words

Scientists like to use big words. They (we) think they sound smarter if their (our) sentences are peppered with numerous 4+ syllable words, usually adjectives they (we) just invented to more accurately modify their field's jargon. For fun, I looked up some stats on the average number of syllables per word in a randomly selected journal article, a leading newspaper, and a random website (not this one, but another blog).

journal article: 1.82
newspaper: 1.75
website: 1.36

Ok, how about percentage of words containing 4+ syllables:

journal article: 12.35%
newspaper: 9.15%
website: 1.6%

I think my point is clear.

(As an aside, the journal article contains 8.62 words per sentence, compared to 3.67 words per sentence in a newspaper. The random website averaged out at 8.2 words per sentence, which I found interesting - though after a moment's thought not too surprising. A newspaper strives to convey the most information in the briefest format possible - just look at the headlines, which tend to the ridiculous because of the need to conserve precious space on the printed page. Blogs are essentially unconcerned with length - or efficient transfer of information - and rarely show signs of editing out verbosity. Curiously, however, journal articles, which should feel similar pressures as newspapers, fail to succumb to the need for brevity, unfortunately.)

We mock Bush and media pundits for using words with extra syllables thrown on at the end, without acknowledging that we do it too.

Take for instance the word dynamical (the use of which brought about my need to rant this morning). When did it become normal to throw this word around instead of the more elegant dynamic? Is 4 syllables better than 3?

Wikipedia states, "The dynamical system concept is a mathematical formalization for any fixed "rule" which describes the time dependence of a point's position in its ambient space."

Who is going to learn what "dynamical systems" are by reading this sentence? No one. It is only for the already initiated.

I also hate when people start sentences with furthermore when further does just fine.