For those of you who are taking Language Log for credit in the fall semester of 2005 and want to make progress toward your Diploma, you've had your January reading period (we are on the Harvard-style semester system, as you know), and it is now time for your final exam. No cheating; independent work only; essay-style answers. We will be judging you on neatness, originality, coherence, clarity, knowledge of elementary linguistic terminology and conceptual distinctions, and of course creative ranting. Your exam follows below. Submit the answers to your favorite Language Log contributor as usual, enclosing a stamped addressed envelope and a bottle of single malt scotch whisky.
LANGUAGE LOG FINAL EXAM, FALL SEMESTER 2005
Read this piece from The New York Times Real Estate section and answer the questions that follow below.
The yearning for a smooth transition from the surging [real estate] market is seen in the increasingly frequent use in the last six months of the phrase "soft landing."
"Soft landing is everyone's big hope," said Paul JJ Payack, president of the Global Language Monitor (languagemonitor.com), which analyzes language trends and their impact on politics, culture and business.
Mr. Payack, who graduated from Harvard with a bachelor's degree in comparative literature, calculated the popularity of some 36 buzzwords chosen by a reporter. He used his Predictive Quantities Indicator, or P.Q.I., an algorithm that tracks words and phrases in the media and on the Internet in relation to frequency, contextual usage and appearance in global media. It is a weighted index that takes into account year-to-year increases and acceleration in the last several months.
Among the market buzzwords he ranked, "soft landing" and "pause" had the highest P.Q.I.'s. They were ranked first and second respectively, while the more ominous sounding "housing bubble" ranked seventh. " 'Pause' is another one of these hopeful things," Mr. Payack said.
(Mr. Payack can also verify that "O.K." is the most frequently spoken word, that "outside the mainstream" was the top phrase of 2005 and that as of Jan. 26 at 10:59 a.m. Eastern time, the number of words in the English language was 986,120.)