The Language of Romance: An Open Vocabulary Analysis of the Highest Rated Words Used in Romance Novels

Abstract

What are the common linguistic features of top-rated romance novels? The open vocabulary method was performed on 703 romance novels to determine what words were commonly used in the highest rated romance novels. Results revealed that the highest rated novels contained words related to arousal, sexual/primal prowess, and sexual communication. Our research team discusses the ability for words to capture psychological underpinnings related to readers and directions for future research.