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|date=2009-01-02
|date=2009-01-02
|accessdate=2009-01-14
|accessdate=2009-01-14
|quote=It's April 29, 2009 – plus or minus a few days. That is when the English language is expected to acquire its millionth word. This prediction comes from Global Language Monitor, an organization in Austin, Texas}}</ref>. However, the basis for the count is generally disputed by lexicographers and linguists such as [[Geoffrey Nunberg]]<ref>[http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyID=5390581 Enumerating English], Geoffrey Nunberg, NPR</ref>, [[Jesse Sheidlower]]<ref>[http://www.slate.com/id/2139611/ Word Count], Jesse Sheidlower, ''Slate'', April 10, 2006</ref> and others <ref name=fightinwords/> on grounds that a count is impossible due to there being no clear-cut criteria for inclusion/exclusion. The criteria are enumerated on the Global Language Monitor site <ref>[http://www.languagemonitor.com/number-of-words-in-english/ GLM Criteria]</ref>.
|quote=It's April 29, 2009 – plus or minus a few days. That is when the English language is expected to acquire its millionth word. This prediction comes from Global Language Monitor, an organization in Austin, Texas}}</ref>. However, the basis for the count is generally disputed by lexicographers and linguists such as [[Geoffrey Nunberg]]<ref>[http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyID=5390581 Enumerating English], Geoffrey Nunberg, NPR</ref>, [[Jesse Sheidlower]]<ref>[http://www.slate.com/id/2139611/ Word Count], Jesse Sheidlower, ''Slate'', April 10, 2006</ref> and others <ref name=fightinwords/> on grounds that a count is impossible due to there being no clear-cut criteria for inclusion/exclusion nor any way of mechanically implementing such criteria, that there exists no way to delineate "the language" or determine its relation to the corpus of online material, that there is no way to mechanically distinguish "new words" from existing words not previously encountered in a corpus or typographical errors. Global Language Monitor claims to give critera for inclusion on its site <ref>[http://www.languagemonitor.com/number-of-words-in-english/ GLM Criteria]</ref> but does not indicate how filtering is or could be implemented.


== Obama an English language word==
== Obama an English language word==

Revision as of 20:38, 24 January 2009

The Global Language Monitor (GLM) is an Austin, Texas-based company that collectively documents, analyzes and tracks trends in language usage worldwide, with a particular emphasis upon the English language. It is particularly known for its widely reported predictions of English reaching its millionth word.

History

Founded in Silicon Valley in 2003, the GLM's roots date back to Dr. Robert Beard’s Web of Online Dictionaries, Bucknell University, 1994. This was reorganised in 1999 into yourDictionary.com, with Paul JJ Payack as founding president. Payack established GLM in 2003 to continue media analysis functions begun at YDC. The GLM describes its role as "expert analysis on language trends and their subsequent impact on politics, culture and business, including the PQ Index/Indicator, analysis of media coverage of major, worldwide events, the rise of Global English and its march to its 1,000,000th word, the Chinglish Phemomenon, Global yoofSpeak, and many others".[1] In April 2008, GLM moved its headquarters from San Diego to Austin.[2]

Counting English words

GLM attempts to count the number of words in the English Language, and has been widely cited [3] over its prediction of the millionth English word, a theory expounded in Paul Payack's book on the same subject.[4] This event was first predicted for the summer of 2006[5], then late November 2006[6], spring of 2007[7], 2008[8], then approximately 29 April 2009[9]. However, the basis for the count is generally disputed by lexicographers and linguists such as Geoffrey Nunberg[10], Jesse Sheidlower[11] and others [3] on grounds that a count is impossible due to there being no clear-cut criteria for inclusion/exclusion nor any way of mechanically implementing such criteria, that there exists no way to delineate "the language" or determine its relation to the corpus of online material, that there is no way to mechanically distinguish "new words" from existing words not previously encountered in a corpus or typographical errors. Global Language Monitor claims to give critera for inclusion on its site [12] but does not indicate how filtering is or could be implemented.

Obama an English language word

On 20 February 2008 GLM announced that the latest word to enter the English language was obama, derived from Barack Obama, in its many variations. GLM described Obama- as a "root" for words including obamanomics, obamican, obamamentum, obamacize, obamarama, obamaNation, Obamafy, obamamania and obamacam.[13]

High tech terms

On 14 October 2007 GLM released a list of the most confusing high tech terms and buzzwords. The words included: iPOD, flash, cookie, nano and kernel, followed by megahertz, cell (as in cell phone), plasma, de-duplication and Blu-Ray. Other terms being tracked included terabyte, memory, core, and head crash. The most confusing acronym was found to be SOA, for service-oriented architecture, an acronym which IBM published a book about.[14]

The study was released on the 13th anniversary of the cookie, the invention that made the World Wide Web practical for widespread surfing, communication, and e-commerce.[15]

Top word of the year

Top word of 2007

On 13 December 2007 GLM released its annual Word of the Year (WOTY) lists including top phrases and top names.[16] 'Hybrid' was named as the top WOTY,[16][17] 'Climate Change' was named the top phrase, and 'Al Gore' the top name.[16] GLM explained,

The idea of planetary peril and impending climatic doom resonated throughout our linguistic analysis, with the various words and phrases garnering hundreds of millions of citations; in the end this narrowly outdistanced the word 'surge' that also had a disproportionate impact upon 2007's linguistic landscape.[18]

The words were culled from throughout the English-speaking world that GLM says currently numbers some 1.35 billion speakers and includes such diverse cultures as China, the Philippines, and India.[17]

2007 top ten words

The top ten words for 2007 as stated by GLM are:[18]

  1. Hybrid, referring to hybrid electric vehicles (HEV). Chosen "to represent all things green from biodiesel to wearing clothes made of soy, to global warming to living with a zero-carbon footprint."[18]
  2. Surge, referring to political and military strategy of the Bush administration to win the Iraq war.
  3. Bubble, referring to the U.S. housing bubble and related credit crunch.
  4. Smirting, a portmanteau of 'smoking' and 'flirting' often while being banished outside a building for smoking cigarettes.
  5. Pb, referring to the symbol lead, the "culprit in innumerable toy recalls this year".[18]
  6. Ideating, forming and relating ideas.
  7. Ω-3 or omega-3 fatty acids, the "healthy fatty acid.[18]
  8. Cleavage, referring to a woman's breasts, which the GLM states is "a touchy campaign subject" in the US elections.[18]
  9. Amigoization, referring to the "increasing Hispanic influence in California, the Southwest and into the Heartland.[18]
  10. Bluetooth, referring to technology to connect electronic devices by radio waves.

2007 top ten phrases

  1. Climate change -- The warming of the Earth’s atmosphere;
  2. Ho-Ho-Ho -- Santa’s trademark phrase. In Australia officials are suggesting ‘Ha-Ha-Ha’ because the former may scandalize the children;
  3. All-time low -- The phrase apparently grafted next to the president’s name in the media;
  4. Theory of Everything -- Garrett Lisi’s especially simple theory of the Universe that unites all forces and gravity in one elegant structure;
  5. Planetary Peril -- Al Gore’s trademark phrase to describe the Earth’s current condition;
  6. Wristband Wagon -- Wearing your heart on your … wrist. Pink against breast cancer, red against third-world poverty, ‘camouflage’ (or yellow as in yellow ribbon) to support the troops;
  7. No Noising -- Chinese/English hybrid (Chinglish) for ‘quiet please!’;
  8. Fade to black -- From the Soprano’s series finale to the Hollywood writers’ strike;
  9. Fossil Fuels -- The enemy of the Greens: Coal, Oil, and Natural Gas (anything hydrocarbon-based);
  10. Fashion tribe -- Persons who follow a particular fashion with a tribe-like mindset: Examples include EMO, Hip-hop or Goth.

2007 top ten names

  1. Al Gore -- Conveniently, doesn’t need the presidency to top the list;
  2. The Decider -- George W. Bush, still president after all these years;
  3. Bono -- The U2 front man stands out in front on Third World debt relief;
  4. Barack Obama & Hillary Clinton -- Barack Obama’s surname now qualifies as a buzzword; quite unusual, though Hil comes close;
  5. Hugo Chavez -- The Gadfly of Latin America;
  6. Vladimir Putin -- The supreme leader (President, Prime Minister, whatever) of the Russian Federation;
  7. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad -- Iranian President suggests moving Israel to Europe;
  8. Pope Benedict XVI -- continues to engage Muslim leadership in thoughtful discussions;
  9. David Beckham and Posh Spice -- Yet another ‘new’ type of Hollywood power couple;
  10. Fidel Castro -- The head one of the few remaining Communist states lives yet another year.

Top ten words from 2000 to 2008

2008: Top Word: Change; Top Phrase: Financial Tsunami; Top Name: Barack Obama.

2007: Hybrid (representing all things green} No 2. Surge;

2006: Sustainable;

2005: Refugee vs. Evacuee, No 2. Tsunami, No. 3 Katrina;

2004: Top Word: Incivility (for inCivil War); Top Phrase: Red States/Blue States, No. 2: Rush to War; Top Name: Dubya/Rove;

2003: Top Word: Embedded; Top Phrase: Shock and Awe; No. 2: Rush to War; Top Name: Saddam Hussein; No. 2 Dubya.

2002: Misunderestimate; Top Phrase: Threat Fatigue; Top Name: W (Dubya).

2001: Top Word: Ground Zero; Top Phrase: 'Let's Roll'; Top Name: The Heroes.

2000: Top Word: Chad; Top Phrase: Dot.com; Top Name: W (Dubya).

Note: From 2007-2004, Global Language Monitor; from 2003 to 2000, GLM predecessor, yourDictionary.

Other lists

The Global Language Monitor publishes other lists relating to the English language including: rankings of U.S. colleges according to their presence in the media [19]; top fashion cities ranked by media exposure.[20]; and 15 Top All-Time Bushisms.[21]

Predictive Quantities Indicator

GLM uses another tool, its Predictive Quantities Indicator (PQI) to run analytics on global language trends that it catalogs on its site. PQI "tracks momentum, direction, year-over-year changes, as well as several other indicators, and produces a statistically normalized result."[17] This proprietary algorithm tracks the frequency of words and phrases in the global print and electronic media, on the Internet, throughout the blogosphere, as well as accessing proprietary databases (Factiva, Lexis-Nexis, etc.). It claims the PQI to be a weighted index, factoring in long-term trends, short-term changes, momentum, and velocity. As such it can create signals that can be used in a variety of applications.

References

  1. ^ [http://www.languagemonitor.com Global Language Monitor
  2. ^ Austin lands Global Language Monitor: Finally, something good comes from California
  3. ^ a b Fightin' words, Peter Rowe, San Diego Union-Tribune, April 2, 2006
  4. ^ A Million Words and Counting: How the English Language is Rewriting the World (Citadel Press, New York, 2008).
  5. ^ Harlow, John (2006-02-05). "Chinglish – it's a word in a million". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 2009-01-14. According to Payack, the one millionth word is likely to be formed this summer
  6. ^ Macintyre, Ben (2006-08-11). "We're all speaking Geek". The Times. Retrieved 2009-01-14. According to Paul Payack, who runs the Global Language Monitor, there are currently 988,974 words in the English language, with thousands more emerging every month. By his calculation, English will adopt its one millionth word in late November.
  7. ^ "From Babel to Babble . . . Everyone is Speaking English". Kensington books. Retrieved 2009-01-14. in the spring of 2007, the English word count surpassed a million—over ten times the number available in French. At the crest of this linguistic tsunami surfs Paul J.J. Payack, aka the WordMan. As president of the Global Language Monitor
  8. ^ ""A Million Words and Counting" How Global English Is Rewriting the World". Market Wire. 2008. Retrieved 2009-01-14. according to author Paul J.J. Payack, the founding president of the Global Language Monitor ( www.LanguageMonitor.com ), English will adopt its millionth word in 2008 {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  9. ^ Walker, Ruth (2009-01-02). "Save the date: English nears a milestone". The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 2009-01-14. It's April 29, 2009 – plus or minus a few days. That is when the English language is expected to acquire its millionth word. This prediction comes from Global Language Monitor, an organization in Austin, Texas
  10. ^ Enumerating English, Geoffrey Nunberg, NPR
  11. ^ Word Count, Jesse Sheidlower, Slate, April 10, 2006
  12. ^ GLM Criteria
  13. ^ English language is Barack 'Obamafied', Catherine Elsworth, Los Angeles, Telegraph.co.uk, 26 Feb 2008
  14. ^ Hooray! ‘SOA’ voted most ‘confusing acronym of the year’ | Service-Oriented Architecture | ZDNet.com
  15. ^ The Global Language Monitor releases global study of top 10 most confusing yet widely used high tech buzzwords for 2007
  16. ^ a b c "Media Tracking and Analysis: History of Top Words From 2007 - 2000". Global Language Monitor. 13 December 2007. Retrieved 2007-12-26. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  17. ^ a b c Comment by Paul JJ Payack, President, The Global Language Monitor (google news comment) Why A Green Word was chosen as The Global Language Monitor Word of the Year - 13 December, 2007. Retrieved 26 December 2007
  18. ^ a b c d e f g "'Hybrid' bests 'Surge' as Top Word of 2007; 'Climate Change' is Top Phrase; Al Gore' is Top Name; Top Smiley is ?-) for 'pirate' Arrrrgh!: Why a 'Green' Word was Chosen as WOTY". Global Language Monitor. 13 December 2007. Retrieved 2007-12-26. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  19. ^ Harvard tops U.S. colleges in media buzz, UPI, September 16, 2008
  20. ^ Australia more fashionable than NZ, Tracey Bond, Stuff.co.nz, July 17 2008
  21. ^ The Morning File: To find the Word of the Year, follow the money, Gary Rottstein, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, January 12 2009
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