Language use in pop culture over three decades

Abstract Analyzing variation in language features in literature and telecinematic discourse provides valuable insights into society’s shifting values and perspectives. In this study, we carry out a keyword analysis on the language of three series of Star Trek television dialogues, broadcast in the 1960s, 1980s, and 1990s, from two perspectives: (i) keywords across the three series highlighting words that are unique to one series in contrast to the other two, providing insights about changes of foci across time; (ii) keywords in relation to gender depicting potential differences in gender roles and how these may change through time across the series.