The English language consists of
many words that express the same or similar meanings, and they’re used in many
interchangeable forms. This then leads to an interesting question- why some
words are used in certain environments more frequently than others even though
they mean the same thing. Because of the materials that we have been studying
in 76-451 (Patterns of English Usage), it has become my interest to investigate
the word usages of some words to which we rarely pay close attention due to our
familiarity with them. More specifically, my objective is to explore the usages
of "everyone," and "everybody.” These two words are very
familiar to us and are likely used by us for countless times every single day.
They are similar in their meanings and are usually interchangeable, yet the
question remains whether their usages are always the same. This paper will
explore these words and their usages by using the corpora.
I started investigating by using
the corpora and obtained information regarding the total number of occurrences
as well as average number per million words for both everyone and everybody.
Sunnow
has the highest total number of occurrences and average number per million
words in the case of everyone:
Total
Number of Occurrence- 1545
Average
Number per Million Words- 265.3
However,
Ukspok has the highest total number of occurrences and average number per
million words in the case of everybody:
Total
Number of Occurrence- 2719
Average
Number per Million Words- 293.2
|
Corpus(1) |
Total Number of Occurrences(1) |
Average Number per Million Words(1) |
Corpus(2) |
Total Number of Occurrences(2) |
Average Number per Million Words(2) |
|
oznews |
704 |
131.9 |
oznews |
174 |
32.9 |
|
ukephem |
507 |
162.3 |
ukephem |
87 |
27.8 |
|
ukmags |
876 |
178.7 |
ukmags |
279 |
56.9 |
|
ukspok |
910 |
98.1 |
ukspok |
2719 |
293.2 |
|
usephem |
175 |
142.9 |
usephem |
17 |
13.9 |
|
bbc |
129 |
49.4 |
bbc |
90 |
34.5 |
|
npr |
440 |
140.6 |
npr |
541 |
172.9 |
|
ukbooks |
911 |
170.1 |
ukbooks |
359 |
67 |
|
usbooks |
798 |
141.8 |
usbooks |
353 |
62.7 |
|
times |
801 |
139 |
times |
249 |
43.2 |
|
today |
1045 |
199.1 |
today |
222 |
42.3 |
|
suunow |
1545 |
265.3 |
suunow |
304 |
52.2 |
|
Sum |
8841 |
|
|
5394 |
|
|
Median |
799.5 |
|
|
264 |
|
|
Average |
736.75 |
|
|
449.5 |
|
|
*(1)=Everyone (2)=Everybody |
|
|
|
|
|
Apparently, it seems correct to make the claim that the environment that
everyone appears most frequently is different from the environment that
everybody appears most frequently. In order to know if this difference is
really significant, I performed the T-test and obtained t-Sat of 1.204673353,
which means that the difference is quite significant.
|
t-Test: Two-Sample Assuming Equal
Variances |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Variable 1 |
Variable 2 |
|
Mean |
736.75 |
449.5 |
|
Variance |
151161.4773 |
531118.6364 |
|
Observations |
12 |
12 |
|
Pooled Variance |
341140.0568 |
|
|
Hypothesized Mean Difference |
0 |
|
|
df |
22 |
|
|
t Stat |
1.204673353 |
|
|
P(T<=t) one-tail |
0.12056474 |
|
|
t Critical one-tail |
1.717144187 |
|
|
P(T<=t) two-tail |
0.24112948 |
|
|
t Critical two-tail |
2.073875294 |
|
In order to confirm that not
only the difference is significant but also there is a positive correlation
between the total number of occurrences and average number per million words, I
graphed total number of occurrences vs. average number per million words. As
both graphs show that the trend is positive and thus means there’s a positive
correlation.
As the corpus states, Sunnow is
the UK Sun newspaper while Ukspok is the UK transcribed informal speech. A
tentative conclusion can be drawn on the basis that everyone appears most
frequently in formal writing while everybody appears most frequently in
informal speech.
I also calculated the sum,
median and average of everyone as well as the sum, median and average of
everybody. Everyone has higher sum, median and average than everybody.
Therefore, in general everyone is used more frequently than everybody; however,
it could also be that the corpus is composed of more formal speech based
writings than informal speech based writings since we have already established
that everyone appears more frequently than everybody in formal writing.
In order to gain comprehensive
understanding of everyone and everybody, I also looked up the words that are
adjacent to them:
|
Corpus(1) |
Highest Occurrence (1) |
2ed Highest Occurrence (1) |
Corpus(2) |
Highest Occurrence (2) |
2ed Highest Occurrence (2) |
|
oznews |
to |
for |
oznews |
s |
is |
|
ukephem |
to |
for |
ukephem |
for |
is |
|
ukmags |
to |
s |
ukmags |
to |
s |
|
ukspok |
to |
s |
ukspok |
and |
to |
|
usephem |
to |
in |
usephem |
to |
s |
|
bbc |
the |
of |
bbc |
the |
of |
|
npr |
to |
and |
npr |
to |
and |
|
ukbooks |
to |
in |
ukbooks |
to |
and |
|
usbooks |
and |
to |
usbooks |
the |
of |
|
times |
to |
in |
times |
the |
of |
|
today |
to |
and |
today |
the |
to |
|
suunow |
to |
and |
suunow |
the |
to |
Apparently, the words that are adjacent to everyone are different from
the words that are adjacent to everybody with the exceptions of ukmags, bbc,
and npr.
We are
aware that ukmags is the UK magazines, bbc is the BBC World Service radio
broadcasts, and npr is the US National Public Radio broadcasts. This seems to
be evidence enough to draw the conclusion that everyone and everybody may be
used in an interchangeable sense more frequently when in context of informal
writing or spoken language. This is based on the fact that the words adjacent
to both everyone and everybody are the same in less formal writing- ukmags and
spoken language- bbc and npr.
After
looking through all the data that I have collected, a few key points regarding
everyone and everybody can be established:
1. Though
their meanings are the same, there is definitely a difference (at least a
subtle one) between everyone and everybody.
2. In
different environments everyone and everybody are used. Ex, as mentioned,
everyone often appears more frequently in formal writing while everybody
appears more frequently in informal writing.
3. In
spoken language or informal writing everyone and everybody are more frequently
used in an interchangeable sense.
Lastly,
though words such as everyone and everybody are extremely common and tend to be
easily ignored by people, there’s still so much to be said about their usages.
In the English language there are many instances similar to the case of
everyone and everybody. Needless to say, they’re definitely worth investigating
and being further explored.