|
The following is a sample of some words that are at least three
times as frequent (per million words) in the TV Corpus as they are in the
spoken part of the British National Corpus (BNC). As this list indicates, the
TV Corpus has a lot more words dealing with everyday life and
personal relationships (as well as profanity) than the more formal spoken
language in the BNC. |
| Word | TV shows | BNC-Spoken | TV vs BNC-Spoken | |
| ADJECTIVES | ||||
| 1 | sorry | 391446 | 10683 | 11.2 |
| 2 | scared | 30361 | 1072 | 8.7 |
| 3 | ok | 29257 | 1041 | 8.6 |
| 4 | f--king | 38706 | 1591 | 7.5 |
| 5 | amazing | 42419 | 1772 | 7.3 |
| 6 | stupid | 55004 | 3050 | 5.5 |
| 7 | unbelievable | 8517 | 526 | 5.0 |
| 8 | gay | 22095 | 1592 | 4.3 |
| 9 | annoying | 4998 | 374 | 4.1 |
| 10 | nice | 167486 | 12559 | 4.1 |
| 11 | fantastic | 14864 | 1115 | 4.1 |
| 12 | gorgeous | 7675 | 596 | 4.0 |
| 13 | funny | 56709 | 4422 | 3.9 |
| 14 | alive | 50871 | 3999 | 3.9 |
| 15 | dead | 131847 | 10560 | 3.8 |
| 16 | incredible | 14319 | 1174 | 3.7 |
| 17 | drunk | 18602 | 1535 | 3.7 |
| 18 | afraid | 63948 | 5490 | 3.6 |
| 19 | merry | 6141 | 532 | 3.5 |
| 20 | wrong | 142538 | 12994 | 3.4 |
| 21 | mad | 32419 | 2978 | 3.3 |
| 22 | ridiculous | 18691 | 1761 | 3.3 |
| 23 | alone | 48987 | 4627 | 3.2 |
| 24 | disgusting | 7818 | 739 | 3.2 |
| 25 | lucky | 40871 | 3958 | 3.2 |
| 26 | pathetic | 6666 | 646 | 3.2 |
| 27 | missing | 14776 | 1523 | 3.0 |
| 28 | pregnant | 20092 | 2089 | 3.0 |
| 29 | honest | 26478 | 2813 | 2.9 |
| 30 | horrible | 14839 | 1597 | 2.9 |
| NOUNS | ||||
| 31 | f--k | 27755 | 536 | 15.9 |
| 32 | shit | 72392 | 1740 | 12.8 |
| 33 | sweetheart | 17375 | 426 | 12.5 |
| 34 | idiot | 22442 | 754 | 9.1 |
| 35 | liar | 10903 | 455 | 7.4 |
| 36 | killer | 37157 | 1702 | 6.7 |
| 37 | whore | 6696 | 356 | 5.8 |
| 38 | suspect | 18676 | 1170 | 4.9 |
| 39 | luck | 42871 | 2966 | 4.4 |
| 40 | darling | 23892 | 2051 | 3.6 |
| 41 | sir | 209929 | 18025 | 3.6 |
| VERBS | ||||
| 42 | f--k | 43178 | 983 | 13.5 |
| 43 | thank | 346497 | 12567 | 8.5 |
| 44 | piss | 12609 | 522 | 7.4 |
| 45 | kill | 261397 | 14243 | 5.6 |
| 46 | calm | 19215 | 1289 | 4.6 |
| 47 | swear | 30930 | 2138 | 4.4 |
| 48 | shut | 65080 | 4811 | 4.1 |
| 49 | worry | 92710 | 7126 | 4.0 |
| 50 | fool | 10175 | 814 | 3.8 |
| 51 | stink | 5125 | 411 | 3.8 |
| 52 | forgive | 23499 | 1948 | 3.7 |
| 53 | murder | 24699 | 2134 | 3.6 |
| 54 | tell | 807774 | 72499 | 3.4 |
| 55 | spy | 4015 | 368 | 3.3 |
| 56 | poison | 6133 | 567 | 3.3 |
| 57 | cheer | 12370 | 1149 | 3.3 |
| 58 | rip | 11798 | 1111 | 3.3 |
| 59 | happen | 326484 | 30834 | 3.2 |
| 60 | wake | 37228 | 3674 | 3.1 |
| 61 | beg | 17918 | 1777 | 3.1 |
| 62 | sleep | 63704 | 6319 | 3.1 |
| 63 | stop | 237749 | 23812 | 3.1 |
| 64 | torture | 6057 | 607 | 3.1 |
| 65 | promise | 58475 | 5881 | 3.1 |
| 66 | like | 420646 | 42563 | 3.0 |
| 67 | rob | 9554 | 971 | 3.0 |
| 68 | stay | 177047 | 18013 | 3.0 |
| 69 | humiliate | 3173 | 325 | 3.0 |
| 70 | rape | 8296 | 863 | 2.9 |
| 71 | dump | 13730 | 1473 | 2.9 |