English Letter Frequencies and Their Applications: Part I

2003 ◽  
Vol 96 (2) ◽  
pp. 545-548 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis R. Ridley ◽  
B. Malcolm Lively
Keyword(s):  
Word Length ◽  
Letter Position ◽  
English Word ◽  
Reading Research ◽  
Research And Practice ◽  
Word Use ◽  
Use Patterns

This article presents data regarding the relative frequencies of single letters in English, organized by word length and letter position. Derived from a parsimonious sample of English word use patterns presented by Whissell in 1998, the data accurately represent letter frequencies found in modern English. These data provide a resource for various applications, including reading research and practice.

English Letter Frequencies and Their Applications: Part II—Digraph Frequencies

2004 ◽  
Vol 95 (3) ◽  
pp. 787-794 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis R. Ridley ◽  
B. Malcolm Lively
Keyword(s):  
Word Length ◽  
Letter Position ◽  
English Word ◽  
Reading Research ◽  
Research And Practice ◽  
Word Usage

This article continues the presentation of new data regarding the frequencies of English letters organized by word length and letter position. Digraphs (defined here as all two-letter combinations) were the objects of study. The frequencies of digraphs were derived from a sample of 320,780 English words (including 6505 different words), which were credibly demonstrated by Whissell to be a parsimonious representation of modern English word usage. A total of 997,380 digraphs were counted and sorted by locations according to word length and digraph positions within words. As assessed by the Whissell source, the data about digraphs presented accurately represent the frequencies with which digraphs occur in modern English. How these data can provide a resource for reading research and practice is explored.

A Parsimonious Technique for the Analysis of Word-Use Patterns in English Texts and Transcripts

1998 ◽  
Vol 86 (2) ◽  
pp. 595-613E ◽  
Author(s):  
Cynthia Whissell
Keyword(s):  
Computer Program ◽  
Middle English ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Reliability And Validity ◽  
English Word ◽  
Word Usage ◽  
Word Use ◽  
Use Patterns ◽  
Usage Patterns ◽  
Small Set

This article describes a new data base for English word-usage patterns. It improves on older efforts by including television and personal commentaries as sources for the main corpus studied. More than a third of a million words were sampled from media and nonmedia sources and analyzed to produce a parsimonious listing of 6505 words (types) and their frequencies. The reliability and validity of this list were established in a variety of ways, and a computer program based on the list was used to analyze two different sets of data (an exploratory set and one representing an a priori hypothesis about word usage). A mere 206 different words were seen to account for 57% of all the words in the corpus, and 95% of this small set had its roots in Middle English or some older form of English.

scholarly journals EXPRESS: Improving reading rate prediction with word length information: Evidence from Dutch

2021 ◽  
pp. 174702182110171
Author(s):  
Marc Brysbaert ◽  
Longjiao Sui ◽  
Wouter Duyck ◽  
Nicolas Dirix
Keyword(s):  
Word Length ◽  
Word Processing ◽  
Reading Rate ◽  
English Word ◽  
Length Effect ◽  
Non Fiction ◽  
Word Length Effect ◽  
Best Fitting ◽  
Dutch Language ◽  
Processing Effort

Previous research in English has suggested that reading rate predictions can be improved considerably by taking average word length into account. In the present study, we investigated whether the same regularity holds for Dutch. The Dutch language is very similar to English, but words are on average half a letter longer: 5.1 letters per word (in non-fiction) instead of 4.6. We collected reading rates of 62 participants reading 12 texts with varying word lengths, and examined which change in the English equation accounts for the Dutch findings. We observed that predictions were close to the best fitting curve as soon as the average English word length was replaced by the average Dutch word length. The equation predicts that Dutch texts with an average word length of 5.1 letters will be read at a rate of 238 word per minute (wpm). Texts with an average word length of 4.5 letter will be read at 270 wpm, and texts with an average word length of 6.0 letters will be read at a rate of 202 wpm. The findings are in line with the assumption that the longer words in Dutch do not slow down silent reading relative to English and that the word length effect observed in each language is due to word processing effort and not to low-level, visual factors.

Representation and Process in Bilingual Lexical Interaction

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 867-885 ◽  
Author(s):  
BARBARA C. MALT ◽  
AMY L. LEBKUECHER
Keyword(s):  
Word Choice ◽  
Word Meanings ◽  
Language Differences ◽  
Word Use ◽  
Use Patterns ◽  
On Line ◽  
High Level ◽  
Cross Language ◽  
L1 And L2 ◽  
Language Influence

Bilinguals show word use patterns in each of their languages that differ from those of monolinguals. One interpretation is that, for bilinguals, the word meanings of one language are influenced by those of the other. Another is that the cross-language influence lies in on-line processes – word retrieval probabilities or word form activation levels. To discriminate between interpretations, we asked Mandarin–English bilinguals to name household objects in their L1 and L2 via forced choice instead of free production. The options given were the monolingual-preferred choices, eliminating memory retrieval demands and keeping those words at a high level of activation. For comparison, monolinguals of each language performed the same task in their native language. Differences from monolinguals in word choice were substantially reduced, especially in L1, but bilingual patterns still showed some cross-language influence in both L1 and L2. This outcome implicates cross-language influences on both bilingual processing and meaning representations.

Emotion and Style in an English Translation of the Quran

2004 ◽  
Vol 94 (2) ◽  
pp. 523-544 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cynthia Whissell
Keyword(s):  
English Translation ◽  
Inflection Point ◽  
Computer Programs ◽  
Time Line ◽  
High Frequencies ◽  
Emotional Tone ◽  
Word Use ◽  
Use Patterns

An English translation of the Quran was studied in terms of word use patterns, emotionality of words, and style. Variables were assessed with the help of computer programs and the Dictionary of Affect in Language. On the basis of words used at unusually high frequencies, the translation of the Quran was seen to be emphatically about Allah, his Prophets and Message, and believers. The translation of the Quran was slightly less Pleasant and Active in emotional tone than everyday English and also less concrete. It contained an unusual number of negatives and was repetitive but did not contain many rare or long words. Significant differences were noted between chronologically Early and Late suras (chapters) in terms of emotion, style, and word use. An inflection point was identified in the time-line partway through the Meccan suras of the Quran.

Graded Effects of Number of Inserted Letters in Superset Priming

2008 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marijke Welvaert ◽  
Fernand Farioli ◽  
Jonathan Grainger
Keyword(s):  
Target Word ◽  
Word Length ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Letter Position ◽  
Masked Priming ◽  
Processing Cost ◽  
Letter Position Coding ◽  
Position Coding ◽  
Prime Condition

Abstract. Three masked priming experiments investigated the effects of target word length and number of inserted letters on superset priming, where irrelevant letters are added to targets to form prime stimuli (e.g., tanble-table). Effects of one, two, three, and four-letter insertions were measured relative to an unrelated prime condition, the identity prime condition, and a condition where the order of letters of the superset primes was reversed. Superset primes facilitated performance compared with unrelated primes and reversed primes, and the overall pattern showed a small cost of letter insertion that was independent of target word length and that increased linearly as a function of the number of inserted letters. A meta-analysis incorporating data from the present study and two other studies investigating superset priming, showed an average estimated processing cost of 11 ms per letter insertion. Models of letter position coding are examined in the light of this result.

What citation patterns reveal about reading research and practice in academic libraries

2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 570-593 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keren Dali ◽  
Lindsay McNiff
Keyword(s):  
Academic Libraries ◽  
Interdisciplinary Research ◽  
Academic Librarians ◽  
Professional Activity ◽  
Reading Practices ◽  
Small Community ◽  
Reading Research ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Research And Practice ◽  
Public Librarians

Purpose At the turn of the twenty-first century, academic libraries revived their tradition of working with readers, which resulted in a surge of publications in this area. However, the nature and thematic coverage of these publications has not changed dramatically in the past 18 years, signaling little advancement in the reach and scope of this professional activity. This paper aims to address the following research problem: What do citation patterns reveal about reading research and practice in academic libraries and do they point to interdisciplinary research and the presence of an evidence base or do they carry a mark of an inward disciplinary orientation? Design/methodology/approach This is a qualitative exploratory study, also involving descriptive statistics, that uses bibliographic and citation analysis as a method. Findings The study discovers a disconnect between the diversity of interdisciplinary research cited in the published work on reading in academic libraries and the sameness of respective professional practices; it describes a relatively small community of reading researchers in academic libraries, emerging as leaders who can change the direction and scope of reading practices; and it highlights a preference of academic librarians for relying on interdisciplinary knowledge about reading over building on the readers’ advisory experience of public librarians. Originality/value Translating the incredible wealth of interdisciplinary reading knowledge possessed by academic librarians into practical applications promises to advance and diversify reading practices in academic libraries. One method that could aid in this effort is more intentional learning from the readers’ advisory practices of public librarians.

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