Genanew

by Greg Siegle, 1994

Copyright Greg Siegle and the University of Pittsburgh

 

Generates a list of words balanced for valence, frequency, length, and arousal from the ANEW word list distributed by the University of Florida

 

Getting and running the program

Download the executable HERE

Run the executable from a DOS or COMMAND prompt

This program depends on having the ANEW.TXT file from the University of Florida in the SAME directory with the executable.

 

Usage:

genanew #words [YES/NO arousewords] [exclude filename] [pos]

 

#words - the total number of words you want in the list.

The program will get as close as it can with a list balanced on valence and arousal (this will be a multiple of 6 - with positive, negative, and neutral, high and low arousal words). If #words is not specified, a list with 12 words is generated.

 

arouswords - whether or not high arousal words are included

You may elect no high-arousal words by typing the word 'NO' after the #words.

 

exclude filename - optional file of words to not include

You may specify a file of words to exclude as a third argument (specifying 0 is the same as not entering a word file to exclude). The first line of the file of words to exclude MUST be the number of words in the file.

 

pos - part of speech

IF you have an ANEW.txt file that is coded for part of speech you may specify just 1 part of speech by typing it as a fourth argument. Legal parts of speech include n (noun), v (verb), adj (adjective), adv (adverb) prep (preposition), conj (conjunction)

 

Example

So, sample command might be

wordlist 16 NO 0

wordlist 16 NO 0 adj

which would generate a list of 16 non-arousing positive, negative, and neutral words. If adj is specified, only adjectives would be generated.

 

History

modified 2000 to use the ANEW word list

modified 2001 to balance for arousal

modified 2001 to disallow a word list

modified 2002 to use words of only a given part of speech

Copyright & Legal Haranguing

The following copyright notice is begrudgingly included for the sake of bureaucratic completeness.

 

All included software copyright (c) 1994 by Greg Siegle and the University of Pittsburgh.

 

Permission to use this software is granted subject to the following restrictions and understandings:

1) There is no warrantee or statement that the operation of this software will be error free. The authors and the University of Pittsburgh are under no obligation to provide any services by way of maintenance, update or otherwise.

2) Any user of such software agrees to indemnify and hold harmless the authors and the University of Pittsburgh from all claims arising out of the use of this software or arising out of any accident, injury or damage and from all costs, counsel fees, and liabilities incurred in or about any such claim, action, or proceeding brought thereon

3) As the intervention is still experimental, Greg Siegle requests that he be consulted on projects using the software.

4) Users are requested to inform Greg Siegle of noteworthy uses of this software.

5) This software may not be distributed without permission of Greg Siegle

 

Greg Siegle’s contact information:

Greg Siegle, Ph.D.

Director, Program in Cognitive Affective Neuroscience

Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic

3811 O’Hara St

Pittsburgh, PA 15213

Email: gsiegle@pitt.edu