Linguistic Representation of Personality and Mental State in The Big Bang Theory: A LIWC study

Abstract

The relationship between language and mind has long been established and there have been numerous studies on how ideologies can be represented in linguistic choices. Advances in linguistic studies have rendered research in the field more efficient and less time consuming. LIWC-Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count- is a textual analysis software which allows users to delve into the heart of a given text through built-in dictionaries based on years of solid research. The Big Bang Theory is an American TV series of twelve seasons offering a large corpus for linguistic research. As opposed to its classic counterparts in the genre of sitcom, TBBT does not rely solely on daily casual language. It rather blends the former with scientific, academic language which is closer in nature to written texts. This property in turn, makes it an interesting choice for linguistic analyses as we can see how science affects the understandability of daily speech. Moreover, one of the main characters of TBBT, namely Sheldon Cooper has a unique personality hovering between the realms of genius and crazy by others. His behavior is anything but ‘normal’ and his daily speech sounds too formal. In addition, he tends to correct others when they speak and seems to favor prescriptive grammar over the descriptive one. From a psychological/clinical point of view, it can be argued that he shows various traits of multiple mental conditions including Autism Spectrum Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder, and Narcissistic Personality Disorder on different occasions and it would be interesting to see how these manifestations have been realized through linguistic choices of this character. There have been some studies suggesting a meaningful relationship between a person’s linguistic choices and their mental conditions. This research is an attempt to analyze and categorize Sheldon’s speech using LIWC, comparing it with previous literature in the field to verify if there are any discernible patterns linking his choice of words to any of the aforementioned mental conditions. Considering the fact that he is a fictional character rather than an actual patient, results could show how authors have benefitted from linguistic choices in their portrayal of this unique character.