Diachronic changes of number use in written American English from 1923 to 2008Diachronic changes of number use in written American English from 1923 to 2008

Abstract: This study examines diachronic changes in number use in written American English from 1923 to 2008 in TIME magazine, analyzing a 170-million-token corpus. We investigate the effects of magnitudes, roundness, and representational formats on number frequency, along with the evolution of culturally salient numbers reflecting societal shifts. Utilizing Bayesian negative binomial regression for in-depth corpus analysis, our findings demonstrate a consistent influence of magnitudes and roundness, with smaller magnitudes and rounder numbers appearing more frequently. We observe a significant standardization in portraying large numbers, marked by a shift from numerical to mixed forms (e.g., “6,000,000,000” to “6 billion”) around 1940s. This reflects changes in both formal writing conventions and editorial practices of numerical representation. Our research further identifies distinct culturally significant numbers for each decade, linked to social, economic, and technological trends, underscoring the role of numerical analysis in media to decode complex cultural and societal patterns. This study contributes significantly to understanding the dynamic interplay between language, culture, and media in the context of numerical representations.

摘要： 本研究基于《时代》（TIME）杂志 1.7 亿词次的语料库，考察 1923 年至 2008 年美国书面英语中数字使用的历时变化。我们探讨了数量级、取整程度和表征形式对数字频率的影响，以及反映社会变迁的文化显著数字的演变。基于贝叶斯负二项回归的语料库分析表明，数量级和取整程度的影响始终稳定：数量级越小、越接近整数的数字出现得越频繁。我们还发现，大数的表示方式出现了明显的标准化，约在 20 世纪 40 年代从纯数字形式转向数字与文字混合的形式（如从“6,000,000,000”变为“6 billion”），这既反映了正式书面规范的变化，也反映了编辑在数字呈现上的做法变化。研究进一步识别出各个年代特有的文化显著数字，它们与当时的社会、经济和技术趋势相关联，凸显了媒体数字分析在解读复杂文化与社会模式方面的作用。本研究有助于理解数字表征中语言、文化与媒体之间的动态互动。