full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Anne Curzan: What makes a word "real"?

Unscramble the Blue Letters

Now here's what I do to fill out the ballot. I listen to what other people are saying and writing. I do not ltsein to my own likes and dislikes about the English language. I will be honest with you: I do not like the word "impactful," but that is neither here nor there in tmers of whether "impactful" is becoming common usage and becoming more acceptable in written prose. So to be rpoesnbsile, what I do is go look at ugase, which often involves going to look at online databases such as Google Books. Well, if you look for "impactful" in Google Books, here is what you find. Well, it sure looks like "impactful" is proving useful for a certain number of wrrites, and has become more and more useful over the last 20 years.

Open Cloze

Now here's what I do to fill out the ballot. I listen to what other people are saying and writing. I do not ______ to my own likes and dislikes about the English language. I will be honest with you: I do not like the word "impactful," but that is neither here nor there in _____ of whether "impactful" is becoming common usage and becoming more acceptable in written prose. So to be ___________, what I do is go look at _____, which often involves going to look at online databases such as Google Books. Well, if you look for "impactful" in Google Books, here is what you find. Well, it sure looks like "impactful" is proving useful for a certain number of _______, and has become more and more useful over the last 20 years.

Solution

  1. responsible
  2. writers
  3. terms
  4. listen
  5. usage

Original Text

Now here's what I do to fill out the ballot. I listen to what other people are saying and writing. I do not listen to my own likes and dislikes about the English language. I will be honest with you: I do not like the word "impactful," but that is neither here nor there in terms of whether "impactful" is becoming common usage and becoming more acceptable in written prose. So to be responsible, what I do is go look at usage, which often involves going to look at online databases such as Google Books. Well, if you look for "impactful" in Google Books, here is what you find. Well, it sure looks like "impactful" is proving useful for a certain number of writers, and has become more and more useful over the last 20 years.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
english language 6
dictionary editors 5
american heritage 3
usage notes 3
lake superior 2
superior state 2
state university 2
language change 2
front matter 2
usage panel 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
lake superior state 2
superior state university 2

ngrams of length 4

collocation frequency
lake superior state university 2

Important Words

  1. acceptable
  2. ballot
  3. books
  4. common
  5. databases
  6. dislikes
  7. english
  8. fill
  9. find
  10. google
  11. honest
  12. involves
  13. language
  14. likes
  15. listen
  16. number
  17. online
  18. people
  19. prose
  20. proving
  21. responsible
  22. terms
  23. usage
  24. word
  25. writers
  26. writing
  27. written
  28. years