Tea, weather and being on time: analysis of 100 million words reveals what Brits talk about most

By Vaclav Brezina, Professor in Corpus Linguistics, Lancaster University

Lovely weather today, isn’t it? Time for a cuppa? The way someone talks, and the words they use, tell us quite a bit about where someone is from, their social background and even their age. Language both reflects and shapes society – as a linguist, it’s my job to find out how.

One way to do this is by analysing large collections of language, which linguists call corpora (or “bodies”). By measuring the frequency of words, we can determine what a particular society or group prioritises and values.

In research…

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