The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-07-05
THE WORDS WE KNOW.
Vocabulary of the Wayfnring Man
Figured Out of n System.

Figured Out of n System.
From the Indianapolis Journal
There often appears in print an item
which reads somewhat like this: An or
binary man will say everything that
any occasion calls for with a vocabu-
larry of 1000 words. OF these he COM
monty uses but 400 or 500. reserving 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 a speaker at an ed
ucational meeting: 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 300 or 400. Some years ago
a writer in the Chautauquan said: 1t
is estimated that an English farm
hand has vocabulary limited to 300
words. An American workman who
reads the newspapers may command
from 700 to 1000 words. Five thousand
is a large number, even for an edu-
Gated reader or speaker" This is step
forward, yet it still seems far cry to
Shakespeare vocabulary of $4,000
words, or even to Millions 5000.
Any one may with little trouble,es-
innate the number of words whose
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
page or more of words was selected at
random and counted. A separate record
was kept of primitive and derivative
words. That is. among the former was
he g.
urable, measureableness, measurably,
measurer, measureless, measurement,
measurer, unreasonable and unmeas-
ured. Compound words, whose mean
ings were clearly indicated by their
component, were omitted; as, clock
work. draft-horse, hard-earned. Count
ing this way, an average of twenty
primitive and thirty-five 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,490 of the
latter. or almost As, 900 in all.
Next was taken a page in each letter
and on it were counted the words
which it seemed any person of aver
age intelligence would be able to use
and understand. On twenty-four pages
there were PCS primitive words and 221
derivative, or nearly 5000 in all of the
ter. And lastly was made a count of
very common words, such as even a
poorly educated person could hardly es-
cape knowing. and they were found to
number $500 primitive and 1920 deriv-
alive. No proper names were included
in any of the countings.
1t would therefore seem to follow, If
| what we are told of the vocabularies
| of Shakespeare and Milton be correct,
that a person of average education 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 beside the latter
| in this respect. AS regards ideas and
| ability to express them however, the
| difference may be world wide.
The foregoing facts 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
| person in conversation and writing
will command not fewer than $1,000 to
| 10000, and can add 5000 to 10000 to
| these numbers if he be literarily 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 a per-
son who cannot read. but who has a
good degree of native mental ability,
will command about 5000.