Back to informal language

The following is a sample of some words that are at least threetimes as frequent (per million words) in the spoken part of the BNC (10 million words) as in the soap opera corpus (100 million words). As this list indicates, there is still a lot of fairly formal or technical language in BNC Spoken that is not found in the soap opera corpus, which deals more with informal interaction between people.

Click on any of thesewords to see them in the BNC or the soap opera corpus. If you click on the entry in the frequency listing (the frame above this), you will see theword in context. Just click the BACK button in your browser to come back to this page.
 

 Number of tokensPer million words
  BNC SOAP BNC SOAP
VERBS
differentiate 219 17 22.0 0.2
photocopy 62 6 6.2 0.1
export 72 7 7.2 0.1
abolish 51 8 5.1 0.1
allocate 196 32 19.7 0.3
undertake 178 35 17.9 0.4
underline 75 15 7.5 0.2
range 69 16 6.9 0.2
reply 148 35 14.9 0.4
vary 155 38 15.6 0.4
multiply 296 86 29.7 0.9
tax 98 31 9.8 0.3
estimate 160 52 16.1 0.5
arise 362 120 36.3 1.2
second 375 128 37.7 1.3
overtake 93 33 9.3 0.3
summarize 66 24 6.6 0.2
commence 59 22 5.9 0.2
highlight 168 63 16.9 0.6
govern 50 19 5.0 0.2
sack 128 49 12.9 0.5
phone 1204 487 120.9 4.9
derive 52 22 5.2 0.2
illustrate 95 41 9.5 0.4
class 57 26 5.7 0.3
increase 922 427 92.6 4.3
select 238 119 23.9 1.2
distinguish 69 35 6.9 0.4
produce 1359 723 136.4 7.2
dominate 97 53 9.7 0.5
employ 447 245 44.9 2.5
implement 184 101 18.5 1.0
reduce 749 439 75.2 4.4
outline 109 65 10.9 0.7
emphasize 95 60 9.5 0.6
ADJECTIVES
rural 296 19 29.7 0.2
regional 520 52 52.2 0.5
composite 158 17 15.9 0.2
economic 549 75 55.1 0.8
existing 526 81 52.8 0.8
environmental 503 79 50.5 0.8
increasing 167 28 16.8 0.3
involved 830 142 83.3 1.4
liberal 258 45 25.9 0.5
individual 581 111 58.3 1.1
continuous 170 34 17.1 0.3
voluntary 350 76 35.1 0.8
strategic 340 75 34.1 0.8
elderly 276 62 27.7 0.6
reproductive 150 35 15.1 0.4
residential 188 46 18.9 0.5
payable 65 16 6.5 0.2
industrial 392 97 39.4 1.0
moderate 72 18 7.2 0.2
proposed 244 68 24.5 0.7
adjacent 64 18 6.4 0.2
statutory 186 53 18.7 0.5
widespread 69 20 6.9 0.2
ethnic 55 16 5.5 0.2
disabled 198 60 19.9 0.6
operational 69 21 6.9 0.2
agreed 52 16 5.2 0.2
comprehensive 102 32 10.2 0.3
general 1669 530 167.6 5.3
following 299 95 30.0 1.0
urban 269 92 27.0 0.9
external 114 40 11.4 0.4
managing 77 30 7.7 0.3
structural 104 43 10.4 0.4
handicapped 54 17 5.4 0.2
NOUNS
region 939 104 94.3 1.0
housing 805 97 80.8 1.0
paragraph 653 104 65.6 1.0
provision 663 107 66.6 1.1
wage 740 147 74.3 1.5
committee 1936 429 194.4 4.3
income 883 218 88.7 2.2
structure 919 253 92.3 2.5
government 3220 916 323.3 9.2
policy 2906 878 291.8 8.8
requirement 521 159 52.3 1.6
plaintiff 319 103 32.0 1.0
membership 373 121 37.4 1.2
capital 615 224 61.7 2.2
unemployment 352 130 35.3 1.3
estimate 285 106 28.6 1.1
fraction 275 103 27.6 1.0
consultation 366 142 36.7 1.4
trade 1358 537 136.3 5.4
employment 675 267 67.8 2.7
total 366 149 36.7 1.5
individual 533 221 53.5 2.2
objective 480 200 48.2 2.0
majority 527 224 52.9 2.2
function 725 314 72.8 3.1
average 261 115 26.2 1.2
revenue 274 126 27.5 1.3
growth 375 173 37.7 1.7
management 1048 494 105.2 4.9
section 1094 522 109.8 5.2
development 1600 776 160.6 7.8
area 5153 2672 517.4 26.7
movement 575 312 57.7 3.1
guideline 185 102 18.6 1.0
context 377 208 37.9 2.1
carbon 258 146 25.9 1.5