Sentence:  Methods have been developed of assigning `` weights '' to statements ; that is , it is known empirically that names <WSD>beginning</WSD> with R are more common than those beginning with Z ; that fewer women are named Miranda than Elizabeth ; that in the United States more people die of heart disease than of smallpox . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  have a beginning, in a temporal, spatial, or evaluative sense