Abstract
The modifier-verb ratio (MVR) is often used as a measure of stylistic features based on the part-of-speech structure. This study empirically investigated whether the MVR or part-of-speech structure can capture descriptions of the state and movement in stories, thus addressing a literature gap. We reanalyzed the survey data of Iseki et al. (2022) by using publicly available linguistic resources. The study mapped imageability ratings of story to the Abstractness of Word Database for Japanese Common Words as well as ratings of the unfolding speed of story to the presence or absence of a state change in the Predicate-Argument Structure Thesaurus. The results showed that these ratings data have certain convergent validity. In addition, they suggested the unfolding speed under a specific structure cannot be explained without both the number of sentences and the part-of-speech composition rate.
https://ror.org/00c2t9540 
