title: Working words: real-life lexicon of North American workers.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study describes a new computer methodology for analyzing workers' free text work descriptions.
  
  
  METHODS
  Computerized lexical analysis was applied to work descriptions of participants in the Lung Health Study, a smoking-cessation study in persons with early chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Text was parsed and analyzed as single term roots and pairs of roots commonly occurring together.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The frequencies of terms reflect the work of a population; our subjects' most frequently used terms included "sale, office, service, business, engine[er], secretary, construct, driv[e], comput[e], teach, truck." Standard classification schemes (NAICS and SOC) and textbooks use terms inconsistent with those of actual workers. Many common empirical terms imply both industry and job information content, although traditional coding schemes separate industry and job title.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Formal analyses of language may facilitate communication, identify translation priorities, and allow automated work coding.
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine, Occupational-Environmental Medicine Division, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90024, USA.
authors.forename: Philip
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Harber
authors.forename: Lori
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Crawford
authors.forename: Katie
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Levanto
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Schachter
authors.forename: Levanto
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Schacter
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D007587:Job Description; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D009323:Natural Language Processing; D009656:North America; D009787:Occupational Medicine / Q000145:classification; D029424:Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive / Q000517:prevention & control; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D016540:Smoking Cessation; D013782:Textbooks as Topic; D014584:User-Computer Interface; D014825:Vocabulary; D014937:Work / Q000145:classification*