The New York Times put together an interactive graphic showing, for each U.S. President’s in augural speech, a word cloud with the most used words, with larger words being used more frequently than smaller words. Click here to see the whole thing and look at any specific speech.
Here is Obama’s speech. The words in yellow (“generation,” “crisis,” “hard,” “job,” “women,” and “endure) were used more by Obama than in the average inaugural speech:
This is interesting because it helps us see what is being emphasized by different President’s at different times, and also how language changes. For example, for George Washington in 1789, the word “God” was not among his most used He does, however, use the word “pecuniary” (of or relating to money) a lot.
Via infosthetics.
Comments 3
jeffrey — January 21, 2009
I like word clouds; they are a great shorthand at times. However, they also have the power to obscure messages and overall meaning, as well as tone and context, especially when used for an inaugural speech, where tone and context are just as crucial as the words themselves.
Amtseinführung Obamas (außerdem: wie Magda den Feueralarm auslöste) « MagdaRocksPortland — January 21, 2009
[...] Sociological Images, meiner neuen Lieblingsseite, habe ich folgende Graphik gefunden, die nach Häufigkeit sortiert die [...]
Sabriel — January 21, 2009
Nobody used the word "women" until Woodrow Wilson did, in 1913.