MAN’S VOCABULARY.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVII, Issue 5000, 14 July 1926, Page 3

MAN’S VOCABULARY.

NUMBER OF 'WORDS.

HOW MANY DO WE USE ? As we are told t'ha,t the range of a manjs' vocabulary depends on his occupation, it seems fitting that the man whose job it was to be president of a hundred million or more people during a critical period, when there was much to bei said as well ns done, should have had an exceptionally large number of words at his command. But how is the totaj computed? We are told tha,t in the 75 speeches President Wilson addressed to the people cif America betwieen the years 1913 and 1918 he made use of 6'221 different words.

Shakespeare said All .that he had to say in 24.0(H) words. Milton used 1/3,000 gifferen.t words in his verse, and in his State papers many more that have not been computed. Had Shakespeare lived in our time he would haye advanced with our progress and the strength of his vocabulary would have been double the' number of words he used. Many words fell into disuse when archery gave way to the, gun, and things which were very useful when Knighthood was in flower eventually were discarded. The passing of the tournament and jousts witnessed the burial of a 'la,rge collection of mediaeval terms,' even as the; parsing ot armour did the same.

Take the man of law, and what do we find? That the' most popular of law dictionaries list approximately 13,000 terms peculiar to the legal profession, a.nd comprehensive as the law, itsety may be, it does not in general embrace the vocabulary of the, home, for which add 10,000 words, or 23,000 in all.

Intelligent artisans have a vocabulary of ho fewer than 5000 words, while, educated persons—churchmen, doctors; lawyers, teachers, etc. —are •familiar with, if they do not us®, from 8000 to 10,0'00 words,, and many more.

Dr. John. C. French, of John. Hopkins University, said year ago that the average man in business knows about 50,000 words.

The department of; psychology of one of America’s learned bodies recently investigated the matter of vocabulary acquisition, and disclosed the fact that the average child' of from 4 to 5 years of age makes use .of 1700 words. In its first yea.r the child acquired a vocabulary of fi*om 10 t®20 words. During its sectond. year this total was increased t;o 300 or 400 words, depending entirely upon environment.