Retro_Link Posted June 13, 2009 Posted June 13, 2009 *Excuse the rushed photoshop...* http://news.uk.msn.com/features/article.aspx?cp-documentid=147866718 'Web 2.0' is one millionth English word The buzzword that heralded the new age of social networking on the internet, Web 2.0, has been crowned the one millionth English word by a US-based language monitoring group. The Texas-based Global Language Monitor (GLM) acknowledges new words once they have been used 25,000 times on media and social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. It predicts that a new English-language word is created every 98 minutes. Not that this has impressed experts around the world, with Geoffrey Nunberg, a linguistics professor at the University of California at Berkeley, telling journalists: "I think it's pure fraud ... It's not bad science. It's nonsense." It is unlikely that many of us will ever use all of the million English words at our disposal. Even the most linguistically gifted person is only likely to use 70,000, according to GLM. Some of the words recently added to the English lexicon may be unknown to most of us too - unless you know what 'flash mob', 'a herbert' or 'shoulder-surfing' mean. As my picture implies, Web 2.0... bet good old Suzie is questioning that in dictionary corner! It's getting a bit rediculous now, some of these aren't even words, they're just small phrases or expressions! Gonna have to think of a new word now!
Gizmo Posted June 13, 2009 Posted June 13, 2009 What happened to noob supposedly being the 1 millionth?
Kirkatronics Posted June 13, 2009 Posted June 13, 2009 Web 2.0 isnt a word. Its a word and a number. Its like saying Terminator 2 is a word.
EEVILMURRAY Posted June 13, 2009 Posted June 13, 2009 So either it's in there now. Or Rickroll will be in the dictionary very soon.
Retro_Link Posted June 13, 2009 Author Posted June 13, 2009 ^ yeah exactly, it's stupid! Same with other supposed new words they list... 'flash mob', 'a herbert' or 'shoulder-surfing' 'Flash' and 'mob' are words, so how on earth is 'flash mob' a word?!! It's just a name/term for something!
Rick Dangerous Posted June 13, 2009 Posted June 13, 2009 This is the millionth American English word. Most Americans dont speak English!
Retro_Link Posted June 13, 2009 Author Posted June 13, 2009 Certainly pissed this guy off... Newsnight Video: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/8093233.stm Jeremy Paxman spoke to Professor David Crystal, a leading linguist and Paul J J Payack, President of the Global Language Monitor to debate the the validity of the claim that the millionth word was about to appear. They say there that depending on how you look at the English language it may not be the 1 millionth word... But the fact that it's even being classed as a word in the first place is a joke!
jayseven Posted June 13, 2009 Posted June 13, 2009 Yeah, this is just silly. If you go by their definition of a word, then you're going to have all sorts of nonsense. Liek teh!
Paj! Posted June 13, 2009 Posted June 13, 2009 Words like noob or even lol would be more fitting. Web 2.0 is more of a phrase isolated to internet communities, in my experience.
Tellyn Posted June 13, 2009 Posted June 13, 2009 Words like noob or even lol would be more fitting. Web 2.0 is more of a phrase isolated to internet communities, in my experience. Indeed, it's a phrase/technical terminology, not a word.
Raining_again Posted June 13, 2009 Posted June 13, 2009 I was thinking there, wtf is the English language doing relying on freakin social network sites.. then i read: "The buzzword that heralded the new age of social networking on the internet, Web 2.0, has been crowned the one millionth English word by a US-based language monitoring group" Lol.
Jimbob Posted June 13, 2009 Posted June 13, 2009 All i can say to the 1 millionth word, Web 2.0 is this And how the heck can a word and a number become the millionth word??. I'm off to see if Ten10 will become a word.
Coolness Bears Posted June 13, 2009 Posted June 13, 2009 Bumsnakes needs to be put in the dictionary!
Dannyboy-the-Dane Posted June 13, 2009 Posted June 13, 2009 With the danger of repetition and/or a new potential running gag luring over my head, I will again display my facial expression when reading this:
Retro_Link Posted June 13, 2009 Author Posted June 13, 2009 I hadn't even heard of the phrase.Me neither
Konfucius Posted June 13, 2009 Posted June 13, 2009 acknowledges new words once they have been used 25,000 times on media and social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook So if one would create a group on Facebook or Twitter, consisting of 5000 people and then organise it so that everyone posts the same (newly invented) word on the message board of five of his friends, one could created lots of new words all the time. Awesome :D
Kirkatronics Posted June 13, 2009 Posted June 13, 2009 Web 2.0 is a new stsandard publishers are using now.
Shorty Posted June 13, 2009 Posted June 13, 2009 This is rediculous. The OED consists of words that retain relevancy after hundreds and hundreds of years. But in a dozen years nobody will remember or care what Web 2.0 was. If you need to find out you can use an online encyclopedia, but that kind of thing is not what a dictionary was for. This kind of thing would only happen in a country so young!
Supergrunch Posted June 14, 2009 Posted June 14, 2009 (edited) NO NO NO NO NO NO NO. Paul J. J. Payack is just an snake oil merchant. My first linguistics essay was to explain why his claims are such utter nonsense. He makes me angry. If necessary I will explain in as much detail as you require why this is all so absurd, but I should probably wait until I'm more sober. Edited June 14, 2009 by Supergrunch
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