WordCount and QueryCount

Interesting artistic (Flash Shockwave) applications to study the use of language.

WordCount is the most interesting … or is it. More on that later.

WordCount is an artistic representation of the words we use. The most frequently used words first and so on… If anything, it strikes me with how important the seemingly unimportant words are in order to construct a sentence. See About WordCount.

The lesson/moral? Every word is important. Choose each wisely and with forethought.

For instance, words 1 through 10 are: the, and, of, to, a, in, that, it, is, was.

“I” is the eleventh most often used word.

Then, words 200 through 210 are: given, group, second, quite, until, five, party, point, every, company, women.

In case you’re wondering, “men” is number 217. “man” is 142. “woman” is 393. Hmm? Why the flipflop and why the wider separation? I wonder. Are fewer men using the database and looking for “women”, whereas women are just looking for a “man”? Think about it. I had to. I’m sorry. That’s like one of those painful SAT/GRE questions. Finally, why is “man” more important, or more often used, than “women”?

QueryCount is the artistic/graphical representation of how people use the ‘search’ function to find words in the WordCount database. You’ll have to go there yourself to see what words are most popular. I’ll just inform you that the results are saddening. It speaks volumes about what people think would be interesting or cute to find in a search. See About QueryCount.

Some examples from QueryCount searches? “god” is the sixth most often searched for word in the database. “god” ranks 376th in the WordCount database. Jesus ranks 1,845 in the database. It is right inbetween ‘bright’ (1844) and ‘room’ (1846), interestingly enough. Jesus is, however, the 14th most frequently searched for term.

Of all the things about these two sites, what is most important? Well, they make you think. Thinking is good. I like it. I don’t always comprehend or learn from it, but it is a good practice.

Now, did you know that several words died recently? How tragic. See how blogs work in the classroom.