Using The Web For Linguistic Research

prostoalex writes "The Economist says linguists are gradually adopting the World Wide Web as a useful corpus for linguistic research. Google is used, among other resources, to research how the written language evolves and how some non-standard examples of usage become more or less acceptable (The Economist quotes the phrase 'He far from succeeded,' where 'far from' is used as an adverb). LanguageLog is a resource linked in the article, where linguists discuss current peculiarities of the English language."

They should probably avoid Slashdot

[Peter Cooper]

It's probably a good thing that they steer away from Slashdot as a corpus of English usage. Or, should I say, in SOVIET RUSSIA it's best Slashdot stays away from THEM! Or is it that only old people use the Internet as a corpus of the English language while pouring hot grits down a naked and petrified Natalie Portman's pants?

Indeed

[Pan T. Hose]

Indeed what their sayin is true. U can learn English very well, especially grammer readin /. frist psots. Teh intarweb seems to certainly kick arse for that sorta research. Very 1337 articel. Thx d00dz.

I rue the day...

[sandstorming]

When we might actually say words like 'lol' out aloud. Imagine a deal going down between two mining companies and the CEO of one company with a straight face, and deadly serious demeanour saying to the cameras: "Despite many thinking we pwned them in the deal, we believe it came out leet for every1"

Epiphany

[phaln]

It came to me that the English language was in deep trouble when people started saying "rotfl" and "lol" in person. There seems to be kind of a backlash brewing though, with improved email composition styles dictated by employers, and such.

*BSD be dyin'

[Anonymous Coward]

It be now official. Netcraft gots confirmed, dig dis: *BSD be dyin'

One mo'e cripplin' bombshell hit da damn already beleaguered *BSD community when IDC confirmed dat *BSD market share gots dropped yet again, now waaay down t'less dan some fracshun uh 1 puh'cent uh all servers. Comin' on de heels uh a recent Netcraft survey which plainly states dat *BSD gots lost mo'e market share, dis news serves t'reinfo'ce whut we've knode all along. What it is, Mama! *BSD is collapsin' in complete disarray, as fittin'ly 'esemplified by failin' wasted last [samag.com] in de recent Sys Admin comprehensive netwo'kin' test. Man!

You's duzn't need t'be de Amazing Kreskin [amazingkreskin.com] t'predict *BSD's future. De hand writin' be on de wall, dig dis: *BSD faces a bleak future. In fact dere won't be any future at all fo' *BSD a'cuz *BSD be dyin'. Doodads is lookin' real baaaad fo' *BSD. As many of us is already aware, *BSD continues t'lose market share. Red ink flows likes some riva' of blood.

FreeBSD be de most endangered uh dem all, havin' lost 93% uh its co'e developuh's. De sudden and unpleasant departures uh long time FreeBSD developuh's Jo'dan Hubbard and Mike Smid only serve t'undersco'e da damn point mo'e clearly. Slap mah fro! Dere kin no longa' be any doubt, dig dis: FreeBSD be dyin'.

Let's keep t'de facts and look at da damn numbers.

OpenBSD leada' Deo states dat dere are 7000 users uh OpenBSD. How many users uh NetBSD is dere? Let's see. De numba' of OpenBSD versus NetBSD posts on Usenet be roughly in ratio uh 5 to 1. Derefo'e dere is about 7000/5 = 1400 NetBSD users. BSD/OS posts on Usenet is about half uh de volume uh NetBSD posts. Derefo'e dere are about 700 users uh BSD/OS. A recent article put FreeBSD at about 80 puh'cent uh de *BSD market. Man! Derefo'e dere is (7000+1400+700)*4 = 36400 FreeBSD users. Dis be consistent wid de numba' of FreeBSD Usenet posts.

Due t'de troubles uh Walnut Creek, abysmal sales and so's on, FreeBSD went out uh business and wuz snatchn upside by BSDI who sell anoda' troubled OS. Now BSDI be also wasted, its co'pse turned ova' to yet anoda' charnel crib.

All majo' surveys show dat *BSD gots steadily declined in market share. *BSD be very sick and its long term survival prospects is very dim. WORD! If *BSD be to survive at all it gots'ta be among OS dilettante dabblers. *BSD continues t'decay. Slap mah fro! Nodin' sho't uh a miracle could save it at dis point in time. Fo' all practical purposes, *BSD be wasted.

Fact, dig dis: *BSD be dyin'

print "$badgram{vocab}"

[pinball667]

Without RTFA my fist instint is to say why post anything related to natural language on slashdot? But the truth is, as a sysadming/webmaster/anything that plugs into an outlet for a small credit union I am appalled at the way people want to write on the web. It's hard to describe, but see (for the moment) this [usalliancecu.org] for a crippled example (yeah, a work site published externally, FSCK'ing horrible - more where that came from). Anyhow, it seems the second people publish shit one the web they give up on grammer/puncuation etc - in the included link originally draft had every link capitolized. No bold, color or anything - fuck it, aparently it's OK to throw proper grammer to the wind if it's on the web, even if the purpose is to manage peoples retirement. ARGH.

side note - my bad grammer/spelling is OK only because I'm a FUCKING CODER. I don't want to hear from the grammer/spelling Nazis on the text of this post.

anyhow - slight possibility of feedback on a complelty offsubject page I'm working on, here [usalliancecu.org]. Break it, fuck with it whatever. Jon.

Re:Be carefull thought...

[Anonymous Coward]

Ahhh run for the hills the French are coming!!!

Re:Be carefull thought...

[Anonymous Coward]

Nobody runs away from the French. Not even the Eyeties.

Re:Be carefull thought...

[rob_squared]

Don't worry, according to the French we're doing far greater damage to their language and culture.