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The study, from academics at Cardiff University, Loughborough University and the University of Oxford, used computer software to analyse the range of nouns and adjectives used in 33 of his best-selling Discworld novels.
The results show a significant decrease in the diversity of nouns and adjectives in his later works. This shift was particularly marked in the diversity of adjectives, which decreased below a defined threshold approximately ten years before Pratchett's formal diagnosis.
Sir Terry Pratchett died in 2015 at the age of 66. He had posterior cortical atrophy, a rare form of early-onset Alzheimer's disease that primarily affects visual processing.
Study co-author Dr Melody Pattison, based at Cardiff University's School of English, Communication and Philosophy, said: "Our analysis of Sir Terry Pratchett's novels suggests that subtle changes in linguistic patterns, such as decreased lexical diversity, may precede clinical diagnosis of dementia by a considerable margin. In particular we found the richness of descriptive language in his books gradually narrowed."
We would normally expect less lexical diversity as texts get longer, but even after controlling for text length our findings were still significant. This was not something a reader would necessarily notice, but rather a subtle, progressive change. --Dr Melody Pattison
[...] "Research indicates that memory problems may not be the first symptom of dementia. We wanted to explore whether language could be an early warning sign, and to do this, we used Sir Terry Pratchett's books, who himself suffered dementia.
"Our analysis found that Sir Terry's use of language did indeed change during his career. These results suggest that language may be one of the first signs of dementia, and Sir Terry's books reveal a potential new approach for early diagnosis."
Journal Reference: Brain Sci. 2026, 16(1), 94; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci16010094
(Score: 3, Interesting) by looorg on Thursday February 12, @05:24PM (1 child)
Certainly so. Having typed for a living as a researcher for over a decade I do have a certain text mass available. There is a difference between something I typed in the early 2000 vs 2010 vs 2020 vs today. Just from a sort of natural, or unnatural as academic writing is far from normal, progression or development. Words and sentences, or structure, change or become more or less common.
Also as noted tools change. If you write a lot you tend to get some better word processors then microsoft word that as noted count words and frequency, either on single words or sentences, and they suggest replacements so as to not repeat the same words and sentences over and over again.
Then there is that other aspect of collaborative professional writing where you have various guides usually suggesting words and phrases that you should use and when they should be used and such. Once again interrupting your natural flow or structure.
All these things might change the natural flow or evolution of how you write.
Personally I also find myself the older I get the more I look for the little line under the word to see if I misspelled it or not, problem is when you have two words that might only be a letter apart and then the brain just doesn't notice it at a glance. You might catch if when you read or re-read it at a later time. This is the worst. Little errors that creep in to the text that go unnoticed. That is until things are printed or released. Then you notice it, but can't do anything about it. Then it's all you see when you read that text. It's taunting you by it's very existence.
So while an interesting diagnostic technique. I have doubts on its viability for most people. Even in that regard people that write a lot. As the words might not be natural or their own. If you add in some AI writing "help" then it could be even less useful. They have already noticed that how certain words keep becoming more and more popular, that previously was not very common nor popular. But the AI likes then so eventually the typing peons adapt them to.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday February 12, @06:26PM
> the older I get the more I look for the little line under the word to see if I misspelled it or not
Spellcheck has been around for 25ish years... My boss 22-ish years ago still misspelled several words in every e-mail and even formal documents he wrote. I think he did it on purpose to avoid looking too smart to his bosses. Yes, it was that kind of place: score too high on an IQ test, never get promoted into management.
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