Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1903-09-30
WORDS USED IN WRITING.
They Are Fewer ia Number Than tn
Ordinary Pers1Tl SuDDOses.

they Are Fewer ia Number Than tn
Ordinary Pers1fi supDoses.
There often appears in print an
item which reads something like this:
An ordinary man win say everything
that any occasion calls for with a 70
cabulary of 1000 words. OF these ne
mmonly uses but 400 or 800, reserv-
ing the remainder for the emergency
of an idea out of his usual line of
thought
In accordance with this is state
ment once made by speaker at an
educational meeting: THE best edu-
Gated persons in this room will not
use more than 600 or 700 words"
And he added than an ignorant man
would mt use more than 300 or 400.
Some years ago writer in the Chau-
tauquan said: 1T is estimated thai
an English farm hand has vocabu.
larry limited TO 800 words. An Ameri-
can workman who reads the newspa-
pers may command from 700 to 1000
words. Five thousand is large unm-
Der even for an educated readc. or
speaker" This is a step forward, yet
1t still seems far cry to Shak-
speare's vocabulary of 1900 words
or even to Milton's 5000.
Anyone may, with little trouble.
| estimate the number of words whose
| meanings would be plain to him in
print or IN speech. OF the writer's vo-
cabulary an estimate was made In this
way: An abridged dictionary was used
because almost all unusual words
would thereby be at once eliminated
Under each letter of the alphabet a
page or more of words was selected
at random and counted. A separate
record was kept of primitive and de
rivative words That is, among the
| former was put measure; am ng the
| latter measurable mesurablenesS,
! measurably, measurer, measureless,
| measurement, unreasonable and I'M
measured. Compound words whose
| meanings We're clearly indicated by
| their component were omitted--as
| clock-work, draught-horse, hard-earned.
/ Counting this way an average of TWEEN
! ~ primitive and thirty-fiye derivative
words was found on each page. This
| would make, there being S14 pages OF
vocabulary in the dictionary. total
/ of 1920 of the former and 2S,40O OF
/ the latter. or almost. 5000 in ALL
Next was taken page in each letter
/ ana on 1t were counted the words
which is seemed any person Of average
intelligence would be able to use and
understand. On twenty-four pages
| there were 26S primitive words and
/ 221 deriyative. or nearly 1900 in all
of the former and more than 1000 of
the latter. And lastly was made a
/ count of very common words such as
even a poorly educated person could
1 hardly escape knowing, and they were
/ found to number 5,700 promtive and
| 800 derivatives. No proper names
were included in any of the countings.
1t would therefore seem 10 follow
! II what we are told of the yocnbular
! les of Shakespeare and Milton be cor
rect, that a person of average educa.
ton to-day knows at least as many
words as did the former. and one
whose school opportunities have been
quite limited is capable of walking be
side the latter in this respect As re
CARDS ideas and ability to express
them, however. the difference may bt
worldwide.
The foregoing facts seem to warrant
these general conclusions: Every well
read person of fair ability and educa
ton win be able to define or under
stand as used nearly or quite. PERHAPS
more than 10000 words. Aud the
| same person In conversation and writ
ing win command not fewer than 49,
coo 10 10000, and can add 5000 10 TO-.
coo to these numbers IL he be literarily
inclined. The plain people, as Linlolr
liked to call them. use or read under
standingly from 5000 to 10000 words
according TO their general intelligence
and conversational power. while a per
son who cannot read. but who has d
good degree Of native mental ability
viii command about 5.000.-Indianap
oils Journal