Brief Introduction to Semantic Differential (SD) Analysis

A second investigation in my thesis was measuring the type and level of expressive properties of Standard Malay (SM) and Evolutionized Malay (EM) words by utilizing Semantic Differential (SD) analysis. The expressive properties here are known as connotative meanings which are often perceived as a suggestion, hint or idea to readers. Such connotative meanings are different
than the normal meaning or the literal meaning of a word. Here, I will briefly show what SD analysis is all about.

SD analysis is a well established approach introduced by Osgood (1957) that were designed for measuring word meanings by utilizing bipolar scales with adjectives of opposite meaning anchoring ends of each scale. By presenting several word stimuli to a number of human subjects, all subjects were asked to rate each stimulus on a bipolar adjective scales. In my study, fifteen (15) pairs of adjective words were used. A five (5) steps scale was employed as in Figure 1. A response of 'Most' indicated that the stimulus was very closely related by the adjective anchoring to either one end of the SD scale, while a response of 'Slight' indicated that the stimulus was slightly related to either one side but it is not really neutral. Subjects were instructed to give a response of 'Neutral' if both of the scale equally associated with the word stimuli, or neither of the anchoring adjectives characterized the stimulus.

Most : Slight : Neutral : Slight : Most

Aggressive _____:_______:_______:_________:________ Non Aggresive

Figure 1. Part of the 5-point bipolar adjective scale for one adjective pair.

Figure 1 shows part of the evaluation sheet of the 5-bipolar adjective scale. The Aggressive - Non Aggressive bipolar adjective pair is presented here as an example. The same kind of scale was used for all 15 adjective pairs. As my study was to evaluate the type and level of connotative meanings for Malay words, all words written in the survey instruments were in Malay language.

More about SD analysis can be found here.