Emotional Tone in Peter Rabbit before and after Simplification

Abstract

A revised version of The Tale of Peter Rabbit was published in 1987 by Ladybird press with simplified text and alteration of the illustrations of the 1902 original. Revisions of two other of the Beatrix Potter stories were subsequently published. By applying a computer system that detects words with connotative meaning scores and applying mathematical models to the stories it was possible to make an objective comparison of the emotional tone patterns in the original and the revised versions. As would be expected, the initial editions of the three stories were quite different from each other. The emotional tone pattern of Peter Rabbit and one of the other stories was shown to have been altered considerably by the simplification of text, which lends objective support to the outcry in the popular press against these changes.