Congressional discourse drops to16-year-old level

[Ben Zimmer]

On Wed, May 23, 2012 at 7:51 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>
> Obvious of course, but now it's been quantified:
>
> http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/upshot/congress-getting-dumber-184032926.html

Debunkage on Language Log:

http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=3970

citing:
http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2012/05/22/congress_talks_like_10th_graders_no_the_flesch_kincaid_test_doesn_t_really_tell_us_that_.html
http://linguisticanthropology.org/blog/2012/05/21/sophmoric-application-of-readability-tests/

--bgz

--
Ben Zimmer
http://benzimmer.com/

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