Anyone know of research into long-term cyclic language usage patterns? Like swings between intellectual and affective language, clarity and obfuscation, plainspeak and pc, snark and smarm, etc?
Feels like these should exist… cycles lasting decades and detectable over a century.
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Spitballing some "rhetoric words" in Google ngrams, seems like peaks or trend inflections correspond to major wars or economic shifts.
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a. At first glance Mark Twain era writing is miles apart from Douglas Adams era, though both are satirists.
b. Is there research to support specific swings like you describe? General swings in tone are widely discussed as part of the history of the novel.





