystpartiet (…)', 'Anonymous', '23. desember 2005 - 15:21')”

Table 27: 20 words with highest NGTF-IDF values

Word Translation GTF NGTF NGTF-IDF

kristelig Christian 13068 0.232 1.460

rød red 12870 0.229 1.438

folkeparti People’s Party 12672 0.225 1.416

valgallianse alliance of parties 12672 0.225 1.416

fremskrittspartiet the Progress Party 13068 0.232 1.299

senterpartiet the Centre party 11484 0.204 1.283

sosialistisk Socialist 13662 0.243 1.259

venstreparti Socialist party 13662 0.243 1.259

arbeiderparti Labour party 13464 0.239 1.172

venstre Liberal Party (“left”) 18110 0.322 1.125

høyre Conservative Party (“right”) 16252 0.289 1.118

norske Norwegian 18423 0.327 1.054

dlf The Liberal People’s Party 13070 0.232 0.976

våpen weapon 29702 0.528 0.946

demokratene Democrats 8316 0.148 0.827

merknad remark 6732 0.120 0.752

norge Norway 37625 0.669 0.734

standpunkt point of view 9901 0.176 0.717

intet nothing 8913 0.158 0.711

kystpartiet the Coast Party 7128 0.127 0.709

When we sort words by NGTF-IDF like in Table 27, we see that most of the top 20 words are names or parts of names of Norwegian political parties. We also see the word “våpen”

(weapon) which is discussed in the political debate. The word “merknad” (remark, comment) is used before a short information remark in an information thread about the cases the different parties are for and against, like in line 138893 in forum_entries.sql:

“('Diskusjon', '100_t64', 'Det politiske landskap - Informasjonstråd', '(…) Merknad: Det er her spørsmål om Norge skal innføre sanksjoner overfor Israel i Palestin/Israel konflikten.

Diskuter konflikten her | Diskuter saken her Mandatfordeling (for/mot): 15-38. Det er ikke noe flertall for sanksjoner. (…)’, 'Anonymous', '23. desember 2005 - 15:21')”

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“norge” is the Norwegian word for the country Norway, whose politics is discussed in this forums. No examples are necessary for that word.

“standpunkt” means stand or point of view of a person or a political party. This word in also much used in one or more information thread on the website like shown in line 138896, where a forum administrator has updated information about the FRP’s (Fremskrittspartiet) point of view:

“('Diskusjon', '100_t64', 'Det politiske landskap - Informasjonstråd', 'Har gjort litt

"oppgradering"; - Informasjonstråd og diskusjon om og rundt FRP lenke lagt til - Setter inn fullt partinavn (fortsatt under utarbeidelse) - Oppdatert Fremskrittspartiets standpunkt. Nå er det lenker til nesten hvert eneste av deres standpunkt. (..)', 'Anonymous', '23. desember 2005 - 15:23')”

The word “intet” means “nothing”. No example is needed, since it is used in the same way as the English translation.