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List of absolutist words: absolutely all always complete completely constant constantly definitely entire ever ever

by slig 9y ago

List of absolutist words: absolutely all always complete completely constant constantly definitely entire ever every everyone everything full must never nothing totally whole

mozumder 9y ago
Lot of these words are spoken by politicians to demand authority recognition. Can we say politicians therefore exploit the anxiety of the population through absolutism?
- matt4077 9y ago
  I just did a quick grep in a set of Speeches by two different politicians (about 20,000 words each): #Pol #<absolutely|all|always|...>/#<words> Trump 0.013 Obama 0.004 Congress 0.011 HN 0.017 Yeah, I threw in a few Hacker News comment pages (not including this one). So, I'm questioning your assumptions...
  - mozumder 9y ago
    Yah that's about right. Thanks for this data. I would expect some positivity from politicians compared to HN nerds. BTW this really shows how awful Trump is.
dboreham 9y ago
Just these two work pretty well as a short list: "Always", "Never".
- loceng 9y ago
  I wonder how/if they accounted for "almost always", "almost never" etc.
  - brixon 9y ago
    I think that is the point. Hedge words show that you are aware and accepting that everything/everyone is not out to get you.
anon_mouse 9y ago
Is this the entire list of 'absolutist' words? A. It seems very small. B. I'm assuming a lot of research went into choosing that list, I guess I'll have to search for how that works haha.
- slig 9y ago
  The entire list of words used on this specific paper. I just copied/pasted from the PDF here.
- prepend 9y ago
  They describe the methods for making this set. No, it’s not all. They used their team to brainstorm absolute and non, whittled it down to 65, then these 19.
- gglitch 9y ago
  They narrowed their list down to those that appear above some frequency.
jack9 9y ago
all, constant/ly, nothing are notably common in any workplace. Wait, "any" isn't in there? I'm not hype about this study.
_greim_ 9y ago
Is it just me, or has "definitely" become sort of subtly indefinite in modern language? Consider: A) We should throw a party for him. B) We should definitely throw a party for him. A) We should get together soon. B) We should definitely get together soon. In each case, it seems like A is a call to action, whereas B is (for lack of a better term) more of a social expression which doesn't necessitate actually planning something right this moment. Or maybe I'm overthinking it.
- 83457 9y ago
  literally
- nerfhammer 9y ago
  they used a panel of judges to determine whether a word counted as "absolutist" or not, the results of which look at least partly arbitrary to me. Apparently "really" and "anything" did not count as absolutist but "definitely" did.
- romwell 9y ago
  Yeah, I think the authors should definitely consider this.
2ion 9y ago
I used most of these in an application's personal statement to a program at an internationally leading university…
orthecreedence 9y ago
Don't forget "nobody." > Nobody builds walls like I do.

by slig 9y ago

List of absolutist words: absolutely all always complete completely constant constantly definitely entire ever every everyone everything full must never nothing totally whole

mozumder 9y ago

Lot of these words are spoken by politicians to demand authority recognition. Can we say politicians therefore exploit the anxiety of the population through absolutism?

matt4077 9y ago
I just did a quick grep in a set of Speeches by two different politicians (about 20,000 words each): #Pol #<absolutely|all|always|...>/#<words> Trump 0.013 Obama 0.004 Congress 0.011 HN 0.017 Yeah, I threw in a few Hacker News comment pages (not including this one). So, I'm questioning your assumptions...
- mozumder 9y ago
  Yah that's about right. Thanks for this data. I would expect some positivity from politicians compared to HN nerds. BTW this really shows how awful Trump is.

dboreham 9y ago

Just these two work pretty well as a short list: "Always", "Never".

loceng 9y ago
I wonder how/if they accounted for "almost always", "almost never" etc.
- brixon 9y ago
  I think that is the point. Hedge words show that you are aware and accepting that everything/everyone is not out to get you.

anon_mouse 9y ago

Is this the entire list of 'absolutist' words? A. It seems very small. B. I'm assuming a lot of research went into choosing that list, I guess I'll have to search for how that works haha.

slig 9y ago
The entire list of words used on this specific paper. I just copied/pasted from the PDF here.
prepend 9y ago
They describe the methods for making this set. No, it’s not all. They used their team to brainstorm absolute and non, whittled it down to 65, then these 19.
gglitch 9y ago
They narrowed their list down to those that appear above some frequency.

jack9 9y ago

all, constant/ly, nothing are notably common in any workplace. Wait, "any" isn't in there? I'm not hype about this study.

_greim_ 9y ago

Is it just me, or has "definitely" become sort of subtly indefinite in modern language? Consider: A) We should throw a party for him. B) We should definitely throw a party for him. A) We should get together soon. B) We should definitely get together soon. In each case, it seems like A is a call to action, whereas B is (for lack of a better term) more of a social expression which doesn't necessitate actually planning something right this moment. Or maybe I'm overthinking it.

83457 9y ago
literally
nerfhammer 9y ago
they used a panel of judges to determine whether a word counted as "absolutist" or not, the results of which look at least partly arbitrary to me. Apparently "really" and "anything" did not count as absolutist but "definitely" did.
romwell 9y ago
Yeah, I think the authors should definitely consider this.

2ion 9y ago

I used most of these in an application's personal statement to a program at an internationally leading university…

orthecreedence 9y ago

Don't forget "nobody." > Nobody builds walls like I do.