Course:COGS200/2017W1/NGramAssignment/Group37
Compare words
a.
b. "terrorist,extremist" c. The frequency of the use of the words “terrorist” and “extremist” in literature analyzed by Google. While both "terrorist" and "extremist" where used around the same amount for many years, there was a sudden change post 1970. With the word "terrorist" increasing drastically, while "extremist" remained relatively constant throughout the years. d. The change is probably due to historical events such as 9/11 and other terrorist acts occurring more frequently in more recent years, in combination with an increase in globalization through the internet and social media.
Wildcard Search
Code: "I go to *" Between: 1800 and 2000 from the corpus English with smoothing of 3
Overall we can see that the most commonly used phrase is “I go to the” which is used significantly more than all of the other inflectional phrases. This phrase generally increases with a few decreases along the way, and constant fluctuation. The other phrases are all used around the same frequency, and all display the same general trends of fluctuation (increasing, then decreasing, repeatedly) but overall, most phrases seem to be increasing in usage from the mid-late 1900’s.
In the English language, the most common result is "I go to the..." where the [the] is a determiner, which connects the phrase to a singular or plural noun. This has phrase has been used significantly more than the rest of the phrases, and has been the highest used phrase since the 1800's. This makes sense grammatically, since (most of the time) if you are not using a proper noun (specific name of a place, person, or thing) then the determiner "the" would be used prior to the noun. For example, we would write "I go to the city" whereas if we inserted a proper noun, we would write "I go to Vancouver" without the determiner. Since most people don't specifically mention the exact name of a place they are going to in casual conversation, it makes sense that this phrase is used most frequently. Following this, the next commonly used phrases are "I go to bed" "I go to a..." "I go to my..." "I go to sleep" "I go to church" "I go to prepare" "I go to see" "I go to town" and "I go to him" respectively. These phrases all have relatively similar frequency throughout the years, with two noticeable differences being the decline of the use of "I go to prepare" over years, and the gradual increase (and then decrease) of "I go to bed." The phrase "I go to bed" although somewhat fluctuating over the years but generally increasing and then decreasing, has relatively remained around the same level of use. This could be because logically, everyone is assumed to go to bed. So in novels written in first person, or autobiographies that cover a person's life, they would include going to bed; a phenomena that hasn't changed over the years. "I go to prepare" has decreased significantly frequency since 1800's, undergoing a steady decrease from 1880's onwards. This could be due to language changes, where most people now say "I prepare" instead of "I [go to] prepare." As English modernizes, a common consequence is the shortening of phrases when certain elements are deemed unnecessary.
Inflection search
a.
b. "look_INF for job" c. The different inflections of look in "look for job" used in the literature analysed by Google. d. The change is probably due to historical events (job crisis) in combination with the fact that nobody looks for "looked for job" once they've found a job.
e.
f. "look for job_INF" g. The different inflections of "look for job(s)" used in the literature analysed by Google. h. The probability of finding a job is probably larger when searching for jobs instead of job due to the way searches work.
Part-Of-Speech Tags
Code: cook_VERB, cook_NOUN Between: 1800 and 2000 from the corpus English with smoothing of 3
From a simple viewing of the graph, we can see that the term “cook” as both a verb and noun had been increasing in use between 1800-1900, and then started to gradually decline. However, between the mid 1900’s to 2000, the verb significantly increased in use whereas the noun significantly decreased in use. Prior to this abrupt increase and decrease, cook as a noun in general was used considerably more (on average, around 30-40% more use).
When the words are double clicked, there is nothing unexpected driving the effect of these changes.
In the 1800’s and early to mid 1900’s, it was very common for people to have designated cooks. Specifically, wealthier families had maids who sometimes were the cooks of the household as well. In Asian households especially, even middle-income families often have a designated “cook.” From the mid 1900’s to modern day, this phenomena has significantly decreased in popularity. In early 1900’s, most women in families traditionally became “stay at home” mothers, who did the cooking themselves and in modern day, women and men regardless of if they are working mothers or stay-at-home parents often do the cooking as having a designated “cook” is usually for the wealthier-class families. In North America and Europe, this is especially unpopular to have a “cook” for a regular middle class family or lower, even though in Asia this still exists. I believe the change in society led to the decrease in use of the term “cook.” Since the cooks of the household present day are predominantly household/family members, they are no longer referred to as “the cook” but by their familial relationship. For example, if the father cooked a meal, the child say “My father made a great dinner!” referring to the cook directly as their father, rather than “the cook made a great dinner!” Outside of the household, instead of “cook” the synonym “chef” is also used considerably more, which could result in a decrease of the word cook, as a result of the increase of the word chef.
Search for Parts of Speech
a.
b. "*_NOUN,*_VERB" c. The frequency of the most-used nouns or verbs analysed by Google. The verb "is" is the most frequently used, whereas the noun "men" is the least frequently used. The ruse of each noun and verb over the years has remained relatively constant throughout the years, with minor fluctuation. d. Nouns are more regularly used than verbs in sentences and therefore also in literature.