

In the 20th century, the frequency of the definite article “the” decreased - benbreen
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=16938

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x1798DE
"The average frequency of the in the most recent 10 SOTU addresses (2004-2013)
was 47,458 per million words; in the first 10 addresses (1790-1799, all
delivered as speeches to Congress) it was 93,201 per million words, almost
double the frequency. And the decline during the 20th-century era of oral
addresses seems to have been a gradual one."

I'm a bit disturbed by number of significant figures reported there, since the
total number of words of all state of the union addresses to date is only 1.8
million, and he seems to be giving 1 word per million accuracy for 9 or 10
speeches.

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phkahler
because internet.

