I think the hypothesis gives little credit for emotion. "Play it again Sam", or, "of all the gin joints in all the world..." is not memorable because it is reusable, or because it's phrased memorably. So too, a line also becomes famous and oft repeated for the character saying it, cue Gabbar Singh. On Apr 8, 2012 12:43 PM, "Thaths" <[email protected]> wrote:
> http://arxiv.org/abs/1203.6360 > > You had me at hello: How phrasing affects memorability > Cristian > Danescu-Niculescu-Mizil<http://arxiv.org/find/cs/1/au:+Danescu_Niculescu_Mizil_C/0/1/0/all/0/1> > , Justin Cheng <http://arxiv.org/find/cs/1/au:+Cheng_J/0/1/0/all/0/1>, Jon > Kleinberg <http://arxiv.org/find/cs/1/au:+Kleinberg_J/0/1/0/all/0/1>, Lillian > Lee <http://arxiv.org/find/cs/1/au:+Lee_L/0/1/0/all/0/1> > (Submitted on 28 Mar 2012) > > Understanding the ways in which information achieves widespread public > awareness is a research question of significant interest. We consider > whether, and how, the way in which the information is phrased --- the > choice of words and sentence structure --- can affect this process. To this > end, we develop an analysis framework and build a corpus of movie quotes, > annotated with memorability information, in which we are able to control > for both the speaker and the setting of the quotes. We find significant > differences between memorable and non-memorable quotes in several key > dimensions. One is lexical distinctiveness: in aggregate, memorable quotes > use less common word choices, but at the same time are built upon a > scaffolding of common syntactic patterns; another is that memorable quotes > tend to be more general in ways that make them easy to apply in new > contexts. We also show how the concept of "memorable language" can be > extended across domains. > > > -- > Homer: Hey, what does this job pay? > Carl: Nuthin'. > Homer: D'oh! > Carl: Unless you're crooked. > Homer: Woo-hoo! > Sudhakar Chandra Slacker Without Borders >
