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Why are a few words so common and most so rare?

A few words turn up constantly, while many appear only occasionally. Rank the words in a collection by frequency and an approximate pattern called Zipf’s law often emerges. The pattern is a description to investigate, not a guarantee that each rank has an exact fraction of the previous count or an explanation of why language works that way.

3–7 min

Questions you could explore

  • Would treating “run,” “runs,” and “running” as one word change the graph?
  • Where does the chosen collection depart from the fitted pattern?

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Why are a few words so common and most so rare? | Speech Topic | speaking.app