Quantitative analysis of culture using millions of digitized books

We constructed a corpus of digitized texts containing about 4% of all books ever printed. Analysis of this corpus enables us to investigate cultural trends quantitatively. We survey the vast terrain of 'culturomics,' focusing on linguistic and cultural phenomena that were reflected in the...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 331; no. 6014; p. 176
Main Authors: Michel, Jean-Baptiste, Shen, Yuan Kui, Aiden, Aviva Presser, Veres, Adrian, Gray, Matthew K, Pickett, Joseph P, Hoiberg, Dale, Clancy, Dan, Norvig, Peter, Orwant, Jon, Pinker, Steven, Nowak, Martin A, Aiden, Erez Lieberman
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: United States 14.01.2011
Subjects:
Algorithms
Cultural Evolution
Culture
Data Collection
Dictionaries as Topic
Encyclopedias as Topic
Famous Persons
Humanities
Linguistics
Literature
Social Sciences
Technology
Vocabulary
ISSN:1095-9203, 1095-9203
Online Access:Get more information
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:We constructed a corpus of digitized texts containing about 4% of all books ever printed. Analysis of this corpus enables us to investigate cultural trends quantitatively. We survey the vast terrain of 'culturomics,' focusing on linguistic and cultural phenomena that were reflected in the English language between 1800 and 2000. We show how this approach can provide insights about fields as diverse as lexicography, the evolution of grammar, collective memory, the adoption of technology, the pursuit of fame, censorship, and historical epidemiology. Culturomics extends the boundaries of rigorous quantitative inquiry to a wide array of new phenomena spanning the social sciences and the humanities.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
ISSN:1095-9203
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.1199644