Dictionary of Hong Kong English, A

A Guide to Frequency

xxiv A Guide to Frequency We decided to give the readers an idea of the frequency of the items listed in HKE usage. Our data is based on brief Google.hk surveys using the Hong Kong region restriction at different times in the year 2010. Admittedly, this specification does not allow for a high degree of accuracy, and there are limits to the reliability of this approach. First, Google.hk may also list sites unrelated to Hong Kong. Second, our analysis only gives a snaphot of frequency of usage at a certain period of time on the internet, which may lead to the overrepresentation of an item because it has a certain salience due to its being a “hot issue” in the media (a case in point is compensated dating). Third, some entries we labeled “archaic” may still be frequently found in written sources with historical reference but hardly in contemporary discourse (e.g., Celestial Empire/Kingdom). Nevertheless, the readers may still find this feature useful to fathom the importance or widespreadedness of the items included in this dictionary. For the different variant forms and senses of an entry, the frequency is combined. The key to the frequency symbols is a follows: : obscure and/or archaic : less than 20 occurrences on Google.hk : from 20 to 150 occurrences on Google.hk xxv : less than 1,000 occurrences on Google.hk : less than 10,000 occurrences on Google.hk : more than 10,000 occurrences on Google.hk : No assessment possible because of competing forms (e.g., names of persons) A Guide to Frequency ...