IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/qualqt/v58y2024i1d10.1007_s11135-023-01655-2.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The face of words

Author

Listed:
  • Robert Hogenraad

    (Université Catholique de Louvain)

Abstract

A road less traveled by, my concern is to make the common negative view of contradictions stand on its head and to suggest that contradictions breed creativity—rescinding what we had been taught in our greenness years. What is a contradiction, anyway? I explore contradictions in a smattering of novels and Power Elites speeches—2012 to 2021—to make them visible. Aiming for contradictions, I found them as I came on a trailblazing vision of one of their offshoots, the liminal chameleon contronym—a compact of a single word admitting of two senses that contradict each other. The latter being the epitome of contradiction, what’s better than a contradiction that doesn’t look like one? I crafted a lexicon of 340 English contronyms culled from dedicated sites. Then ran the lexicon on stories to ensure the lexicon did what I made it to do. Contronyms being no ends in themselves, rather means to an end, I probed Power Elites speeches through the lexicon filter. Contradictions call to mind a future result gained by a serious try—we speak with a purpose. So, I completed the contronym index with McClelland’s 1987 need for achievement (nAch) index and Roget’s Future Time index. Then set the contronym lexicon in a text analysis package to tag these innocuous contradictions woven through texts. That texts could be meetings of opposites is not unusual. The stroke of luck that whetted my curiosity was to reveal that, more often than not, the rates of these opposites were not stationary, depending on what the records were about or who spoke. That changed everything. Speeches were by Xi Jinping, V. Putin, J. Powell, M. Draghi, C. Lagarde, among others. All in all, blurring our certainties, contronyms expand the limits of what language may seize.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert Hogenraad, 2024. "The face of words," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 58(1), pages 497-526, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:qualqt:v:58:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1007_s11135-023-01655-2
    DOI: 10.1007/s11135-023-01655-2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11135-023-01655-2
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11135-023-01655-2?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert Hogenraad, 2014. "The fetish of archives," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 48(1), pages 425-437, January.
    2. Robert Hogenraad & Dean McKENZIE, 1999. "Replicating Text: The Cumulation of Knowledge in Social Science," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 33(2), pages 97-116, May.
    3. Tim Loughran & Bill Mcdonald, 2016. "Textual Analysis in Accounting and Finance: A Survey," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(4), pages 1187-1230, September.
    4. Robert Hogenraad, 2021. "The way of visionaries: foresight and imagination, computed," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 55(5), pages 1631-1660, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Robert Hogenraad, 2021. "The way of visionaries: foresight and imagination, computed," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 55(5), pages 1631-1660, October.
    2. Jiao Ji & Oleksandr Talavera & Shuxing Yin, 2018. "The Hidden Information Content: Evidence from the Tone of Independent Director Reports," Working Papers 2018-28, Swansea University, School of Management.
    3. Drago, Carlo & Ginesti, Gianluca & Pongelli, Claudia & Sciascia, Salvatore, 2018. "Reporting strategies: What makes family firms beat around the bush? Family-related antecedents of annual report readability," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 9(2), pages 142-150.
    4. Rolf Uwe Fülbier & Thorsten Sellhorn, 2023. "Understanding and improving the language of business: How accounting and corporate reporting research can better serve business and society," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 93(6), pages 1089-1124, August.
    5. Kladakis, George & Chen, Lei & Bellos, Sotirios K., 2023. "Ethical bank disclosures and liquidity creation," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    6. Chen, Cathy Yi-Hsuan & Fengler, Matthias R. & Härdle, Wolfgang Karl & Liu, Yanchu, 2022. "Media-expressed tone, option characteristics, and stock return predictability," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    7. Pastwa, Anna M. & Shrestha, Prabal & Thewissen, James & Torsin, Wouter, 2021. "Unpacking the black box of ICO white papers: a topic modeling approach," LIDAM Discussion Papers LFIN 2021018, Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain Finance (LFIN).
    8. John M. Barrios, 2022. "Occupational Licensing and Accountant Quality: Evidence from the 150‐Hour Rule," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(1), pages 3-43, March.
    9. Ostapenko, Nataliia, 2020. "Central Bank Communication: Information and Policy shocks," MPRA Paper 101278, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 21 Jun 2020.
    10. Elsayed, Mohamed & Elshandidy, Tamer, 2021. "Internal control effectiveness, textual risk disclosure, and their usefulness: U.S. evidence," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    11. Ryan McDonough & Argyro Panaretou & Catherine Shakespeare, 2020. "Fair value accounting: Current practice and perspectives for future research," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(3-4), pages 303-332, March.
    12. Chindasombatcharoen, Pongsapak & Chatjuthamard, Pattanaporn & Jiraporn, Pornsit & Treepongkaruna, Sirimon, 2023. "Director age and corporate innovation: Evidence from textual analysis," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(C).
    13. Xi Fu & Xiaoxi Wu & Zhifang Zhang, 2021. "The Information Role of Earnings Conference Call Tone: Evidence from Stock Price Crash Risk," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 173(3), pages 643-660, October.
    14. Stephen J. Smulowitz & Didier Cossin & Hongze Lu, 2023. "Managerial Short-Termism and Corporate Social Performance: The Moderating Role of External Monitoring," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 188(4), pages 759-778, December.
    15. Baranowski, Paweł & Doryń, Wirginia & Łyziak, Tomasz & Stanisławska, Ewa, 2021. "Words and deeds in managing expectations: Empirical evidence from an inflation targeting economy," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 49-67.
    16. Eugene Kang & Nguyen Bao Lam, 2023. "The impact of environmental disclosure on initial public offering underpricing: Sustainable development in Singapore," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(1), pages 119-133, January.
    17. Pongsapak Chindasombatcharoen & Pattanaporn Chatjuthamard & Pornsit Jiraporn & Sirimon Treepongkaruna, 2022. "Achieving sustainable development goals through board size and innovation," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(4), pages 664-677, August.
    18. Alexander Koch & Toan Luu Duc Huynh & Mei Wang, 2024. "News sentiment and international equity markets during BREXIT period: A textual and connectedness analysis," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(1), pages 5-34, January.
    19. Tarek Abdelfattah & Mohamed Elmahgoub & Ahmed A. Elamer, 2021. "Female Audit Partners and Extended Audit Reporting: UK Evidence," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 174(1), pages 177-197, November.
    20. An, Suwei, 2023. "Essays on incentive contracts, M&As, and firm risk," Other publications TiSEM dd97d2f5-1c9d-47c5-ba62-f, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:qualqt:v:58:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1007_s11135-023-01655-2. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.