Wednesday 3 June 2009

A use of articles

Is it more probable that we say a noun of a noun or the noun of a noun?

This pair of queries answers the probability question quite dramatically.

[word = "the"][tag = "N.."][word = "of"][word = "a"] 50,100 hits in the BNC
[word = "a"][tag = "N.."][word = "of"][word = "a"] 6,653 hits in the BN

An examination of the situations in which the a N of a N is used is an important step, since 6,653 is not a number of hits that can be dismissed in the same way we dismiss the 22 hits for seperate as opposed to 11,868 for separate.




These are rather bland queries, not permitting any other elements in the noun clauses.

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