Evan Kirshenbaum wrote:
>
> Greg Procter
ihug.co.nz> writes:
> >> Hatunen wrote:
>>>
>>> Although we are not on a remote island as you are, we will have a
>>> bit of a problem trying it on a wide enough basis for gathering
>>> significant data. But I will ask of my visiting Pilipino friends in
>>> a few weeks.
>>
>> Hmmm, that's a country that has been a part of the US empire until
>> relatively recent times.
>
> At my office, I have access to educated people born and raised in a
> relatively large number of countries[1]. If I were to present them
> with the following question
>
> If people from the country you grew up in, speaking in English to
> someone not from the United States, wanted to identify someone as
> being from the United States (and had no particular desire to
> disparage the United States), what is the MOST likely term they
> would use?
>
> what fraction of them do you predict would say "Yank" and what
> fraction "American"?
95%% "American"
> Do you think that the numbers would change if
> "Yank" and "American" were presented among listed options, and, if so,
> how?
90%% "American"
> How do you predict the numbers would change if I got somebody
> other than an American to conduct the survey?
By a large percentage.
> How do you predict the
> numbers would change if I got somebody to conduct the survey at our
> research lab in the UK, with a similar mix of people (more heavily
> biased to Europe)?
I think there would be a large difference.
>
> What set of controls do you think would be sufficient to obtain
> results confirming your hypothesis that "Yank" is more widespread than
> "American" as an informal term? And how much would you be willing to
> bet on the outcome given those controls?
>
> [1] Off the top of my head, the US, Mexico, the UK, New Zealand, the
> Netherlands, Iran, India, Pakistan, China, Taiwan, Japan, Turkey,
> France, Germany. Almost certainly others that aren't coming to
> mind.
>
> --
> Evan Kirshenbaum +------------------------------------
> HP Laboratories |Marge: You liked Rashomon.
> 1501 Page Mill Road, 1U, MS 1141 |Homer: That's not how *I* remember
> Palo Alto, CA 94304 | it.
>
> kirshenbaum@
hpl.hp.com
> (650)857-7572
>
>
http://www.kirshenbaum.net/
