One happy language!

[Jonathan Lighter]

>Overall, the researchers found that positive words outnumbered negative
ones, suggesting a positivity bias in the language, the authors wrote.

It doesn't occur to these fools that their sources may have a stylistic bias
toward happy talk? What if they'd added a few Victorian pop songs like "The
Vacant Chair" and "Who Will Care for Mother Now?"

"More than 10,000 words."  Wow!  That's even more than in a term paper. I am
soooo impressed!


JL

On Wed, Aug 31, 2011 at 3:32 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      One happy language!
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> FWIW: http://arxiv.org/abs/1108.5192.  Support for the Pollyanna =
> Hypothesis, if you're willing to buy it.  (Wonder if the U. of Vermont =
> responses would have been different post-Irene=85)
>
> A summary on The Scientist:
> http://the-scientist.com/2011/08/31/the-happiness-of-english/
>
> The Happiness of English
> There are more positive words than negative ones in the written English =
> language.
>
> By Jef Akst | August 31, 2011
>
> Across books, songs, even news publications and social media sites, =
> positive words are used more commonly than negative ones, according to a =
> new study published Monday (August 29) on arXiv, an online =
> prepublication site widely used in the physical sciences.
>
> Hypotheses regarding the reasons language evolved as it did are varied, =
> including purely practical explanations such as coordinating social =
> behaviors, like hunting, and more cultural explanations, like the =
> support of altruism and cooperation. The answer, some anthropologists =
> believe, may be found in the language itself.
>
> In one of the most comprehensive analyses of the English language to =
> date, mathematicians from Cornell University and the University of =
> Vermont collated more than 10,000 words from four sources of text=97Google=
>  Books, Twitter, The New York Times, and song lyrics. The words were =
> scored on a scale of 1 to 9, with 1 being the most negative and 9 being =
> the most positive. (The highest score was awarded to =93laughter,=94 =
> which received an 8.5, while =93terrorist=94 received the lowest, coming =
> it  at 1.3, according to Wired Science.)
>
> Overall, the researchers found that positive words outnumbered negative =
> ones, suggesting =93a positivity bias=94 in the language, the authors =
> wrote. =93In our stories and writings we tend toward pro-social =
> communication.=94 They added that future work is needed to determine the =
> =93positivity=94 of other languages and dialects, as well as the trends =
> towards other emotions. Comparing the results could reveal interesting =
> correlations between language characteristics and aspects of societal =
> organization in different cultures around the world.
>
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>



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