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Textbook writers asked me a question. I think it is a question better tailored for linguists than grammarians.
Is there any difference in usage between "all around the world" and "all over the world"? Is one more common? Is one used more often adverbally than adjectivally? I couldn't discern any difference. A colleague thought "all over the world" sounds more mature, and that "all around the world" is more likely used with children.

Some of the contexts/cotexts/environments that each is found in.

First, "all around the world":

1
confidence seemed widespread. There were reports of sterling sales from all around the world and also by major British companies. Government sources yesterday
2
up business selling Cartier objects and jewelry which involved travelling all around the world. He also managed to go on some exciting trips
3
everything. The indigenous people who live in the forests all around the world have been murdered, terrorised and driven from their land
4
programme that will continue to draw from a talent pool all around the world." The following year Universal closed up shop and
5
to tap this source they will still be formidable firms all around the world. But if they succeed, overcoming barriers of language
6
meanwhile making it easier for such principles to apply. All around the world, markets have become less arbitrary, not more so
7
have developed enormously, bettering the lot of corporate treasurers all around the world. Twenty years ago the treasurer's job was simple
8
Most of the product will be exported to Caterpillar plants all around the world." Other well-known names currently in Gilroy's order
9
were around the 3,000 mark. It is clear that all around the world, Rottweilers seem to have been discovered all at the
10
ahead without using a mathematical model based on observations from all around the world. Moreover, recent work has shown that much of
11
weak, man and woman, parent and child, all around the world. A God that created a world that should logically
12
view of doubt, and human language and experience from all around the world also bear it out. In English the double-ness of
13
be enjoying their summer holidays --; many of them scattered all around the world --; and the rugby season would still have not begun
14
I believe that not only the ASB but accounting jurisdictions all around the world have now introduced an unfudgeable bottom line in p&l accounts
15
now invested in the Global Strategy Fund by investors from all around the world. Guinness Flight itself, a subsidiary of the well

...

Do you see any indication that those examples may be directed at children?

See next post.

And "all over the world":

1
those prisoners reaches a mass audience. Amnesty sections all over the world include the Prisoner Letter Writing Campaign cases in the magazines and newssheets
2
pressure on behalf of the thousands of prisoners of conscience all over the world, to make tomorrow the day their freedom is restored. Africa
3
, to the executioner. Nowadays, people all over the world unequivocally reject the idea of gulags, yet they are still willing
4
he can plug himself in to other computers all over the world. I work a lot with M.I.T., he said. And
5
last year thousands of films have been produced all over the world. Yet what we normally get to see on British cinema screens
6
in the making? In many training organisations all over the world, student pilots get no training at all with this kind of problem
7
of the main causes of fatal gliding accidents all over the world. Cloud flying Fools rush in where Angels fear to tread It
8
has become part of the training of dancers all over the world. Its features are very much the same as those described earlier
9
people have stood up … we have friends all over the world." HONG KONG --; More than 3,000 people marked the 40th anniversary
10
for Evermore." With cemeteries to maintain all over the world it is nor surprising that a variety of arrangements, contracts and
11
involved visiting mining camps, quarries and oilfields all over the world selling explosives and it gave Haslam his first taste of the excitement
12
. Using funds raised in public capital markets all over the world, 3i is a major force in the provision of share and
13
time. Be aware of what is happening all over the world, but for goodness sake don't allow the market --; by
14
British Army has provided troops for the UN all over the world. Here Captain Phillip Watkins, holding the appointment of Humanitarian Officer
15
high-profile event in which 33,000 people, from all over the world, march twenty-six miles per day for four consecutive days. 3rd
...........

Do those environment lend themselves to a more mature behaviour than the ones with "all around the world"?

Now comes the mysterious part:

ALL OVER THE WORLD 721 per million words.
ALL AROUND THE WORLD 38 per million words

And now it gets more interesting:

ALL AROUND THE WORLD:

REGISTER

SPOKEN 3
FICTION 5
NEWS 7
ACADEMIC 1
NONFIC MISC 4

ALL OVER THE WORLD

REGISTER

SPOKEN 53
FICTION 80
NEWS 132
ACADEMIC 30
NONFIC MISC 106

http://view.byu.edu/

Thanks for the website, which looks amazing. It will take me a while to know how to interpret this and apply it. Can you tell me what it is about the results that you find interesting?

Can you tell me what it is about the results that you find interesting?

Yes. I was surprised to find that two expressions which I had before thought were similar appear with such varying frequency.

Google figures are even more one-sided. Seventy million to one million.

I was as surprised as you.

Shows you shouldn't trust your instinct when it comes to relevant frequency.

Shows you shouldn't trust your instinct when it comes to relevant frequency.

Indeed not.

I was surprised to find that two expressions which I had before thought were similar appear with such varying frequency.

If we take into consideration the variants of "all around/over the world", "around the world" tops the frequency, and google figures change sides!

1. all around the world: 1,150,000
2. around the world: 259,000,000
3. round the world: 1,250,000
4. all round the world: 198,000

5. all over the world: 61,300,000
6. the world over: 5,960,000

Anuradha Chepur wrote: If we take into consideration the variants of "all around/over the world", "around the world" tops the frequency, and google figures change sides!

1. all around the world: 1,150,000
2. around the world: 259,000,000
3. round the world: 1,250,000
4. all round the world: 198,000

5. all over the world: 61,300,000
6. the world over: 5,960,000

The "around the world" and "round the world" ones could be contaminated by "we are taking a trip around/round the world", for example.

"trip around the world' gets only 814,000 hits, negligible compared to
260 million hits.

Anuradha Chepur wrote:"trip around the world' gets only 814,000 hits, negligible compared to
260 million hits.

Try replacing "trip" with: from. There simply no reason to omit "all" as that is a part the expressions we are discussing.

Even after discounting other usages, one would be left with a competitive figure out of the 260 million hits.
It is then up to a linguist to see what (s)he can infer from the data.
To me, it seems, "all around" appears to be less frequent, because many times it is being used without the "all".
"all" is omissible only in "all around the world" and not in "all over the world". So the latter is always used intact, whereas the former can be used without the "all" too.

Wait a moment.

"We have bases all around the world"

Do you you feel these have to be on every continent or is there a suggestion that there might be something like a band or a limited distribution of bases? After all there are equatorial climates all around the world, though not at the Poles.

"We have bases all over the world"

Isn't that a bit more like "on every continent".

Ditto "I've lived all around the world/all over the world.

Where is cricket played? All around or all over the world?

Or am I being too literal?


Probably.