60秒科学:Call Me Melville, Based on New Word Use
Call Me Melville, Based on New Word Use
A study in the New Journal of Physics finds that writers leave a regular, distinct pattern of how frequently they use new words. Cynthia Graber reports
Thieves may leave fingerprints 2 at the scene of a crime. But does an author leave a metaphorical 3 fingerprint 1 on the book? The answer may be yes, according to a study published in the New Journal of Physics.
Swedish physicists 4 investigated how frequently authors use new words in their writing. This, they say, offers clearly identifiable patterns. The research goes against a belief held for more than 75 years that there’s a sort of universality to how frequently authors use new words.
Researchers analyzed 6 books by Thomas Hardy 7, D. H. Lawrence and Herman Melville. They looked at full novels, parts of novels, and a mishmash of an author’s work. In each case, they found a regular, and distinct, pattern of how frequently each writer used new words.
Of course, the frequency of new words used drops off in longer novels, but the patterns of the drop-off differed and were specific to each of the three authors. The researchers call this concept a "meta-book"—a kind of personal code that would fit any book or any work an author ever writes. Seems like to understand writers’ complete works, you have to analyze 5 their complete words.
- The fingerprint expert was asked to testify at the trial.指纹专家应邀出庭作证。
- The court heard evidence from a fingerprint expert.法院听取了指纹专家的证词。
- Everyone's fingerprints are unique. 每个人的指纹都是独一无二的。
- They wore gloves so as not to leave any fingerprints behind (them). 他们戴着手套，以免留下指纹。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- Here, then, we have a metaphorical substitution on a metonymic axis. 这样，我们在换喻（者翻译为转喻，一种以部分代替整体的修辞方法）上就有了一个隐喻的替代。
- So, in a metaphorical sense, entropy is arrow of time. 所以说，我们可以这样作个比喻：熵像是时间之矢。
- For many particle physicists, however, it was a year of frustration. 对于许多粒子物理学家来说，这是受挫折的一年。 来自英汉非文学 - 科技
- Physicists seek rules or patterns to provide a framework. 物理学家寻求用法则或图式来构成一个框架。
- We should analyze the cause and effect of this event.我们应该分析这场事变的因果。
- The teacher tried to analyze the cause of our failure.老师设法分析我们失败的原因。
- The doctors analyzed the blood sample for anemia. 医生们分析了贫血的血样。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- The young man did not analyze the process of his captivation and enrapturement, for love to him was a mystery and could not be analyzed. 这年轻人没有分析自己蛊惑著迷的过程，因为对他来说，爱是个不可分析的迷。 来自《简明英汉词典》