Decoding Emotional Dynamics: A Comparative Analysis of Contextual and Non-Contextual Models in Sentiment Analysis of Turkish Couple Dialogues

This paper introduces the “Couple Dialogue” dataset, specifically curated for conversational sentiment analysis in the Turkish language. It comprises 14,294 utterances from 118 dyadic conversations between couples, each annotated to capture sentiment transitions and interpersonal dynamics. Our study contrasts two distinct modeling frameworks—the Non-Contextual Model and the Contextual Model. The Non-Contextual Model analyzes utterances independently, typically overlooking the nuances of conversational dynamics and sentiment evolution. Within this framework, we conducted a detailed morphological analysis due to the agglutinative nature and rich morphological structure of the Turkish language, which included various word forms and negation morphemes crucial for sentiment representation. In contrast, the Contextual Model employs state-of-the-art Large Language Models (LLMs) such as BERT, GPT-3.5 Turbo, Llama 2, and GPT-4, alongside architectures like DialogueRNN. This model processes the sequential and relational aspects of dialogues through three approaches: prompt-based, fine-tuned, and embedding-based methods, particularly enhanced with fine-tuning and advanced embedding techniques (utilizing pre-trained and fine-tuned Turkish BERT). The Contextual Model substantially outperforms the Non-Contextual Model, showing a 9.98% improvement in Weighted F1 scores validated by statistical tests. Our work not only pioneers the use of LLMs in Turkish conversational sentiment analysis but also underscores the critical importance of contextual understanding in capturing complex emotional cues in couple interactions. This study sets a robust benchmark for future explorations into sentiment analysis within linguistically rich contexts.