Euphemism Coding

Euphemism Definition:

As defined by Wikipedia, a euphemism is a substitution of an agreeable or less offensive expression in place of one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant to the receiver, or to make it less troublesome for the speaker, as in the case of doublespeak. Typically, these are made of words or expressions that are taboo in normal social settings.

Coding Instructions:

1. Disregard salutation.

2. Unitize emails into separate ideas: Each sentence is a separate idea. Commas separate ideas when they separate independent clauses. Parentheses are also a separate idea when they contain an independent clause.

3. Disregard closings that are not indepedent clauses (i.e. “regards”, “best,” etc.)

4. Code each unit for euphemisms (1 = contains at least one euphemism, 0 = no euphemism)

Reliability:

The results were 99.5% reliable.

Euphemism Examples:

1. I don't think we'll have to worry about it being too spring break-like.

2. KD is not covering dinner.

Confusion Matrix:

	No Euphemism(0)	Euphemism(1)
No Euphmism(0)	212	0
Euphemism(1)	1	3