Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1903-08-08
HOW MANY WORDS DO you UsE7
An Interesting Estimate Of Ones Vo'
cabuIary.

Cdpuidrys
There often appears in print an item
which reads somewhat like this: An
ordinary man will say everything that
any occasion calls for with a vocabu-
larry of 1000 words. OF these he COM
monty uses 400 or 500, reserving the
remainder for emergency OF an Idea
out Of his usual line Of thought.
In accordance with this Is statement
once made by a speaker at an educa-
tional meeting: 1.-The best educated
person in this room will not use more
than 600 or 700 words" And he added
that an ignorant man would not use
more than 800 or 400. Some years ago
a writer in the Chautauquan said: 1T
is estimated that an English farm hand
has a vocabulary limited to 300 words.
An American workman who reads the
newspapers may command from 70o TO
1000 words. Five thousand Is a large
number even for an educated reader
or speaker" This Is a step forward,
vet 1t still seems a far cry to Shake
speare's vocabulary Of $1,000 words, or
even to Millions 5000.
Any one may, with little trouble
estimate the number Of words whose
meaning 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
mage or more Of words was selected at
random and counted. A separate rec
ord was kept of the primitive and de-
riyatiye words. That Is, among the
former was put measure; among the
latter measurable, measureableness'
measurably, measurer, measureless,
measurement, unmeasurable and un-
measured. Compound words, whose
meanings were clearly indicated by
their component, were omitted; as,
clock work. draught-horse, hard-earn-
ed. Counting this way, an average OF
twenty primitive and thirty-five deriv-
ative words was found on each page.
This would make, there being S14
pages Of vocabulary in the dictionary,
a total Of 1920 of the former and 2s,-
490 Of the latter, or almost $4,000 In all.
Next was taken a page in each letter
and on it were counted the words
which it seemed any person Of average
intelligence would be able to use and
understand. On twenty-four pages
there were 26S primitive words and 221
derivative, or nearly 5000 In all of the
former, and more than 1000 OF the lat.
ter. And lastly was made count OF
very common words, such as even a
poorly educated person could naroly
escape knowing, and they were found
TO humber 500 primitive and 5000
deriyative. No proper names were IN
cluded in any of the countings.
II would therefore seem to follow, II
what we are told Of the vocabularies
of Shakespeare and Milton be correct,
then a person Of average education to-
day knows at least as many words as
did the former, and one whose school
education has been quite limited Is
capable of walking beside the latter IN
this respect. AS REGARDS IDEAS anu
ability to express them. however, the
difference may be worldwide.
The foregoing facts, says the In
dianapolis Journal, seem to warrant
these general conclusions: Every we'll
read person Of fair ability and educa-
ton will be able to define or to under
stand as used nearly or quite, perhaps.
more than $4,000 words. And the same
persons in conversation and writing
will command not fewer than $4,000 to
10000, and can add 5000 to 10000 to
these numbers If he be literally in
clined. The plain people, as Lincoln
liked to call them use or read UNDER
standingly from 5000 to 10000 words,
according to their general intelligence
and conversational power. while per-
son who cannot read, but who has a
good degree Of native mental ability,
will command about 5000.