Thursday, August 20, 2009

Language Watch: Is Gibbs Striking the Wrong "Denote"? - Political Punch

Corpus Linguistics and Politics:
Language Watch: Is Gibbs Striking the Wrong "Denote"? - Political Punch: "But is this a word favored in Washington, DC, by officials?
Apparently not.
Using the website CapitolWords, Jeff Connor-Linton, an associate professor of Linguistics at Georgetown, plugged in the relative frequency of use of the words “denote,” “note,” “say,” and “indicate” in the Congressional Record since 2002.
“Note” has been used 436 times, “say” 2,850 times, “indicate” 88 times.
“Denote” has been used zero times.
Connor-Linton calls the absence of the use of the word “striking.”"