ATLAS OF LANGUAGE

Contextual explanation · NAV-G03-001

Frequency

This explanation addresses the term in its originating context. It is not an additional canonical Atlas profile.

Explanation

Frequency answers a clear question only when the counted unit is specified. In lexical diffusion, the issue may be how often a word occurs. In narrative analysis, the relevant relation concerns occurrences of events and their telling. These senses require separate routes through the Atlas. A frequent word is not a repeatedly occurring action, and an action may be narrated once despite occurring many times. Counting connects the senses without supplying a shared operational definition.

Movement of thought

1. The question determines the counted unit. 2. An observation domain is fixed. 3. Occurrences or event–telling relations are recorded. 4. Different denominators remain separate. 5. Only comparable quantities are compared.

Example

“Every Monday she opened the archive” narrates several openings in one sentence. Counting occurrences of archive in the novel answers another frequency question.

Counter-test

Ten occurrences in a short passage cannot be compared directly with ten in a large corpus without considering corpus size.

Scientific use case

Corpus work reports size and tokenisation; narrative analysis identifies which events a passage summarises.

Effect

Frequency describes repetition in terms of explicit units and reference quantities.

Resonance

What happens often need not be told often. Counting exposes that difference.

Distinction

Distinguish frequency from duration, intensity, probability and perceived salience.

Sources