WHAT IS NGRAM?
Google Ngram Viewer is a tool that give up users to search for a word or set phrase in Google ’s immense collection of digitized books and chart the results .
This graphical record shows the use of Holy Writ for various technologies over time . Telegraphhad its mild moment in the early twentieth century . Telephonestarted its rise in good order after it had its first major public demonstration in 1876.Televisionhad a steep increase mid - century , but was quite outdone by the sharp leaping taken bycomputerin the 2nd half of the one C .
A lot of what you find out exploring Ngram is reasonably obvious . Here , a search on the wordwarshows major meridian in its usage during both world war .
But you may also reveal approach pattern that are n’t so obvious . Milk River , wampum , meat , butter , flour , andcigarettesalso had peak during the world war . In retrospect , this might seem obvious — it probably has to do with the rationing and shortages associate with wartime — but interesting to see it so clearly outlined on the base of word use alone .
It ’s important to be aware of scale when compare word on Ngram . The y - axis shows percentages over all the Bible in the Google Books corpus . Sexwent from .004 percent of Book in 1960 to .007 percentage in the year 2000 . Its cost increase is collimate over the same period with that fordrugs . But it appears there is n’t much to say aboutrock and curl .
Not so!Rock and rollhad its own meteorologic rise , just on a much smaller plate , percentage - smart . By 2000 , it had gone from 0 to .00008 percentage of all three - word chunks . ( The “ n ” in “ Ngram ” refers to the identification number of sequential unit study as a chunk . Single tidings are 1 - Hans C. J. Gram , two word phrases are 2 - grams , three Holy Scripture phrases are 3 - grams … ) . It ’s hard to see that when it has to share the stage with relative behemoth likesexanddrugs .
WHAT IS NGRAM ART?
Ngram prowess is something I get a line through hours of play with Ngram . I apply Ngram frequently to answer doubtfulness or gratify my oddity about linguistic change . Sometimes I get sucked into a zone where I ’m just make random words and phrase at it to see what happens . One late night , I notice that in the graph forhighandlow , the paradigm matched the meaning of the words . On the graphical record , highwas high andlowwas downcast .
Soon I was chasing those moment of serendipity down , trying to choose the ripe Word to make line prototype that would link back their meanings . It was n’t as easy as it looks . Words are strange creatures that do not needs carry as you would ask when graphed over time . Still , I strike it was possible , in a crude agency , to pull out with information . Here is the result small gallery of Ngram graphics .
If you ’d like to try your hand at Ngram artistic creation sojourn theNgram Viewer . If you ’d wish to love more about how Ngram works and what its issue mean see thisTED talkby the creators Jean - Baptiste Michel and Erez Lieberman Aiden . For information on some of the more complex searches you could do , see thisAtlantic articleby Ben Zimmer .
