Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1904-07-15
a cHILD's VOCABULARY.
Scientific Experiments Show 1t to be
Remarkably Large.

| command The learned gentlemen who
| have ventured guesses In the matter
have been of the opinion that the num-
her was small. Professor William
| Swinton says that for the ordinary
| English conversation OF adults 4.001
words is q liberal estimate. There has
even been n popular nOtion-growing
| out of the statements made by people
| who have easy language methods to
| exploit-that the average groWn-up got
| along with under a thousand words.
SO far as child talk is concerned there
have been till recently no scientific
data, but the results of series Of
patient Investigations by the late Pro-
| lessor John /. Jegi of Milwaukee, seem
| to show that very small children know
an astonishing number of words that,
| i'm fact, a child Of four actually uses "a
| many different words as Professor
| Swinton would allow for an adults
complete practical conversational
armament.
The ingenious Professor Jegi had a
| little girl named Grace. When Grace
| began to talk the professor began to
carry about with him notebook and to
set down therein every word he heard
| the little one say. At the age OF years
| this record showed that Grace was
| using in her daily chatter something
over LOO WOrds-exact figures, 1,22!.
Later the professor not only kept his
notebook but underlined in pocket
dictionary every word he heard the
child use. From time to time he check
ed up the notebook with the dictionary.
Then a few days after Grace's fourth
birthday he hired a stenOgrapher to fol-
low the young lady around all day ana
take down i'm shorthand her entire out
Put of talk. 1t must have been dull for
the stenographer, but for the first few
hours it was all fun for Grace. Then
she grew tired and ceased to chatter.
She wanted the lady with the notebook
sent home. Conditions being thus I'M
favorable, the scientific parent did send
away the stenOgrapher, and the record
stood only for the forenoon. In that
time-five hOurS-tirace used 665 differ
ent words Over one third of the entir.
number was used but once, about one
fourth were used two or three times,
few were used very many times. The
most frequently recurring word, Il,
had SAG repetitions to its credit; other
hack words We're TO-" YOU "a, lis,
it," the" that my have"
yes" The complete stenographic re-
port of the mornings eloquence would
make something over two newspaper
columns closely printed in minion type.
1t reads like this:
NO. / never saw that little pin you
are wearing on that collar. We got
some pretty flowers to the picnic. Did
MT we? Didn't we get some pretty
flowers at the picnic? Someone took
my flowers, now. I'm going to get
some more when go out to that picnic,
and won't let anyone take them" ETC.,
etc, to the length above indicted.
Professor Jegi made a laborious
analysis of this record word by word.
He grouped the words alphabetically.
Under A, for instance, he placed every
word beginning with that letter, noting
in each case the number of times the
word had been used by the child dur
ing the test period.
Then the professor made q table
showing the number of each part of
speech occurring under each letter, and
got these totals. Nouns, 245; verbs,
1884, adiectives. Ill; adverbs, "A;
propositions, Is; pronouns. %: interjec-
II; giving the grand total 665, men,
toned above. That, of course, takes no
account of proper names of persons and
places used by little Grace. Naturally.
her display of nouns is biggest-more
than a third of all the words used; the
verbs amount to n little more than
fourth of the total.
So much for the childs talk during
one forenoon. The records kept in the
dictionary and in the notebook, cover
ing practically all the words Grace had
ever used. and therefore all she knew
at the age of 4 years. counted up to
1000. OF these nearly two-thirds were
nouns. as would be natural in n child
ish vocabulary. The numbers for each
part of speech in the total of $500 is
given thus. in round numbers: Nouns,
1000: verbs, 700: adiectives. 395; adj
verbs, 11*; propositions. So: interjec- |
lions, 81: pronouns. 80; conjunctions, ii. |
From which. by comparison with the |
numbers above. it will appear that little |
Grace on her day of trial used about |
one-eighth Of the nouns she knew, of |
her total stock of verbs more than one |
fourth, of her available Iliectives less |
than a third, of her adverDs nearly |
half, more than half her propositions
and nearly all her pIonouns and con-
functions.
Professor Jegi's next figures refer to
the vocabulary of a child years old.
He puts this down at 1900 different
words. and bases the estimate on the
records kept by Mrs. Wingfield Hall in
the case Of little Albert Hall.
During the first six months that Albert
was years DID," says Mrs. Hall. paper
and pencil were distributed all over the
house and practically everything that the
child said was written down. After two
or three days these were collected and the
words put under their respective letters
in book kept for the purpose"
The next step was to get an estimate of
the vocabulary of an average Schoolboy
in the early teens. Mr.. Jegi examined the
written by ten pupils of the
eighth school grade. The written matter
averaged during the year forty pages for
each pupil, and the summaries showed
that each used from $50 to 1900 different
words. The professor in view of the very
restricted range of composition subjects
and the fact that boy within the range
could not in the space of forty pages use
nearly all the words he knew. felt safe in
these figures by four. and
saying that the vocabulary Of an aver
age boy of IA would range from 1000 to
10000 different words. Then the investi-
gator n normal student aged 10 give !