psycholinguistics
type: Ontology
identifier: psycholinguistics
version: 0.2.0
description: Psycholinguistics and computational stylometry ontology — constructs, features, indices, protocols, instruments, frameworks, and references for personality-language mapping, voice elicitation, and authorship research.
has namespace:
  semantic memory: semantic
defines entity type: psycholinguistic-construct
defines entity type: stylometric-feature
defines entity type: psychometric-index
defines entity type: elicitation-protocol
defines entity type: research-instrument
defines entity type: linguistic-framework
defines entity type: existing-framework-reference
defines trait:
  cited: cited
defines relationship:
  measures: measures
  operationalizes: operationalizes
  grounds: grounds
discovery config:
  discovery enabled: true
  confidence threshold: 0.8
  has discovery pattern: https://mif-spec.dev/ns/pattern/0
  has discovery pattern: https://mif-spec.dev/ns/pattern/1
  has discovery pattern: https://mif-spec.dev/ns/pattern/2
  has discovery pattern: https://mif-spec.dev/ns/pattern/3

semantic
type: Namespace
has child namespace:
  constructs: constructs
  features: features
  indices: indices
  instruments: instruments
  frameworks: frameworks
  protocols: protocols

constructs
type: Namespace
description: Psycholinguistic and psychological constructs
type hint: semantic

features
type: Namespace
description: Stylometric and linguistic features extracted from text
type hint: semantic

indices
type: Namespace
description: Psychometric indices and derived scores
type hint: semantic

instruments
type: Namespace
description: Research instruments, tools, and platforms
type hint: semantic

frameworks
type: Namespace
description: Linguistic and psycholinguistic frameworks
type hint: semantic

protocols
type: Namespace
description: Elicitation and interview protocols
type hint: semantic

psycholinguistic-construct
type: EntityType
base type: SemanticMemory
description: An abstract psycholinguistic or psychological construct measurable via language (e.g. Big Five trait, attachment style)
alternative label: psycholinguistic trait
alternative label: personality construct
alternative label: cognitive-linguistic construct
alternative label: psychological writing construct
example: Style features fall on a spectrum from fully self-reportable, like punctuation preferences, to largely unconscious, like sentence complexity
example: A personality trait correlates with pronoun and emotion-word usage frequency across a large body of analyzed text
example: First-person singular pronoun usage is elevated in self-focused, lower-status, or genuinely emotional writing
defines trait: mif:trait/cited
subtype of: concept
schema.org:
  required: name
  required: construct_family
  properties:
    name:
      type: string
      description: Construct name (e.g. Openness to Experience)
    construct family:
      type: string
      description: Parent family (e.g. Big Five, HEXACO, attachment, need-for-cognition)
    measurement instrument:
      type: string
      description: Primary instrument used to measure this construct (e.g. NEO-PI-R, BFI)
    dimension count:
      type: string
      description: Number of facets or sub-dimensions
    corpus application:
      type: string
      description: How this construct is operationalized in a text corpus

stylometric-feature
type: EntityType
base type: SemanticMemory
description: A quantifiable textual feature used in authorship analysis or style profiling (e.g. type-token ratio, function-word frequency)
alternative label: stylometric marker
alternative label: authorship feature
alternative label: writing-style feature
alternative label: style fingerprint
alternative label: linguistic style marker
example: Function word frequency remains a robust, largely unconscious marker of authorship that stays stable across topics
example: The ratio of words used only once in a text indicates a writer's willingness to deploy unique vocabulary
example: Deep-learning models outperform traditional n-gram methods at identifying an author's fingerprint in short text samples
defines trait: mif:trait/cited
subtype of: concept
schema.org:
  required: name
  required: feature_class
  properties:
    name:
      type: string
      description: Feature name (e.g. MATTR, mean sentence length, POS trigram)
    feature class:
      type: string
      description: Class of feature (lexical, syntactic, character, semantic)
    extraction method:
      type: string
      description: How the feature is computed (tool, algorithm, window size)
    discriminating power:
      type: string
      description: Reported effectiveness for authorship discrimination
    prior art:
      type: string
      description: Key studies or tools establishing this feature

psychometric-index
type: EntityType
base type: SemanticMemory
description: A derived psychometric index or score computed over text or survey responses (e.g. Flesch Reading Ease, LIWC Analytic)
alternative label: psychometric measure
alternative label: style metric
alternative label: readability index
alternative label: lexical diversity metric
example: Tree-based models using measurable stylistic features achieve high accuracy distinguishing human from AI-generated text
example: Two lexical-diversity metrics are considered psychometrically superior to a traditional type-token ratio for measuring vocabulary range
example: A set of syntactic-complexity indices measures sentence length, subordination, and coordination across four structural dimensions
defines trait: mif:trait/cited
subtype of: delivery-metric
schema.org:
  required: metric_name
  properties:
    metric name:
      type: string
      description: Index name (e.g. Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level, LIWC Analytic)
    index type:
      type: string
      description: Index category (readability, personality, affect, complexity)
    formula:
      type: string
      description: Computational formula or algorithm
    normative range:
      type: string
      description: Expected range or population norms
    tool:
      type: string
      description: Software or platform that computes this index

elicitation-protocol
type: EntityType
base type: SemanticMemory
description: A structured protocol for eliciting language samples or self-report responses for psycholinguistic analysis
alternative label: interview elicitation protocol
alternative label: survey elicitation method
alternative label: questioning protocol
alternative label: data-elicitation procedure
alternative label: probing protocol
example: An AI-conducted adaptive interview produces response data comparable in quality to a human-led interview, with longer average responses
example: A four-stage cognitive model of comprehension, retrieval, judgment, and response mapping explains how respondents process survey questions
example: Long survey instruments risk significant respondent dropout past a certain length, motivating modular section design and pacing strategies
defines trait: mif:trait/cited
subtype of: design-pattern
schema.org:
  required: pattern_name
  required: context
  required: solution
  properties:
    pattern name:
      type: string
      description: Protocol name (e.g. Cognitive Interview, Think-Aloud, Voice Elicitation)
    context:
      type: string
      description: Research context and target constructs
    solution:
      type: string
      description: How the protocol structures the elicitation
    elicitation type:
      type: string
      description: Modality (written, spoken, structured, semi-structured)
    question sequencing:
      type: string
      description: Order and branching logic of prompts
    respondent burden:
      type: string
      description: Estimated time and cognitive load for respondent
    validity notes:
      type: string
      description: Known validity or reliability constraints

research-instrument
type: EntityType
base type: SemanticMemory
description: A software tool, survey platform, or analysis package used in psycholinguistic research
alternative label: research toolkit
alternative label: analysis instrument
alternative label: measurement tool
alternative label: academic software tool
example: An open-source academic package remains the dominant toolkit for computational stylistic analysis, supporting word and character n-gram extraction
example: A hybrid model combines a psycholinguistic category dictionary with transformer embeddings for interpretable style profiling
example: A latent-space interpolation approach conditions text generation on an arbitrary writing style from only a few samples
defines trait: mif:trait/cited
subtype of: technology
schema.org:
  required: name
  properties:
    name:
      type: string
      description: Instrument name (e.g. LIWC-22, stylo R package, APA PsycINFO)
    instrument type:
      type: string
      description: Type (text-analysis-software, survey-platform, corpus-tool, statistical-package)
    vendor or author:
      type: string
      description: Developer, author, or institution
    version:
      type: string
      description: Version or edition
    primary use:
      type: string
      description: Main analytical use case
    licensing:
      type: string
      description: License or access model (open-source, commercial, academic)

linguistic-framework
type: EntityType
base type: SemanticMemory
description: A theoretical or computational framework grounding psycholinguistic research (e.g. LIWC dictionary, Universal Dependencies)
alternative label: linguistic analysis framework
alternative label: register analysis framework
alternative label: stylistic framework
alternative label: text-analysis framework
example: A multidimensional register-analysis framework identifies functional dimensions of text variation through factor analysis of many linguistic features
example: A literature review of a forensic analysis method identifies persistent unresolved methodological gaps in evidence-strength standards
example: A survey of personality-detection methods finds transformer-based models now dominate over earlier bag-of-words approaches
defines trait: mif:trait/cited
subtype of: concept
schema.org:
  required: name
  properties:
    name:
      type: string
      description: Framework name (e.g. LIWC, Universal Dependencies, Systemic Functional Linguistics)
    framework type:
      type: string
      description: Type (dictionary-based, dependency-grammar, discourse, register)
    primary author:
      type: string
      description: Lead author(s) or originating institution
    publication:
      type: string
      description: Canonical publication or specification
    harness application:
      type: string
      description: How this framework is applied in the research harness

existing-framework-reference
type: EntityType
base type: SemanticMemory
description: A reference to an existing psycholinguistic or stylometric framework for comparative or reuse analysis
alternative label: reference framework
alternative label: prior-art reference
alternative label: existing tool reference
alternative label: comparable-system reference
alternative label: benchmark framework reference
example: A commercial creative-writing tool calibrates its voice model to only a couple of author writing samples
example: An enterprise brand-voice platform enforces granular style-guide rules for a large customer base learning brand voice at scale
example: An AI-text detection tool expanded from binary detection into word- and sentence-level authorship attribution
defines trait: mif:trait/cited
subtype of: concept
schema.org:
  required: name
  properties:
    name:
      type: string
      description: Referenced framework or tool name
    framework origin:
      type: string
      description: Originating research group or project
    capability:
      type: string
      description: What the framework offers
    limitation:
      type: string
      description: Known limitations or scope boundaries
    comparison basis:
      type: string
      description: Basis for comparing with or adopting from this framework

cited
type: Trait
description: Requires citations/sources
requires field: citations

measures
type: Relationship
description: A research instrument measures a psycholinguistic construct, stylometric feature, or psychometric index (RO:0000056 participates-in)
domain: mif:entityType/research-instrument
range: mif:entityType/psycholinguistic-construct
range: mif:entityType/stylometric-feature
range: mif:entityType/psychometric-index
symmetric property: false

operationalizes
type: Relationship
description: An elicitation protocol operationalizes a psycholinguistic construct, making it empirically observable (RO:0002234 has-output)
domain: mif:entityType/elicitation-protocol
range: mif:entityType/psycholinguistic-construct
symmetric property: false

grounds
type: Relationship
description: A linguistic framework grounds a psycholinguistic construct, providing theoretical or categorical basis (IAO:0000136 is-about)
domain: mif:entityType/linguistic-framework
range: mif:entityType/psycholinguistic-construct
symmetric property: false

https://mif-spec.dev/ns/pattern/0
type: DiscoveryPattern
content pattern: \b(Big Five|OCEAN|openness|conscientiousness|extraversion|agreeableness|neuroticism|HEXACO|LIWC)\b
suggests entity type: psycholinguistic-construct
suggests namespace: _semantic/constructs

https://mif-spec.dev/ns/pattern/1
type: DiscoveryPattern
content pattern: \b(TTR|MATTR|MTLD|Flesch|Kincaid|readability|type.token ratio|lexical density)\b
suggests entity type: psychometric-index
suggests namespace: _semantic/indices

https://mif-spec.dev/ns/pattern/2
type: DiscoveryPattern
content pattern: \b(Stylo|Burrows.?s Delta|stylo|Delta method|stylometry|authorship attribution)\b
suggests entity type: research-instrument
suggests namespace: _semantic/instruments

https://mif-spec.dev/ns/pattern/3
type: DiscoveryPattern
content pattern: \b(elicitation|cognitive interview|think.aloud|voice interview|structured elicitation)\b
suggests entity type: elicitation-protocol
suggests namespace: _semantic/protocols