The average individual commands a working vocabulary of about 1,000 words. The English language approximates 143,000 words. First some questions, than an consideration that I would like your opinion on.
Is this 1,000 word working vocabulary expanding? Is it optimal for daily interactions? Would we be more productive if it expanded or would the increase in productivity be marginal when compared to the investment needed?
While holding a thick dictionary in my hand it occurred to me that a degree (not a trade) is nothing more than a specialization in a specific cluster of vocabulary words. Economists specialize in a cluster of vocabulary-jargon and then trade for other vocabulary-jargon. Is this assesment correct?
Read until you have something to write...Write until you have nothing to write...when you have nothing to write, read...read until you have something to write...Jeremiah
what is the source of these numbers?
Where there is no property there is no justice; a proposition as certain as any demonstration in Euclid
Fools! not to see that what they madly desire would be a calamity to them as no hands but their own could bring
Jeremiah Dyke: The average individual commands a working vocabulary of about 1,000 words.
It's more like 50,000 words for the average H.S graduate. 1K? A 2 yr old has more then that.
Edit: Quick search and I find this (my emphasis below):
Interview with Steven Pinker, The Houston Chronicle, 20 October 1994.
Q: If language is an instinct, why does it take most infants as long as three years to learn to talk?
A: Another way of putting the question is: Why isn't the baby born talking? There are probably two answers.
One is simply that the structures of the brain are not completely assembled and developed at birth. Another answer is that learning is an essential part of language, because by its very nature language has to be a shared code. If you spoke a language of one, you might as well not speak at all. The learning period synchronizes the language ability of each child to that of everyone else around him. In some wild animals, it's true, the communication system is completely hard-wired.
Some birds, for instance, are born with a song that is genetically determined and impervious to external influence. But our language is infinitely more complex. There's no way that you could encode 60,000 words - the vocabulary of an average high-school graduate - in a genome consisting of 50,000 to 100,000 genes. Vocabulary has to be learned.
A more important reason I can think of to add to that: If a language is hard wired, that means the language can only change as the genome changes. I'd hate to explain quantum physics using only words and concepts that would have evolved into a hunter-gatherer species, even if they are smart enough to understand the material!
This is from Jared Diamonds Book "The third Chimp". I'm not sure how he defines "working" vocabulary. I will recheck the quote
The average active vocab seems to be around 10s of thousands for the average person. The English language has about a million words. The Oxford Dictionary officially recognizes at least 600,000 words.
Most of the colleges have a lot of words you need for SAT and other tests. Which have nothing to do with jargon. Like 'abate' and 'anachronistic'. I think more than jargon, college graduates are just used to adult language that is a mix between technical language and literary language. Which mixes in these bigger latinate and Greek words that make English interesting and more descriptive.
You might learn maybe 100-200 jargon words in a degree program. That isn't what puts college grads at a higher literacy. Usually, college grads have an interest in literacy from the get go and reading a lot during college puts all kinds of words into your brain. Probably these people read a lot and/or paid attention during high school, as well. They say that Freshman should know about 20,000 ... while grads should know about 60,000. People usually using about 20 percent of their total.
1,000 words might mean you are on the level of a five year old. Remember that there is a diversity to interactions. People aren't just saying hello and goodbye. What is limited to maybe the grocery store or tourism -- knowing some names of some items and the basics of interaction -- is not the whole of everyday speech.
Jeremiah Dyke:Is this 1,000 word working vocabulary expanding? Is it optimal for daily interactions? Would we be more productive if it expanded or would the increase in productivity be marginal when compared to the investment needed?
See this interesting snippet describing Speedtalk.
Life and reality are neither logical nor illogical; they are simply given. But logic is the only tool available to man for the comprehension of both.—Ludwig von Mises
Life and reality are neither logical nor illogical; they are simply given. But logic is the only tool available to man for the comprehension of both.