Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Another Load of Corpus Linguistics

I often pass trucks like the one pictured below in my travels to and from northern Michigan (this one happened to be stopped at a gas station where I was filling up which allowed me to snap the picture).


I think it is wonderful that the company assembles 100% of the toys in their product line in the United States and that all of the plastic used in the toys is purchased in the USA (see here). 

Unfortunately, every time I see these trucks I can't help but think "another load of crap."

The results from a Google Ngram Viewer search comparing the use of the phrases "load of crap" and "load of toys" in American English helps to explain why.




Additionally, a Corpus of Contemporary American English search for "load of [n]" lists the top five nouns following "load of" as follows.

1.   LOAD OF LAUNDRY
2.   LOAD OF CRAP
3.   LOAD OF WOOD
4.   LOAD OF FIREWOOD
5.   LOAD OF WASH

Clearly, loads of crap are far more common than loads of toys, at least in American English corpora and the company is an American company.

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Corpus linguistics is the study of language as expressed in samples (corpora) of "real world" text.

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