A new tool for semantic network analysis: fan_xplorr

Abstract

Lexical association data is a valuable resource in psycholinguistics, providing researchers with empirical insights into which words are perceived as ‘belonging together’. One of the largest such datasets for English, the University of South Florida Free Association Norms database, is available freely online. The raw data format however requires some technical steps to tap into the potential it offers for network science, which can present a barrier for some researchers. This paper introduces a userfriendly command-line tool, fan_xplorr, that addresses this issue by providing linguists with access to the data. With the proposed tool, researchers can interactively display portions of the semantic network dataset in the form of interactive network graphs. The design of the tool enables linguists to access the dataset without advanced technical skills and promotes exploration within the dataset for psycholinguistic studies.