{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.031767955801104975, 'fraction_numerical': 0.001841620626151013, 'mean_word_length': 4.673629242819843, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
“A holistic approach to words like holistic”

In the inaugural edition of Focus (Winter 2006), a Newsletter issued by the investment company F&C Management Ltd., a subheading reads: ‘‘Equity ISAs need an holistic approach.’’ The text advises: ‘‘When considering an equity based ISA it is essential to take a holistic view in assessing tax advantages.’’ The proximity of the two forms of the indefinite article before the same word neatly illustrates a long-running conundrum. Just what are the usage rules or conventions for indefinite article use before h-words such as holistic? In itself this is not perhaps the most pressing question in linguistics. Indeed some will dismiss it as just one of those tiresome disputes that appeal to language bores. There is certainly no lack of opinion out there, much of it showing keen awareness of the social dimension. On typing ‘‘a or an historical’’ into Google’s search box, for example, one finds a lively debate in which some participants condemn using an before h-words as mere British snobbery, while others defend it as ‘‘sounding more fluid’’. Such views have a very long history, and scarcely count as linguistic analysis, but it is slightly surprising to discover that even respectable descriptive linguists have been rather uninformative about this topic. Part of my purpose, therefore, is to be more comprehensive than anyone else on the matter of a or an before h-words. A further aim is to exploit the techniques of corpus linguistics to address an issue which has been seen primarily in phonological terms. We are familiar with corpusbased lexical and grammatical work, but corpus-based phonology is harder; data collection, transcription and analysis are all far more time-consuming and more subject to error. Because of the precise and limited choice involved in this question, i.e. either a or an before h-word, it is possible to use ordinary corpora, which are mainly written. In doing so, I assume that the written and spoken modes are similar when it comes to this particular choice, i.e. that people are no more or less likely to say an holistic than they are to write it. This assumption might be wrong, but