Concordance
DevonThink Pro has a concordance function that counts all the words in my research database, currently containing a little more than one thousand documents. This might seem like a trivial function, but it really is an interesting read. First there is a bunch of standard words:
Frequency Word
--- ---
243220 the
111156 and
41456 for
38622 that
34588 The
25630 with
25591 are
18692 this
17210 from
15045 can
...
Interestingly enough, the first “useful” word that turns up is sound followed by music and time:
11490 sound
9839 music
9595 time
9179 musical
Then there are some system oriented words:
6276 data
6010 model
5649 system
A number of other relevant words follow, evenly spread between music, technology and gestures (which fits well with my research):
4951 Music
4909 performance
4509 control
4370 sounds
4358 analysis
4126 audio
4088 movement
4003 gestures
3944 video
3890 instrument
3787 motion
3546 object
3468 pitch
3336 gesture
3314 frequency
3157 human
3144 instruments
3140 body
3053 research
2966 structure
2908 hand
2806 process
2796 design
2793 visual
2782 physical
2695 computer
2666 signal
2607 Computer
2599 synthesis
2597 systems
2557 perception
2523 models
2500 features
2493 function
2433 interaction
2362 position
2324 movements
2193 University
2130 interface
2067 MPEG
2046 sequence
2042 expressive
1946 representation
1902 Musical
1888 speech
1887 method
1842 timbre
1811 mapping
1803 subjects
1786 performer
1749 auditory
1739 play
1712 algorithm
1702 environment
1693 development
1679 Sound
1627 temporal
1624 perceptual
1611 spectral
1576 processing
1552 acoustic
1498 action
1490 recognition
Postscript: You can tell when a PhD student is desperate trying to find all sorts of things to do other than writing that dissertation…