“Hello, how are you?” has been repeated plenty. But after that things start to vary.
In the sequence of numbers 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9… Most numbers only appear once even though most numbers are a repeat.
There are 9 possible numbers and most (88%) of them are not repeats
“1” accounts for most (60%) of the entries in the sequence.
If we assume “hi, how are you?” is “1” and most sentences are another number, we can see how even with common phrases being repeated frequently, most sentences may tend to be original.
(I’ve not done the math and I’ve definitely not studied language enough to say how dubious or accurate the claim is, you just piqued my interest and I started trying to rationalize it all)
Obviously some template phrases are repeated a lot, but those are not the majority of sentences. Consider talking to someone on the phone for 20 minutes. You have the customary greetings that take maybe 30 seconds along with your farewell in the last 30 seconds, then you have the next 19 minutes of actual conversation where you exchange information. The conversation would not need to last for 20 minutes if you were just repeating the same phrases over and over again.
“Hello, how are you?” has been repeated plenty. But after that things start to vary.
In the sequence of numbers 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9… Most numbers only appear once even though most numbers are a repeat.
If we assume “hi, how are you?” is “1” and most sentences are another number, we can see how even with common phrases being repeated frequently, most sentences may tend to be original.
(I’ve not done the math and I’ve definitely not studied language enough to say how dubious or accurate the claim is, you just piqued my interest and I started trying to rationalize it all)
Obviously some template phrases are repeated a lot, but those are not the majority of sentences. Consider talking to someone on the phone for 20 minutes. You have the customary greetings that take maybe 30 seconds along with your farewell in the last 30 seconds, then you have the next 19 minutes of actual conversation where you exchange information. The conversation would not need to last for 20 minutes if you were just repeating the same phrases over and over again.