Sentiment sensing: comparative analysis of multilingual sentiment dynamics
Mara Sabina Bernardi, Elisa Di Nuovo, Francesca Torti, Giuseppe Tirone, Nicolas Stefanovitch, Zsuzsanna Pasztor, Charles Macmillan, Domenico Perrotta, Bertrand De Longueville
Abstract
Cross-country sentiment analysis faces three fundamental challenges: language-specific biases distort comparisons, compositional data constraints invalidate standard statistics and temporal dynamics lack rigorous testing frameworks. We introduce sentiment sensing, a framework that addresses these gaps through integrated statistical methods. By combining compositional data analysis, functional data methods, and non-parametric inference, sentiment sensing enables valid multilingual comparisons and statistically defensible detection of sentiment shifts. Our framework has been tested in two case studies, analyzing news articles from the 27 countries of the European Union on the topics of energy and artificial intelligence. Sentiment sensing focuses on multilingual sentiment analysis enabling rigorous comparative science.