“The United States of America” has become entrenched as one of the most frequently printed phrases in the modern era of written English, a study of 500 years of language evolution has shown. Among the top dozen phrases most-printed in books every year, this one stands out from the other most popular five-word sentence components like “at the end of the,” “as a result of the” or “on the part of the.”
“‘The United States of America’ tops the charts quite remarkably if one ignores the more common and by themselves inherently meaningless phrases,” said Slovenian physicist Matjaz Perc, who conducted the research.
Perc had made a digital analysis of about 5.2 million books dating from 1520 to 2008, and showed the language going through an erratic period heavily influenced by religion in the 16th and 17th centuries — a time when William Shakespeare is also claimed to have coined many words and phrases.
The printing press was invented in about 1440, spreading rapidly throughout Europe and then beyond.
“During the 16th and 17th centuries, the popularity [of words] was very fleeting,” Perc said.
His study was published yesterday in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface.
“Top words in the year 1600, for example, are no longer top words in the year 1610,” he said.
From the 18th and 19th centuries, word rankings became increasingly stable.
“The words that are most common during the year 1950, for example, are also the most common even today,” said Perc, who claimed his computer analysis covered about 4 percent of all books published up to 2008.
Driven by curiosity about a phenomenon known as “preferential attachment,” the physicist’s analysis led him to compile extensive tables of English words and phrases.
They show the word “the” right at the top of the list throughout the centuries, followed by others like “and,” “of,” “to,” “in” and “a” at varying rankings near the top.
However, in the 1500s and 1600s, “baptized,” “hymns,” “God,” “Christ” and “pope” also featured prominently among the most-used words, as well as phrases like “baptized in the name of,” or “God forbid it should be.”
Oddly out of place in the No. 1 spot in 1586: the phrase “A fine old English gentleman.”
Phrases like “House of Commons” and words like “Queen” and “Duke” started climbing the list by the middle to late 17th century.
Top phrases in the 1700s included “the Church of England,” “the Law of Nature” and “the Orb of the Sun.”
By the 1800s, the pattern started looking more as it does today, with formulaic phrases like “at the same time” or “in the midst of” featuring most prominently.
In 1919, the year after World War I ended, the ninth most-published five-word phrase was “for extraordinary heroism in action.”
Since 1968, Perc’s tables show “the United States of America” consistently among the top 15 most-published phrases, up from the top 20-odd phrases in the 1940s and 1950s.
“It seems that the words and phrases we use for writing books have matured, which in turn invites the conclusion that the English language itself is matured over the years,” Perc said.
NO EXCUSES: Marcos said his administration was acting on voters’ demands, but an academic said the move was emotionally motivated after a poor midterm showing Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday sought the resignation of all his Cabinet secretaries, in a move seen as an attempt to reset the political agenda and assert his authority over the second half of his single six-year term. The order came after the president’s allies failed to win a majority of Senate seats contested in the 12 polls on Monday last week, leaving Marcos facing a divided political and legislative landscape that could thwart his attempts to have an ally succeed him in 2028. “He’s talking to the people, trying to salvage whatever political capital he has left. I think it’s
Polish presidential candidates offered different visions of Poland and its relations with Ukraine in a televised debate ahead of next week’s run-off, which remains on a knife-edge. During a head-to-head debate lasting two hours, centrist Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, from Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s governing pro-European coalition, faced the Eurosceptic historian Karol Nawrocki, backed by the right-wing populist Law and Justice party (PiS). The two candidates, who qualified for the second round after coming in the top two places in the first vote on Sunday last week, clashed over Poland’s relations with Ukraine, EU policy and the track records of their
UNSCHEDULED VISIT: ‘It’s a very bulky new neighbor, but it will soon go away,’ said Johan Helberg of the 135m container ship that run aground near his house A man in Norway awoke early on Thursday to discover a huge container ship had run aground a stone’s throw from his fjord-side house — and he had slept through the commotion. For an as-yet unknown reason, the 135m NCL Salten sailed up onto shore just meters from Johan Helberg’s house in a fjord near Trondheim in central Norway. Helberg only discovered the unexpected visitor when a panicked neighbor who had rung his doorbell repeatedly to no avail gave up and called him on the phone. “The doorbell rang at a time of day when I don’t like to open,” Helberg told television
A team of doctors and vets in Pakistan has developed a novel treatment for a pair of elephants with tuberculosis (TB) that involves feeding them at least 400 pills a day. The jumbo effort at the Karachi Safari Park involves administering the tablets — the same as those used to treat TB in humans — hidden inside food ranging from apples and bananas, to Pakistani sweets. The amount of medication is adjusted to account for the weight of the 4,000kg elephants. However, it has taken Madhubala and Malika several weeks to settle into the treatment after spitting out the first few doses they
RSS