Knoxville Whig and chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1875-1882, 1875-07-28
How Many Words Does a Writer Use +?
From the New York TriJulol

From the New York TriDule
Prof. Edward :. Holden, of the
United STATES Naval Observatory, sent
paper, which was read before the
meeting. 1t discussed the question of
the number of words used in speaking
and writing 10y individuals, and was
called forth by an estimate ufthe Hon.
George 7 Marsh as to the number of
words in Shakespeare vocabulary,
and in that of other writers. Mr..
Marsh has made the statement that an
intelligent man will use in speaking
and writing less than 10000 words.
Prof. Holden made count of the num-
Der of words beginning with each let
ter of the ALPHABET, and noted the or
der of frequency of initial letters in
Webster's Dictionary. He found the
latter a. follows:
S, c, P, A, d, r, B, T, F, NJ, I, f,
H, l., G., U, w, Q, V, n, J, q, X, y,
u, y.
He then proceeded to ascertain the
average number of words in the die
tionary per page. Then he counted
out the words which he himself was
accustomed to use III speaking or wri-
ting on several pages for each initial
letter; and from an average thus at
tanned, he estimated that his own
vocabulary was 33,i56 words. High
rs this is, he can not see the way to
reduce IL materially. y friend ia the
Patentoilice, Mr.. Farquhar, assistant
librarian, tested his own wiring, and
concluded that he must have Il still
larger vocabulary. Prof. Whitney,
e ..fI snHT L..
not see why the method should not
give correct results. From Mrs.
Clark's Concordance Of Shakespeare
with the important omission of all
verbs spelled like nouus) by a similar
process Prot. Holden finds in Snakes
peare's vocabulary q. 600 words. Mil
ton, in his poems, is found to use H.
81 words; in his prose much greater
number is probable. In the English
Bible there are only 7,2J9 words, ex-
elusive of proper names. In Bos-
worth's Dictionary OF the AnglO-SaX-
on there are 1913 words; i'm DR.. John
Camden Hotten's Dictionary of slang,
10000 words. The wide difference be-
tween most OF these estimates and
those Of the Hon. George p. Marsh has
called out a letter from the latter, in
which he eXclaims that he used the
word ''WOrdn in the sense in which
all pbilologists would agree in employ
ing it. e., he took only the simple
stem, and not the infected forms
Thus, while Prof. Holden counted low
er, loveless, and lovely as three words,
Mr.. Marsh counted them as only one.
Prof. Holden concludes that vocab~
ulary of 10000 words is not unusual
among writers.
In the debate which followed, Pro
fessor March declared that he re-
garded Mr.. Marsh as right in his es-
Inmates and in his way Of making
them. He, Prof. March, thought that
the writers who were the most skilled
in the use of language were not among
the largest users ofwords. Great success
in works of literature was won by
making things apparent to a large cir
Gle ofcultiYated readers. The necessity
of making himself easily understood
compels Ich a writer to employ
familiar words. \ part Of Shakes
peare's art was in putting common
words in sucn new connections
that the phrases became idlOms, but
manifestiy strange words gould only
rarely meet this purpose. The touch
Of nature which makes all men kin,
is-in using anguage--implicity
1t is due 20 this necessity that Miitou's
poetry has a smaller vocabulary than
his prose.