#Ngram viewer archive
#Ngram viewer series

Considering how language plays such an essential role in human existence (i.e. More specifically, it can contextualize when certain words rise and fall in language, thus presenting clues to determine why these changes have happened over time. The Ngram Viewer can be a part of that toolbox, as it provides a thought-provoking representation of the history of language. Maybe the lesson here is that for any writing task, we must draw from a range of tools and synthesize disparate information if we intend to create new knowledge. How does the Ngram Viewer act as a teaching tool? I’m not quite sure it doesn’t exactly have a direct translation to writing your case study or annotated bibliography. Another problem is that the database is made up of overwhelmingly scientific literature, so it doesn’t quite represent the entire written landscape. This means individual writers can dominate the linguistic instances depending on how much they’ve published. One critique is how Ngram functions as a library, so instances are referenced by single books. It’s important to note that this program is not foolproof. However, consider that “bomb” has a 500-year head start, while the rise of “nuclear weapon” in our language is still very much an infant in the grand scheme of things. I concede that the sheer linguistic usage of “nuclear weapon” still pales in comparison to the use of “bomb” in the modern era.

#Ngram viewer series

The language used to understand a very complicated series of events and negotiations became tied up in the phrase “nuclear threat”, and manifested in legitimate, observable action. The rhetoric of the Cold War has actively shaped our experience of the world consider the emergence of the home bomb shelter industry, or the enactment of nuclear attack drills in schools. It appears that the way we speak about warfare (and how we speak generally) has shifted immensely to reflect technological advancement and the overall reconfiguration of geopolitics. To quote that trader in The Big Short: “Whoa, I just got really scared for some reason”. TL:DR? Your life experience is a linguistic construction. By tracking the ebb and flow of specific usage, we can understand how we’ve used language as a conduit between external events and our internalised understanding of the world around us. What’s so cool about this search engine is how it’s a very clear reminder of how language isn’t just a communication tool rather, language itself is the fundamental means by which we constitute our very existence.

Pretty cool eh?īasically, by searching specific terms, it’s possible to identify historical trends. This means you can plug in words (or phrases, using comma-delimited search strings) and chart the popular usage of these words over the course of history.

#Ngram viewer archive

Ngram is a search engine that draws data from Google Books, which contains a digital archive of books that ranges from 1500 to the present. I can only really answer the first two questions (I'm no rocket surgeon). What is it? What does it do? And more importantly, how does Google keep creating these things?

So when one of my colleagues mentioned Google Ngram Viewer (I was shamelessly trolling for blog posts ideas, to be honest), I was intrigued. At the Writing Centre, we’re always looking out for new teaching strategies and tools.