Cracking resources
Sir: I have read Nigel Burke's article about crack (The Crack Crackdown', 2 Septem- ber), in which he invites anyone with an electronic database of news articles (we have access to several) to discover how often the word 'crack' occurs within ten words of the world 'resources'.
I have performed the experiment, using articles covering all of 1989, and eliminat- ing irrelevant phrases such as `to crack the resources problem'. In the UK (eight national dailies and Sunday surveyed), the answer ia three; in the USA (114 newspap- ers), it is 19.
I am not sure what this proves, or was intended to. Perhaps is shows that America either is or is not different. On the other hand, it may suggest that if you want to draw conclusions about the real world by analysing the language of newspapers, you have to ask rather more subtle questions.
Justin Arundale, Chief Librarian, The Independent,
40 City Road, London Ed.
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