Plain Text » Language miscellany http://www.plain-text.co.uk Copywriting that means business Thu, 12 Jan 2012 17:20:22 +0000 en hourly 1 The ‘dark matter’ of new words to be uncovered http://www.plain-text.co.uk/the-dark-matter-of-new-words-to-be-uncovered http://www.plain-text.co.uk/the-dark-matter-of-new-words-to-be-uncovered#comments Tue, 21 Dec 2010 11:32:11 +0000 Paul N http://www.plain-text.co.uk/?p=665 More than a half a million new words coined between 1950 and 2000 that failed to make it into dictionaries are about to be uncovered. A substantial piece of research by Harvard University in conjunction with Google and Encyclopaedia Britannica (remember them?) will use digitized books as a ‘cultural genome’. The researchers report that: “52 per cent of the English lexicon – the majority of words used in English books – consist of lexical ‘dark matter’ undocumented in standard references.” Google will release a new tool that will enable users to discover how the use of words and phrase has changed over time.

It’s all part of a project to create a digital ‘fossil record’ of human culture by tracking the frequency with which words appear in books over time.

And as if to prove they’re no fossils themselves, the researchers have given their new discipline a name of its own – ‘culturomics’.

This word, of course, is not yet in the dictionary. Neither will your spellchecker like it, whatever form of the English language you use.

]]> http://www.plain-text.co.uk/the-dark-matter-of-new-words-to-be-uncovered/feed 0 Succinct summaries http://www.plain-text.co.uk/succinct-summaries http://www.plain-text.co.uk/succinct-summaries#comments Wed, 13 Jan 2010 18:16:02 +0000 Paul N http://www.plain-text.co.uk/wp_cms/?p=328 Newly convicted murderess Jessica Davies, who slit a man’s throat in her Parisian apartment, is starting a 15-year prison sentence. Her mother, Monique, eloquently sums up of the case. “This isn’t like my daughter at all. She is a nice girl,” she explains.

]]> http://www.plain-text.co.uk/succinct-summaries/feed 0 The age of understatement http://www.plain-text.co.uk/the-age-of-understatement http://www.plain-text.co.uk/the-age-of-understatement#comments Wed, 13 Jan 2010 18:14:22 +0000 Paul N http://www.plain-text.co.uk/wp_cms/?p=325 How heart-warming to hear a politician underselling his achievements. Nigerian prime minister Yar’Adua hasn’t been seen since November, but this week recorded a minute-long interview for the BBC. A commentator subsequently announced: “This proves he is well,” followed by a short comedic pause. “Or at least, still alive.” No chance then that his interview over-egged the political pudding.

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