Multi-dimensional analysis of political language

This paper presents a method for the valuation of discourses from different linguistic perspectives: lexical, syntactic and semantic. We describe a platform (Discourse Analysis Tool – DAT) which integrates a range of language processing tools with the intent to build complex characterisations of the political discourse. The idea behind this construction is that the vocabulary and the clause structure of the sentence betray the speaker’s level of culture, while the semantic classes mentioned in a speech characterises the speaker’s orientation. When the object of study is the political discourse, an investigation on these dimensions could put in evidence features influencing the electing public. The method is intended to help both political speakers to improve their discourse abilities, by comparing their speeches with those of personalities of the public life in the past, and the public at large by evidencing hidden aspects of the linguistic and intellectual abilities of their candidates.