Wordsmith Talk |
About Us | What's New | Search | Site Map | Contact Us | |||
Register Log In Wordsmith.org Forums General Topics Q&A about words vocabulary size
Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
Stephen Pinker, in 'The Language Instinct', provides a rough method.
Use a standard dictionary a pick out a set of pages at random. List the head words from the definitions from those pages in two columns: one for words that you use confidently; the second for those who meaning you can recognise in context. Multiply up the numbers by the ratio of pages chosen to pages in the dictionary, and you have a rough and ready guide to the words you use, and the words you 'know' (even though you may never use them yourself).
I may have misstated the method slightly so I highly recommend reading the book (which is great in many other ways too).
cheer
the sunshine warrior
Moderated by Jackie
Link Copied to Clipboard
Forum Statistics Forums16Topics13,915Posts229,911Members9,197 Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
Newest Members Bill_L, achz, MAGNVSTALSMA, Burlyfish, Renegade98
9,197 Registered Users
Who's Online Now 0 members (), 277 guests, and 2 robots. Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
Top Posters(30 Days) A C Bowden 27
Top Posters wwh 13,858Faldage 13,803Jackie 11,613wofahulicodoc 10,904tsuwm 10,542LukeJavan8 9,948Buffalo Shrdlu 7,210AnnaStrophic 6,511Wordwind 6,296of troy 5,400
Forum Rules · Mark All Read Contact Us · Forum Help · Wordsmith.org