UC-NRLF VOCABULARY STUDIES -by- FRED M. GERLACH, A. M. STUDIES IN EDUCATION AND PSYCHOLOGY Colorado College. Edited by J. V. BREITWIESER, PH. D. Number One 1917. Colorado Springs, Colo. Copyright, 1917 By FRED M. GERLACH Published April, 1917 EDUCATION CONTENTS. Page Preface 5 Introduction 7 General Discussion 11 False Definition Test 44 Conclusions 71 APPENDIX : Laboratory Test Sheet A. 81 Key to Laboratory Test Sheet A 112 Laboratory Test Sheet B 114 Laboratory Test Sheet C 118 Bibliography . 120 54P.J40 PREFACE. The following treatise on Vocabulary Studies was prepared, in the main, as a partial requirement for the degree of Master of Arts at Colorado College, and was submitted for approval in June, 1915. Since that date there have appeared several articles bear- ing upon the subject; likewise certain additional mi- nor investigations have been conducted by the writer. Comment upon these articles and investi- gations appears from time to time in this treatise in the form of inter-paragraphical notes. It has been the writer's purpose to bring this discussion on vocabularies up to date. The parenthetical numbers refer to the bibliog- raphy at the end of the treatise. Thus (1) refers to reference number 1, that is, Babbitt, E. H. ; Pop. Sci. Mo. ; Apr. 1907 ; 70 ; 378 ; A Vocabulary Test. The experiments undertaken by the writer were, for the most part, conducted during the spring months of 1915. They were carried on under the general direction of the Department of Psychology and Education at Colorado College, Colorado Springs, Colo. The subjects tested were, with a few exceptions, students of Colorado College or of the Colorado Springs High School. Colorado Springs April, 1917. F. M. G. PART I. INTRODUCTION. A word represents an idea. The nature of a man's ideas determines the nature of his words. The mind of a man, the mind of a people, is reflected in the language of the man, the language of the people. Good words are begotten by good thoughts; evil words arise from evil thoughts. The source of an idea is at the same time the source of the word to ex- press that idea. Thought and language are insepar- able. As a man's character is, such is the nature of his true vocabulary. An idea is represented by a word ; a group or com- bination of ideas is represented by a group or com- bination of words. The larger a man's vocabulary, the greater the number of his specific ideas. He who has an immense vocabulary not only has a great number of specific ideas, but also has the possibili- ties of an enormous number of combinations of words that is, combinations of ideas. Similarly, for him who has a small vocabulary the number of possible combinations of ideas is reduced to a mini- mum. This faculty for the combination or group- ing of ideas may be called general intelligence. Clearly, the vocabulary furnishes us the best basis for the measurement of general intelligence. The child, immediately upon entering the world, makes his presence known by a cry. This cry is merely a reflex act, induced by the new and strange conditions to which the vocal apparatus of the child 8 VOCABULARY STUDIES is suddenly and rudely subjected. But the cry soon becomes differentiated, assuming different propor- tions and varied intonations to express different mental states. Later, with the coming of definite ideas we find the entrance of words to express them. The crys and babblings assume a more articulate character. The child's vocabulary is being estab- lished. Speech is not inherited. To some degree it is probably instinctive. The general neural paths fa- vorable to the development of speech are formed in the embryonic stage. But the actual development of speech must begin after birth. Language arises with ideas. Why does the new-born child not talk? The psychological reason is that he is devoid of ideas. He really has nothing to say. There is also a physiological reason. Even though the child had ideas he could not express them vocally, for his speech-apparatus is as yet too imperfectly develop- ed. Not only must the child acquire ideas, but he must also acquire the motor co-ordinations to ex- press those ideas those otherwise unspoken words. On the cortical surface of the brain, just over and slightly back of each temple, lies a small area known as the convolution of Broca and recognized by psy- chologists as the speech center. All about this con- volution there is a series of highly complex motor centers which utilize secondary motor centers in the face, setting them to work in varying combinations. Next to the motor centers for the face, in the anter- ior-central gyre, we find the highly differentiated motor centers for the hand (37). Thus we find that the motor centers for the face and for the hand are closely related to those having to do with vocaliza- tion. Witness facial expression and the universal use of gestures. An idea, a word, may be expressed by means other than vocal. Language has been defined by Broca as, "The fac- ulty of establishing a constant relation between an idea and a sign" (36). Yocum says, "The number INTRODUCTION 9 and kind of words in a teacher's vocabulary largely determine his thinking by limiting or increasing the amount of experience which he will retain and the possibility of its being related to other experi- ence" (63). The application of the thought express- ed in this quotation need not, as is quite evident, be confined to teachers. Rankin makes the following statement: "Whether the relationship be that of cause to effect, of effect to cause, or of mixed cause and effect, the fact is very evident that broad schol- arship, and even mere general culture, is always ac- companied by the mastery of a wide vocabulary" (51). It is asserted by Tracy that "Thought itself cannot attain to any great degree of generality with- out the aid of language. Thought and language are mutually helpful, and conduce each to the develop- ment of the other" (57). And Beyer says, "It can not be doubted that thought and language are in- separable. It does not greatly matter whether one puts thought, the egg, or language, the hen, first. No language, that is, no symbols, no thought ; vague, blunderbuss, generic symbols, vague, blunderbuss, double-pointed thought; sharp, fine, distinct words, sharp, fine, distinct thought" (8) . Additional state- ments of a similar nature might be quoted. But wherefore? A little introspection should be suffi- cient to convince anyone of the relation between idea and word of the important connection vocab- ulary bears toward thought. It is the writer's purpose in this brief treatise to confine himself almost wholly to the study of actual vocabularies, making certain observations concern- ing their growth and size, the relation between vo- cabularies and arbitrary grades as found in schools and colleges, age and sex influences, and the like. First the results attained by a number of other per- sons interested in this same line of work will be pre- sented. Then will be shown the results of certain vocabulary experiments carried on by the writer, in conjunction with Dr. J. V. Breitwieser, at Colorado 10 VOCABULARY STUDIES College. This will be followed by comparisons, com- ments, and conclusions. And finally, as an appen- dix, will be found the actual vocabulary test as it was used in the Psychological Laboratories of Colo- rado College. PART II. GENERAL DISCUSSION. In few fields of research do we find such a discrep- ancy of opinion as we find among the various guess- es, estimates, and calculations in regard to the size of vocabularies. On the one hand eminent educa- tors adhere to the belief that an average person has a vocabulary of only several hundred words, at best perhaps a thousand. On the other hand equally em- inent educators assert that man has at his command any one of a hundred thousand words or perhaps even twice that number. Why has there been such a difference of opinion, such a diversity of conclu- sions? Largely because there has been such a di- versity of method in arriving at these conclusions. Many of the more or less absurd theories and opin- ions advanced by so-called "investigators" of vocab- ularies could scarcely have been reached by any oth- er method save that of pure and exceedingly simple guesswork. Nevertheless we find that even those students of vocabularies who have gone about their investigations thoroughly and systematically arrive at conclusions not at all in harmony with each other. Perhaps such a state of affairs is to be expected. For as yet comparatively little of a definite nature has been done in the study of vocabularies. In view of this fact it is extremely difficult to make reliable generalizations, and to arrive at correspondingly trustworthy conclusions. It is regretable that a subject of such wide-spread interest and such uni- 12 VOCABULARY STUDIES versal importance has been so neglected. Accurate measurements for physical power are common; ac- curate measurements for mental capacity are un- known. At best, measurements of intellect are but approximations. This, however, need not deter us in our efforts to discover something further to add to the meagre knowledge which we have concerning the human mind ; it need not hinder us in our search for some system of measurement, however imper- fect it may be, which will enable us to determine to even a slight degree the ccope of human intellect. And when we consider the fact that even the most accurate physical measurements are relative, our problems concerning the intellect assume a less for- bidding aspect. However meagre the attempt may be, it is surely worth while to make an honest effort to throw some light upon the subject to aid in the unraveling of one thread of the great tangled skein. Let us pause for a momentary inspection of a few of the highly interesting, though varyingly instruc- tive, guesses and more or less haphazard estimates as to the number of words comprising a vocabulary. Then we shall review briefly a number of the actual vocabulary tests which have been made by various men and women. To quote from Brown : "For the past two or three decades many books on the English language, Eng- lish composition, and public speaking have 'estimat- ed' the working-man's vocabulary at five or six hun- dred words, and the college student's at one thou- sand or twelve hundred. In a public address only a year ago an officer in one of our larger universities declared that 'the average senior' in that institution 'did not employ more than eight hundred or a thou- sand words in all the writing and speaking involved in the various activities of his life' "(13). Dean Alvord, according to Rankin, stated that che working men of his acquaintance used scarcely two hundred words in all. Rankin is also authority for the statement made by a well-known American edu- GENERAL DISCUSSION 13 cational writer to the effect that a man may con- verse very well with a vocabulary of only seventy- five words! Rankin offers the following comment: "Ridiculous as is such a statement, the ever-unsci- entific public gulps it down with avidity and sighs comfortably in the assurance that it has seventy-five usable ideas all tagged with their proper word-signs. It does not occur to the public who prefer ideas and clothes both ready-to-wear that the baby of eighteen months is usually in good command of more than seventy-five words, yet is not able to 'con- verse very well ' " (51) . Max Muller is authority for the statement that an English clergyman declares the laborers in his par- ish did not use over three hundred words (45) , while dean Farrar has stated that the English laborers carry on their conversation with not more than one hundred words (18). What a lively conversation it must be! Doran claims to have formed the acquaintance of a parrot that could speak 59 words four-fifths as many as are required, according to our noted "edu- cational writer" whose name has been withheld, in order to "converse very well" (18) . And, if we may believe Gardner, the anthropoid apes are not far be- hind ; for according to his assertion apes have a vo- cabulary of 25 or 30 words (18). It is remarkable how little advanced beyond the simian stage -certain persons rate the lower strata of human society. A New York paper once made the assertion that the number of words actually needed to get along in business was 3,500(18) ; while according to Beyer, "In a reputable magazine a few years ago the state- ment was made that three hundred words were enough to enable the average person to carry on all the business of life." Beyer is inclined to think that the "working dictionary" of a cultured person must comprise about 4,500 to 5,000 words (8). 14 VOCABULARY STUDIES Baird says the total number of words needed by a tourist in a foreign country is 650. This is intended to indicate merely the number of words actually needed to get along with (2) . George P. Marsh about forty years ago stated that few writers or speakers used as many as 10,- 000 words, ordinary persons using only about 3,000 or 4,000. He says that Shakespeare used only 15,000 words in his literature, while Milton used only 8,000 (40). These statements made by Marsh have been disproved by later writers. Dr. Edward S. Holden declares that Shakespeare used over 24,000 words, and Milton, in his poems alone, used 11,377(27). Doran found in Milton's works 12,800 different words. He further claims that Cowper used 11,284 words and Shelley 15,957. In Tennyson's works he found a total of 10,574 words, excluding all proper names not found in the dictionary. Only a few of Tennyson's minor poems and only a few of his trans- lations are included in the Concordance from which this calculation is made (18) . In the French, so Dr. Edwin S. Du Poncot asserts, Victor Hugo used in Notre Dame 27,000 words ; Du Poncot estimates that in all of his works Hugo must have used 38,000 different words (18) . It is said that Victor Hugo actually created as many as fifteen hun- dred new forms of expression (54). Several authors agree that the vocabularies of in- telligent, cultured people, especially those of liter- ary taste, contain from 25,000 to 30,000 words (18). Professor E. A. Kirkpatrick says that for ordinary reading one needs from 6,000 to 10,000 words. He estimates that a citizen of the United States having a common school education would know about 10,000 words, and a well-read college graduate and those who have pursued a university course would know from 20,000 to 100,000(35). These theories ad- vanced by Kirkpatrick almost a quarter of a cen- tury ago have been partially confirmed by actual GENERAL DISCUSSION 15 vocabulary tests conducted by him in more recent years (33). We are somewhat prone to believe that foreign languages, even the most modern, have a much smaller number of words than are to be found in the English. Dr. R. J. Kellogg, however, is of the opin- ion that the vocabularies of such languages as the French, German and Spanish are practically as large as that of the English. There is scarcely a word in the English that does not have its equiva- lent in those languages, and almost every thought of an Englishman may be expressed by a French- man, a German, or a Spaniard (18). There is also a general belief that the number of words in the language of a primitive people is very small. The vocabulary of an aborigine is supposed to be remarkable chiefly for its meagerness, verg- ing to non-entity. Chamberlain, however, furnish- es us with data relating to the number of words in use among various Indian tribes. This data is based upon dictionaries of the Indian languages. The to- tal number of words in each of the various tribal languages considered varies from 10,000 to 40,000, the average being well over 20,000(14). These es- timates are probably too low, for the dictionaries were very incomplete. About eight or ten tribal languages were considered. A. G. Morice in his studies of the Dene languages says the Carrier tribe's vocabulary contains 150,000 verbal terms (44). It might likewise be well to note that in the Chinese language, which has a separate sign for each word, the total number of characters is usually estimated at about 25,000 ; however, considering as totally different those characters to which a stress mark gives a different meaning, other estimates place the number at 260,000(42). Estimates of child vocabularies present as inter- a disagreement as do those for the vocabu- lar an a( ^ u ^- The average person, says Beyer, 16 VOCABULARY STUDIES guesses a two-year-old child's vocabulary to be about fifty words. Many claim that it does not exceed twenty-five; while a few persons are generous enough to give the child credit for knowing two hun- dred words at two years of age (8). Whipple once asked two of his friends how many words an ordi- nary three-year-old boy could use. Th-2 first of his friends ventured to place his guess at 150 ; the other greeted this estimate with derision and declared that fifty words would cover the vocabulary of any three-year-old child (60). Laurie, based on the au- thority of Max Muller, claims, in his "Lectures on Language and Linguistic Methods", that "In the child up to the eighth year the range of language is very small ; he probably confines himself to not more than 150 words" (60). On the other hand we find Luckens reporting the assertion of Dr. Elmer Gates to the effect that his boy knew 11,000 words at the age of twenty-one months! (39). It is evident that from such a wealth of diversity of opinion as has been presented thus far, little of a definite nature can be determined concerning the actual size of a vocabulary, whether it be the vocab- ulary of an adult or that of a child. In order to ob- tain adequate conclusions we must seek further than mere guesses, and estimates without foundation. Actual vocabulary tests, and studies in vocabularies, must be considered. In spite of the fact that these tests and studies produce widely differing results it may be possible, by conservative generalizations, to arrive at some comparatively trustworthy con- clusions. At what age does a human being begin to speak? Tracy tells of a child, a girl, who when only fifteen days old had a peculiar sort of cry for expressing her desire to be fed. In another case the feelings of hunger, cold, pain, joy, and desire were expressed by different sounds before the end of the fifth week (58) . Professor Whipple claims that his son, Ri" 1 ard, said "Mamma" at the age of seven and ^al GENERAL DISCUSSION 17 months; Whipple thinks, however, that this may have been mere accident (60). Dr. E. C. Hills says his daughter, Ruth, used six words when eight months of age (26). George C. Brandenburg in the study of his child found that the first word she pro- nounced with evident understanding was "Bye-bye" at ten months (11). Beyer, in commenting upon the language of his son, Thomas, claims that at the end of one year after birth the child's vocabulary "con- sisted of not more than 20 symbols, of which about 10 were English ; the others, the language of infan- try, more or less conventionalized in his own usage" (8). The age at which speech begins varies in different individuals. In some, articulate language commences during the sixth or seventh month; others can not speak a single word when they are ten months or a year old. Girls usually learn to talk at an earlier age than do boys. Even after speech has begun its development varies greatly in different individuals; with some the progress is very rapid, while with others it is exceedingly slow. These are some of the explanations why tests of child vocabularies car- ried on by different people with different subjects so largely fail in conformity of results. It is also well to note that the number of individuals considered is too small to permit satisfactory generalizations and conclusions. The following method used by Professor and Mrs. Guy Montrose Whipple in their study of the vocabu- lary of their- three-year-old son will serve to illus- trate a very practical manner in which the study of a child's vocabulary may be undertaken. This meth- od, or one very similar to it, has been followed by a number of the most reliable contributors to this phase of vocabulary study. They proceeded thus: Twenty-six blank sheets, one for each letter of the , were prepared, and for ten days prior to third birthday anniversary the words Mm were recorded. To this list were added 18 VOCABULARY STUDIES those words which it was known he had used previ- ously, in each instance making sure that the words had not been forgotten by artificially producing an occasion for their use. Finally, a number of words were selected from several child's vocabularies that had been published. These words were similarly tested before they were added to the list. Plurals formed regularly were excluded; other inflected endings, grammatical variants and compounds, such as tall, taller, tallest, and go, going, gone, were included. Many students of child vocabularies do not include inflections as distinct words. Whipple makes the following comment: "It seems unneces- sary to point out that, psychologically speaking, re- lated forms like these are just as much distinct ac- quisitions for the child as are totally different words such as tall and short; the principles of exclusion that have been adopted by some compilers of chil- dren's vocabularies, notably Holden, may be gram- matically, but they are not psychologically, justifi- able" (60). One of the most recent, as well as thorough, inves- tigations in child vocabulary was the one carried on by Beyer, in the study of his son, Thomas Lynn Beyer, during the twenty-third and twenty-fourth months. Beyer used the same method as employed by Whipple (60), with the important exception that inflected forms were treated as distinct words only when there was a radical umlaut or internal change, as in foot and feet. Present participles were not included. Using this method, the child's vocabulary at two years of age was found to consist of 771 words. At the end of one year after birth, as has been previously mentioned, the child had command of about 20 symbols. At seventeen months this number had been increased to 160 an increase of 700 per cent in five months. At the end of two years his vocabulary amounted to 771 words, this being 38 times the number at one year, and almost five times the number at seventeen months. The GENERAL DISCUSSION 19 actual number of words learned from the seven- teenth to the twenty-fourth months was more than four times as great as the number learned from the twelfth to the seventeenth. Beyer comments thus : "If he should merely maintain the same rate of in- crease during his third year, an eventuality alto- gether to be expected of a normal child in health, 1055 words will be added during the year, making a total of 1826, a number astonishingly close to the 1771 words actually recorded by Professor Whipple in the use of his three-year-old son. If it is true, as Professor Whipple says and as child-psychology regularly assumes, that the period between the sec- ond and third birthday witnesses the greatest ex- pansion in thought-symbols, then we must place the probable limit much higher, possibly from 2200 to 2500. As a matter of fact, the first two weeks after the child's second anniversary, he learned about eighty words, an acceleration nearly twice as great as that of his former average ; and during the 25th month, nearly two hundred, almost trebling the for- mer rate" (8).* Dr. E. C. Hills made a very thorough study of the speech of his daughter beginning on the second an- niversary of her birthday and continuing his obser- vations for a period of ten days. Only the words act- ually used by the child during that period were re- corded. Some objects were pointed out and she was asked to tell their names, but in no case was a name given to her while the test was in progress. Fur- thermore, all the words used by the child during the period under consideration had been acquired by her without effort on the part of her parents, with the exception of the cardinal numerals from 1 to 10 and the names of some of the common colors. When eight months old the child had used six words, though, as might be expected , her pronunciation *Later studies by Beyer have an important bearing on the above statements. Cf. page 26. 20 VOCABULARY STUDIES was imperfect. At two years of age, during the period under observation, she used a total of 321 words. Dr. Hills classifies the vocabulary as fol- lows : proper nouns, 9 ; common nouns, 173 ; person- al pronouns, 4; limiting adjectives, 26; descriptive adjectives, 23; verbs, 59; adverbs, 11; conjunction, 1 ; prepositions, 8 ; exclamations, 7. Of the 321 words used by the child, 228 were of one syllable; 76 of two syllables; one of four syllables; and 16 compound. Dr. Hills is of the opinion that the child used ten imperative sentences to one indicative sen- tence (26). At the age of three the son of Professor and Mrs. Whipple had, according to the tests undertaken by his parents, a vocabulary of 1771 words. His first word had been pronounced at seve,n and a half months ; four words were used at eleven and a half months; fifteen words constituted his vocabulary at the end of the first year. On his second birthday the attempt to record the words used by him was given up, for in the first fifteen minutes, when no one talked to him, he used 154 words, 98 of which were different. As is quite evident, vocabularies depend largely upon interest and environment. Thus we find that in this child's vocabulary, out of a total of 1771 words the number which had been acquired in connection with eating amounted to 215 over 12 per cent of the whole. The total vocabulary was classified thus: nouns, 993; verbs, 391; adjectives, 209 ; adverbs, 89 ; pronouns, 33 ; prepositions, 24 ; interjections, 24; conjunctions and articles, 8(60). According to Brandenburg, "The percentages of the different parts of speech (if one counts the verb forms printed in small capitals) in the dictionary are about as follows: nouns 48.4 per cent; verbs, 27.5 per cent; adjectives, 18.6 per cent; adverbs, 4.9 per cent; pronouns, .2 per cent; prepositions, .1 per cent; interjections, .1 per cent; conjunctions, .05 per cent" (11). These results were obtained GENERAL DISCUSSION 21 through the examination of several of the leading dictionaries. Brandenburg found that at the age of three his daughter had a total vocabulary of 2282 words. Of the entire number, a trifle over 50 per cent were nouns. The vocaoulary was divided into two parts, the first, containing 2099 words, being classified as the conscious vocabulary and the second, comprising 183 terms, being classified as the sub-conscious vo- cabulary. The latter classification was made up of words which the child had been known to use, but which had either been forgotten or could not be re- called because of lack of proper environment. Bran- denburg found that of every eight nouns learned by the child, one was "pigeon-holed", or became a part of the sub-conscious vocabulary, while of the verbs only one out of every 33 was thus stored away. In one day the child used a total of 11,623 words, 859 of which were different. Thus, in one day she used 37.6 per cent of the total number of words at her command. Brandenburg not only lists the actual vocabulary of the child, but also publishes hor en- tire conversation for one day. The total number of sentences used during the day amounted to 1873, the average number of words per sentence being six and a fraction (11) .* Mildred Langenbeck reports the investigation of an "unusually precocious child" who at the age of five had a vocabulary of 6837 words. It is said that when the child was three and a half years old her uncle taught her Herbert Spencer's definition of life,** and that though months often elapsed be- tween her intervals of saying it she never forgot it. *The above study by Brandenburg was later continued during the fourth year of the child's life. Cf. pages 26 and 27. **"Life is a definite combination of heterogeneous changes, both simultaneous and successive, in correspondence with the external co-existences and sequences." Herbert Spencer. 22 VOCABULARY STUDIES The following incident is reported as having oc- curred when the child was aged four : once, becoming very angry at the dust, she exclaimed, "I should like to kill the dust/' When asked how she could kill it she replied, "Very easily, pour a little water on it." A series of tests at the age of five conducted by the Binet-Simon method gave her a mentality as that of eleven years. She failed on questions depending upon teaching and experience, but excelled in those dealing with natural observation. She coined many words as occasion for their use arose. Many of the child's ancestors were distinguished men and wom- en. On both sides her family were people of more than average capacity and cultivation. When six- teen months old the child had a vocabulary of 229 words. Of the 6837 words in her vocabulary at five years, 56.8 per cent were nouns (38). The above reports of studies in child vocabularies will serve to illustrate the general nature and scope of such investigations. For the remainder of the studies of child language of which we have record a brief summary of the results obtained will be suffi- cient. For the most part, these results will be merely tabulated. A few of the studies, however, will bear more specific mention. Viola Olerich, the "famous baby scholar," at two years knew 2,500 nouns according to actual records, and it was judged that she knew at least 500 more (47). Figuring on the basis that nouns amount to 60 per cent of the entire vocabulary of the child the total number of words known by Viola Olerich at the age of two would be 5,000. Gale reports a boy of two and a half years to have used in one day a total of 9,290 words, 751 of which were different, and another child of just two years who used a total of 10,507, of which 803 were differ- ent (20). Sanford Bell found that his child of four years and nine ; months' uttered a total of 14,996 words, while one of three and a half years used 15,- 230, in one day (7). GENERAL DISCUSSION 23 Tracy (58) found that in testing the vocabularies of a number of children, the total number of words considered being 5,400, nouns formed 60 per cent of the entire vocabulary. Other authors agree that the number of nouns in a child's vocabulary always exceeds 50 per cent of the total number of words. Kirkpatrick makes the assertion that the number of words used by a two-year-old child varies from a few to a thousand. The average he believes to be about 200 to 400(34). In close agreement to this assertion is the following statement by Whipple: "In the twenty-odd published vocabularies, we find that children from 16 to 19 months are using from 60 to 232 words, that two-year-old children are us- ing from 115 to 1227 words, and that the vocabulary increases rapidly from that time on. It is perfectly safe to assert that the average three-year-old child makes use of 1,000 words. This holds true at least for the child who has an ordinary quantum of curiosity and a normal tendency toward linguistic imitation and who is in daily contact with parents or older children who are ready to name situations for him as fast as they appear" (56) . In order to facilitate the study of child vocabular- ies the following tabulation has been prepared : TABLE I. Child Vocabularies. Authority. Age of Child. Vocabulary. Reference. Whipple 7.5m. 1 60 Hills 8m. 6 26 Tracy 9 m. 9 58 Whipple 11.5m. 4 60 Tracy ly. 4 58 Tracy ly. 8 58 Tracy ly. 10 58 Whipple ly. 15 60 Beyer ly. 20 8 (Continued on next page) 24 VOCABULARY STUDIES (Table /, continued) Jegi 16m. 75 Langenbeck 16m. 229 Tracy 17m. 35 Beyer 17m. 160 Hall 17m. 232 Jegi 18m. 60 Dewey 18m. 144 Nice 18m. 145 Dewey 19m. 115 Tracy 19m. 144 Tracy 21m. 177 Tracy 22m. 28 Tracy 22m. 69 Tracy 23m. 136 Tracy 2y. 36 Gale 2y. 115 Tracy 2y. 139 Doran 2y. 161 Holden 2y. 173 Tracy 2y. 263 Hills 2y. 321 Preyer 2y. 397 Holden 2y. 399 Moore 2y. 475 Holden 2y. 483 Gale 2y. 578 Gale 2y. 614 Beyer 2y. 771 Humphreys 2y. 1121 Jegi 2y. 1227 Olerich 2y. 5000* Tracy 25m. 250 Tracy 27m. 171 Tracy 28m. 677 Tracy 30m. 327 Salisbury 32m. 642 30 38 58 8 25 30 17 46 17 58 58 58 58 58 58 21 58 18 28 58 26 49 28 43 28 21 21 8 29 30 47 58 58 58 58 52 (Continued on next page) * Estimated. GENERAL DISCUSSION 25 (Table /, continued) Gale 3y. 1176 21 Nice 3y. 1205 46 Whipple 3y. 1771 60 Brandenburg 3 y. 2282 11 Mateer 4y. 1020 41 Nice 4y. 1870 46 Doran 5 y. 1400 18 Langenbeck 5 y. 6837 38 Table I presents the size of various child vocabu- laries, the subjects ranging in age from 7.5 months to 5 years, and the vocabularies ranging in size from one word to 6837. Owing to the difference in age at which speech first appears, an attempted generaliza- tion in regard to the size of vocabulary before the age of two is not justifiable. Even at the age of two there is necessarily a great divergence in the size of the vocabulary. This is due partly to the fact that different children begin to talk at different ages; it is also due to the fact that children are not endowed with equivalent intellects, and some learn much more rapidly than others. Obviously this state of affairs continues throughout life. Therefore, in any group of considerable size, composed of persons of the same age selected at random, regardless of what that age may be, we can not expect a very close agreement in the sizes of their vocabularies. In actual number of words the variation at the age of two is doubtless smaller than at any subsequent age ; for variation in terms of percentage of the entire vocabulary the reverse is probably true. Omitting as very unusual the five thousand word vocabulary of Viola Olerich, we find the average vo- cabulary of the remaining sixteeen two-year-old children recorded in Table I to consist of 454.56 words approximately 450; the median is 398, and the mean variation 260.9. The range is from 36 to 1227. Unfortunately, the data at hand for the re- maining ages of infancy is too slight to warrant the 26 VOCABULARY STUDIES reliability of generalization. Nevertheless, in the four vocabularies recorded for three-year-old chil- dren there is a certain general uniformity of size which may justify the taking of their average. The resultant is 1608.5 a number which seems very reasonable. Taking 1600 as the vocabulary at three years of age and 450 as that for two years, the in- crease in one year is 256 per cent; in other words, the vocabulary at three years should be, roughly speaking, about three and one-half times as large as at two years. Note : Since the compilation of the foregoing table and sta- tistics several magazine articles have appeared which have an important bearing on the subject. Beyer, who furnished such admirable data concerning the vocabulary of a two- year-old child, has continued his investigations during the third year and presents the results of this study in the Edu- cational Review, Dec., 1916(9). It was found that the child, who at two years had a vocabulary of 771 words, acquired during his third year 1297 verbal symbols; thirteen of the words previously known had gradually been dropped, "the defunct language of infantry." This left a remainder of 2055. However, this estimate excludes about 200 "question- able words" which if added would bring the total to 2255. Using the more conservative estimate of 2055 as the vocabu- lary at three years, we find an increase of 166 % over the vocabulary at two years; if we take the larger number, 2255, the increase is 193 %. In either case the percentage of in- crease is considerably smaller than the suggested increase of 256 %. However, it should be noted that Beyer's child at two years of age had a much larger vocabulary than the average for the two-year-old child as ascertained from the table. It is not to be supposed that the child with a large vocabulary would show as great a yearly increase in terms of percentage, though in actual words his gain would probably be somewhat more than that of the child with a more meagre store of ver- bal symbols. In an article in the Pedagogical Seminary for March, 1916, George C. and Julia Brandenburg give the results of a con- tinuation in the vocabulary study of their daughter during the fourth year (12). At four years of age the child knew 3915 words, including regular variants except noun plurals; and 3061 words excluding all except irregular variants. At three years of age the child's vocabulary, including variants, to- taled 2282 ; excluding variants, 2008. This gives an increase during the fourth year of 71 % in the former case, and 52 % in the latter. GENERAL DISCUSSION 27 At ,three years of age the variants constituted 12 % of the entire vocabulary; a year later they amounted to 21.8 %. A comparison between the third and fourth years in regard to parts of speech is shown in the following table: Regular variants incPd Regular variants excl'd No. of words Per cent No. of words Per cent Age 3 4 3 4 3 4 3 4 Nouns 1171 1728 51.3 44. 1 1171 1728 58 .0 56 .4 Verbs 732 1510 32.0 38.6 465 716 23 .0 23 .4 Adjectives 198 427 8.7 10. 9 191 374 9 .8 12 .2 Adverbs 98 150 4.3 3. 8 98 144 4 .9 4 .7 Pronouns 36 43 1.6 1. 1 36 42 1 .8 1 .3 Prepositions 20 24 .8 , 6 20 24 1 .0 .8 Interjections 15 19 .6 5 15 19 .8 .6 Conjunctions 12 14 .5 4 12 14 .6 .4 Total 2282 3915 2008 3061 Brandenburg claims that from a study of 2000 school chil- dren of various grades he has ascertained that children in the public schools build up their vocabularies at the rate of ap- proximately 1400 words per year, exclusive of variants. It would be of interest to know the increase rate inclusive of variants ; and also to know the per cent of increase from year to year. Bateman, in the June, 1916, issue of the Pedagogical Semi- nary, discusses the language of three children at the same age (5). All three children were girls, two, J. and A., being sisters and the other, D., a cousin. The appearance of the first word in the three cases was A., ten; J., ten and one half; and D., eleven months. The vocabularies at one year comprised D., 8; A., 9; and J., 10 words. Bateman cites eight cases of one-year vocabularies, the average number of words being 9. At two years one of the three children in consideration had a vocabulary of 497 words. At twenty- eight months the vocabularies excluding proper nouns and in- flections, were: A., 628; J., 405; and D., 308. Including prop- er nouns and inflections, the vocabularies for the two sisters were: A., 779; and J., 488. Data concerning three other vocabularies at 28 months is given showing .totals of 677 (cited in Table I of the present treatise), 451 and 345 words. The average for the six vocabularies at 28 months is 469. Bateman claims the average number of words at two years for 20 vocabularies is 498; at three years for 9 vocabularies 1,515. Authorities for these statistics are not cited. These averages for the two-year and three-year vocabularies show a remarkably close approximation to the averages obtained from Table I of the present discussion. If an average is at- tempted from the two groups of two-year and three-year 28 VOCABULAR Y STUDIES averages (the group cited by Bateman and the group present- ed in Table I ) , though such an average of averages would doubtless by no means be exact since there are probably rep- ititions in ,the two groups, the resultant gives a vocabulary of 479 words for the average two-year-old child, and a total of 1544 words for the three-year-old child; showing an increase of 222 % from the second to the third year. Is it then too much to say that during the third year the normal child may be expected to show a gain of from 200 to 250 per cent in vocabulary? For the remainder of this part of the treatise which deals with investigations carried on by others in the field of vocabulary study, owing to the nature of the data at hand, recourse must be had very largely to broad generalizations. A few specific in- stances will be mentioned, for the most part with- out comment, and such generalizations as are deem- ed advisable will be presented. Dr. Peter Roberts said the average vocabulary of a child of six or seven amounted to only 300 or 400 words (56). Other writers have made somewhat similar statements. In view of the data which has been presented concerning the vocabularies 01 chil- dren during infancy, and especially the conclusions reached in the case of the two year vocabularies, such statements as that of Dr. Roberts may be dis- carded without further consideration. In connection with the study of children who are just entering school, and even in regard to those who are a little more advanced but still in the lower grades, it is interesting to note the number of differ- ent words used by some of the textbooks. The av- erage primer comprises a vocabulary of between 300 and 400 words. A few contain approximately one thousand, but these are exceptional. Thus the six- year-old child, in order to qualify for promotion, must learn to recognize in print 300 or 400 words. This number obviously does not comprise his entire vocabulary perhaps not even one tenth of it. For when the child is beginning to read and until he has mastered the system of alphabetical and syllabical GENERAL DISCUSSION 29 combinations to form words, he certainly is familiar with a comparatively enormous number of terms which he would fail to recognize in print. Jean Sherwood Rankin found a total of 5,965 dif- ferent words, including 909 proper names, in a pop- ular and modern textbook in United States history (51). In order for the eighth-grader to study intel- ligently this particular book he must obviously know the great majority of these words. It should be born in mind that textbooks for different subjects all have, after a fashion, their own special vocabu- laries. Likewise we must remember that a consid- erable number of words which, even in their printed form, are familiar to the eighth-grader do not ap- pear in any of his textbooks. To quote from Katrina Koch: "Every educator knows, that by his fourteenth year the boy has learned, understood and remembered lists of words, varying from fifteen to twenty thousand. And of these, most teachers realize, to their chagrin, that they succeed in making him use not over eight hun- dred or a thousand" (36). A study of the reading vocabulary of three chil- dren who had attended school one and a half years was undertaken by Myrtle Sholty. She took all the readers which the children had read since entering school and used the words of these readers as the basis of the vocabulary test. All the words which could be built up or worked out by sound were called phonetic words. Though the children had had daily drills in phonetics for twelve months, each one knew a greater number of sight than phonetic words, showing that they still depended very largely upon the memory. Of the three children, one, designated as A, was supposed to be the best reader, B medium, and C the poorest. Out of a total of 1,588 words known in context were: B, 1,438; A, 1,392; and C, 1,309. Results for words recognized when seen on the instant, that is through the tachistoscope, were : 30 VOCABULARY STUDIES C, 1,009 ; A, 977 ; and B, 798. The results for words worked out are given as : B, 670 ; A, 412 ; and C, 315. Thus C was the most dependent reader because she could build up fewer words, and B was the most in- dependent. C is said to have improved rapidly and when the test was completed was the fastest reader of the three. A, who was supposed to be the best reader, ranked only second in each of the tests. It is interesting to compare the number of printed words known by these three children, who had at- tended school one and a half years, with the number of words which are, in general, found in a primer. Progress becomes more rapid as the child advances (53). Doran reports a boy, nine years old, who had a vocabulary of 6,031 words. The boy was bright in many respects, but had not been to school very much. He was in the third grade. Doran's son, Edwin, at ten years of age could define at least 10,- 000 words, and when he was thirteen he could define 18,000, according to tests carried on by his father. The youth had read a great deal, and had had con- siderable practice in vocabulary work. At thirteen he had studied one year of Latin. Doran believes that Latin and Greek aid greatly in the enlargement of the English vocabulary (18). Doran worked mainly with students in schools and colleges. His effort was to ascertain not the number of words that had actually been used in oral or written speech, but the number of words the persons knew or could use intelligently. In every case his results were attained by oral or written definitions. He included all proper names and vari- ants found in the dictionaries which he used, saying, "As there seems to be some confusion in vocabulary tests as to what constitutes a word, let it be under- stood I have followed the dictionaries in this respect. 1 have counted what they have counted, and I have included what they have included." Some of his earlier investigations were based upon Webster's In- GENERAL DISCUSSION 31 ternational, the Academic, or the High-School edi- tions, while his later studies were conducted by the use of the Century and the Standard dictionaries. His method was to select a number of words, usually 1,000 or more, taking all the words of each page, ex- cept such unusual words as no one would be likely to know, and selecting the pages either at random, or, as was more often the case, taking them in a cer- tain definite order, as every twenty-fifth or every fiftieth page (18). By class tests Doran found that the pupils of the sixth grade in one school averaged 4,192 words while in another they averaged 11,634; in the same two schools respectively the eighth-graders aver- aged 7,937 and 17,138. The pupils of the latter school were somewhat older than those of the for- mer. For the most part, Doran's results will sim- ply be tabulated in a general way further on in this treatise ; and a few solitary tests which do not admit of adequate generalization will be given specific mention (18). A certain Minnesota superintendent tested the vo- cabularies of four eighth-grade pupils by having them go through their small High-School dictionar- ies, counting word by word all that they felt sure they knew and might have used. Three of the four reported that they knew between nine and ten thou- sand words. The fourth estimated for himself near- ly fifteen thousand. Jean Sherwood Rankin, in of- fering this report, comments thus : "These figures tally well with the reports upon vocabularies pub- lished by the one or two lone explorers in the field of high-school vocabularies, and lead us to the con- clusion that the eighth-grade student who completes his work successfully must possess from ten to fif- teen thousand words" (51). Professor E. A. Kirkpatrick conducted a series of tests among children of the grades, as well as among high school and college students. His method is 32 VOCABULARY STUDIES clearly shown by the following quotation: "When a student began, say on page 2, and counted all the words in bold-faced type and the number of these known on every fiftieth page, and then did the same beginning with page 20, the results were so nearly the same as to convince me that the method was fair- ly accurate. Some preliminary tests were then made that showed that a hundred words taken by chance from various parts of the dictionary might serve as a fairly accurate measure of the size of one's under- standing vocabulary The author now considers that the best list of words is obtained from Web- ster's Academic Dictionary (which contains about 28,000 words on 645 pages) , by taking the first, sec- ond, or last word, or any other definite word on ev- ery sixth page. For general purposes and for all ages this is probably better than to take a hundred words from an unabridged dictionary which con- tains so many various and obselete forms of the same words, along with rare words, and technical terms not found in the smaller dictionary. Esti- mates based on words from the academic dictionary give less than half as many words in the vocabulary as those based on data from the unabridged, but they are more representative of fundamentally dif- ferent concepts. "The method of using the test was to place the printed list before the subjects and ask them to mark the words that they knew with a plus (+) sign, those that they did not with a minus ( ) sign, and doubtful ones with a question mark ( ?) . The tests, which numbered about two thousand, were made chiefly upon pupils from the fourth grade up through the high school and university, although a few were made upon younger children. Control tests showed that if the same test was given orally, there was some difference in the words marked as known and unknown. This difference was of course very great in the second and third grades, where a few tests were made, and became less with age, yet GENERAL DISCUSSION 33 it usually amounted even in the case of adults to from one to three per cent. In a few individuals the difference was quite marked" (33). Kirkpatrick found the individual differences in size of vocabulary to be very great, some ninth grade children falling to the rank of second grade children, while some in the third or fourth grades ranked with the average of those in the ninth grade or high school. In general, he found that those stu- dents who had read extensively ranked higher in size of vocabulary than those who had read little. He announces that in his own classes wh'ere students were ranged in three grades according to the num- ber of words which they knew in one list, other lists of words similarly selected resulted in 60 per cent to 80 per cent of them being again in the same grade. None changed from the lowest to the highest of the three classifications (33). The results of Kirkpat- rick's research will be tabulated later. Another form of vocabulary test was that con- ducted by R. W. Brown. Six members of the fresh- man course in English at Wabash College were the subjects for this investigation. Each student car- ried small cards with him at all times and endoavor- ed to catch all the words he used in ordinary speech and writing. The following classes of words were thrown out: all which were merely inflected forms of other words on the list; numbers, both cardinal and ordinal; pronouns and demonstratives; nouns used only as proper nouns; extremely technical terms; all except one word from each group of words obviously related in their origin ; all negatives in un and in except where only the negative form of the word exists, or where the positive is rare; and finally, all words in re and dis where the meaning could be readily gathered from the definitions of the root word and the prefix. In spite of such strenu- ous efforts to avoid any possible over-estimation, the total number of words we might almost say words entirely without relation to each other in ordinary 34 VOCABULARY STUDIES use by each of the several students who performed the experiment was found to be: 2,970; 3,190; 3,920 ; 4,510 ; 4,550 ; and 4,560. The students varied in age from 17 to 21 years. Their class room rec- ords ranged from the highest to the lowest. The words themselves "represent all the variety of in- terest which one would expect to find in a group of young men who are beginning their college course" (13). Although this particular experiment is of lit- tle value as regards the total number of words in a vocabulary, nevertheless it is of interest in that it gives us some inkling as to the number of words in ordinary individual usage a number unexpectedly large, especially when we consider the enormous number of words which were rejected in this test. Another interesting test was that carried on by Barnes with six freshmen and four upperclassmen at De Pauw University. Without having given them any previous intimation as to what he desired of them, Barnes called these students into his office and told them to write down all the words they could think of in two hours. The results were: Fresh- men, men, 1,114, 1,596, 1,789; women, 847, 948, 1,230. Upperclassmen, men, 1,239, 1,464; women, 1,489, 1,573. At the end of the two hours every stu- dent was still writing rapidly and insisted that he had by no means exhausted his supply. Many of the commonest words of every-day life had been omitted (4). E. H. Babbitt employed a vocabulary test, a little different in detail, but essentially the same as Pro- fessor Kirkpatrick's, to find the number of German words which could be defined by students when they entered the second year's work in the subject at col- lege. Some of these students were admitted on ex- amination. It was found that the vocabulary of those who could pass such an examination was nev- er less than 2,000 words, ranging from that to 5,000. The mark received on the entrance examination was GENERAL DISCUSSION 35 in close relation to the extent of the vocabulary. The test was repeated at the end of the year, the re- sults showing* that the vocabularies now ranged from 5,000 to 12,000. The marks on the final ex- amination at the end of this year's course were also in close relation to the extent of the vocabulary. Babbitt tried this plan for several years, and always got comparatively uniform results ( 1 ) . Later, Babbitt extended his investigations to the English language. He used an unabridged diction- ary containing over 100,000 words. The majority of the college sophomores upon whom he tried the experiment reported from 50,000 to 60,000 words. Babbitt claims that students who had not studied Greek regularly reported from 10,000 to 15,000 words less than those who had(l). Thus we see that different investigators have car- ried on the study of vocabularies in various ways with varying results. For the sake of convenience the following tables have been prepared, showing generalizations in regard to the size of vocabulary of students ranging from the second grade to the college : TABLE II. Average Vocabulary of Students in the Grades. A. Investigations by Kirkpatrick(33). Grade II 4480 Grade VI 8,700 Grade III 6620 Grade VII 10,660 Grade IV 7020 Grade VIII 12,000 Grade V 7860 Grade IX 13,400 B. Investigations by Doran(18). Grade VI 4,192 Grade VI 11,634 Grade VII 5,849 Grade VII 13,675 Grade VIII 7,937 Grade VIII 17,138 Grade IX 18,865 36 VOCABULARY STUDIES TABLE III. Average Vocabulary for High School Students. Investigations by Kirkpatrick(33). First year 15,640 Third year 17,600 Second year 16,020 Fourth year 18,720 TABLE IV. Average Vocabulary of Students in the Normal School. A. Investigations by Kirkpatrick(33). Average for all years, Normal School 19,000 B. Investigations by Dor an (18). First year 11,700 Fourth year 19,400 Second year 15,400 Fifth year 21,500 Third year 15,750 TABLE V. Average Vocabulary of College Students. A. Investigations by Kirkpatrick(33). Average for four years, College 20,120 B. Investigations by Whipple (59) . Average for four years, College 20,512 C. Investigations by Babbitt ( 1 ) . Sophomore Class, approximately 50,000 to 60,000 GENERAL DISCUSSION 37 TABLE VI. Average Vocabulary in Relation to Scholastic Status Investigations by Kirkpatrick(33). Scholastic Status Vocabulary Grade II 4,480 Grade III 6,620 Grade IV 7,020 Grade V 7,860 Grade VI 8,700 Grade VII 10,660 Grade VIII 12,000 Grade IX 13,400 High School, 1st year 15,640 High School, 2nd year 16,020 High School, 3rd year 17,600 High School, 4th year 18,720 Normal School, all years 19,000 College, all years 20,120 By reference to Table II it will be seen that Kirk- patrick's results for the sixth, seventh and eighth grades lie about midway between the two sets re- ported by Doran. The investigations by Doran of the students in the grades were conducted in two different schools, the first at Edmond, Oklahoma, and the second in a village school in Arkansas. It seems remarkable that such divergent results should have been obtained. Since the results obtained by Doran show, in general, a fairly close agreement to those reported by Kirkpatrick, and since the data at hand concerning the investigations of the latter is more complete, Table VI has been prepared, show- ing the average vocabulary in relation to scholastic status as ascertained by Kirkpatrick. This Table will again be referred to after the results of the ex- periments conducted at Colorado College have been presented. It is well to note that Babbitt, whose results show the size of the college student's vocabulary to be about three times as great as is reported by Kirk- 38 VOCABULARY STUDIES Patrick and Whipple, used a dictionary containing over 100,000 words, whereas the investigations of the other two were conducted by means of much smaller dictionaries. Further comment upon this matter will be made in Part IV. Note: Since the compilation of the above statistics and tables there has appeared, in School and Society, Nov. 13, 1915, an article concerning vocabulary tests as measures of school efficiency (10). The Kirkpatrick list of one hundred words was used in testing the children of the upper five grades of Speyer School, the demonstration school of Teach- ers College, Columbia University. A second test was con- ducted with a similar list obtained from Webster's Elemen- tary School Dictionary, which "includes over 44,000 entries, not including several thousand inflected forms." The Kirk- patrick list was selected from Webster's Academic Dictionary, which contains 28,000 words. The following table shows the results of these two series of tests : Kirkpatrick List. El. Diet. List. Kirkpatrick Speyer Speyer Grade Group Group Group 4 7,020 10,886 5 7,860 13,216 21,648 6 8,700 17,038 30,184 7 10,660 17,052 27,720 8 12,000 18,704 32,120 It was found in testing children in several neighboring schools that those of the Speyer School had a vocabulary from 10 to 25 per cent greater than those of the same grade in other schools. The difference is accounted for by the fact that the curriculum of ,the Speyer School is more intimately and vitally associated with every-day life and calls for more initiative on the part of the student than is the case in the usual elementary school curriculum. Babbitt experimented with a number of people who had never been to college, but, with a common school education, were regular readers of books and periodicals. These people generally reported the size of their vocabulary to be from 25,000 to 35,000 words. Some went much higher, even as high as the lower figures for the college students which were tested by Babbit ( 1 ) . Doran made a few individual tests among college students and others. These tests were, for the most * GENERAL DISCUSSION 39 part, based upon the Century and the Standard dic- tionaries. Some of his reports are interestnig to compare with the results of the other investigators. He reports a girl in the second year academy who knew 3,100 words; another girl in the third year academy who knew 26,600 ; a man in the fourth year academy reports 41,895 ; while two men in col- lege report 40,681 and 53,130 respectively (18). Three boys, aged about thirteen years, had vocab- ularies of 22,722 ; 26,376 ; and 28,480 words each. A young lady 19 years old who had not quite finished the literary course in a young lady's seminary, ap- parently knew 20,537 words when tested by a com- paratively small dictionary. With a large dictionary the result would doubtless have been much higher (18). Doran, by a very extensive test, found that a cer- tain young lady could define 92,161 words. He him- self, almost twenty years ago, knew 84,000. A few years later, however, he estimated his vocabulary at 100,000 words. He knew thousands of words not in the dictionary, for instance technical and vernacular names in Zoology, Botany, and other sciences (18). The experience of J. M. Greenwood is rather unique. He reports the following incident to have occurred during the first term he taught: "I had bought a second-hand copy of Webster's Academic Dictionary .... I took up Webster's Old Blue Book, and I marked down all the words between its two covers of whose meanings I had any doubts. There were sixty-eight of these words, and I hunted up their meanings in this dictionary, I had never looked into a dictionary of any kind a dozen times in my life before, and yet I was 'shakey' on only sixty- eight out of about 10,000 different words in that book" (18). Edwin S. DuPoncot, having a knowledge of more than twenty languages, estimates his total vocabu- lary for the entire number to comprise 302,000 40 VOCABULARY STUDIES words (18). Babbitt estimates the total number of words which he knew in nine languages, including English, to be 285,000(1). Table VII analyses the vocabularies of these two men. TABLE VII. Vocabularies of the Same Individual in Several Languages. A. Total Vocabulary of Edwin S. DuPoncot(18). English 70,000 Old High Ger. 5,000 French 50,000 Norwegian 3,000 German 45,000 Swedish 3,000 Spanish 35,000 Danish 3,000 Italian 25,000 Sanskrit 2,000 Latin 20,000 Anglo-Saxon 2,000 Portuguese 15,000 Hebrew 1,000 Old French 10,000 All others 3,000 Greek 10,000 Total 302,000 B. Total Vocabulary of E. H. Babbitt (1). English 65,000 Latin 18,000 German 58,000 Spanish 16,000 Danish 52,000 Greek 13,000 French 30,000 Old Norse 11,000 Italian 22,000 Total 285,000 The data at hand concerning the relation between the size of vocabulary and the class record of stu- dents is of too meagre and unreliable a nature for tabulation. Doran, as the result of his own obser- vations, concluded that those who ranked high in their classes had a good vocabulary ; and that those who had a good vocabulary ranked high in their classes. He comments thus: "It matters little whether we say students do well because they have GENERAL DISCUSSION 41 good vocabularies, or they have good vocabularies because they do well ; it matters little which is cause or which effect it follows that if you increase a stu- dent's vocabulary you increase his standing in his class. The one who has a vague, ill-defined know- ledge of words, has vague and ill-defined thoughts, and is incapable of definite, systematic, and logical thinking. If a word is a sign of an idea, bungling, meaningless expressions indicate a clouded, vacant brain" (18). Kirkpatrick found in general a tendency toward positive correlation between the size of vocabulary and class standing. In the case of individuals how- ever, there was often a wide divergence between the class room marks and the vocabulary-index. In the grades there was no clear proof of the relationship. In one instance a number of freshmen were tested and the vocabulary index compared to the class- room marks. The average number of words known to the men who in general ranked above the average of their class in the various subjects was 5 per cent greater than for those ranking below the average. The women who ranked highest in English averaged nearly 4 per cent better in size of vocabulary than those who ranked lowest in English (33). Whipple discovered a positive correlation between the vocabulary-index of a number of college stu- dents and their grades in his classes in educational psychology. He found that in general those stu- dents who had read the most books and magazines had the largest vocabularies (59). It has been suggested by a number of men that a vocabulary test might be employed as an examina- tion for college entrance. For example, Kirkpat- rick says : "The question naturally arises whether size of vocabulary and ability to define and use words is not a sufficiently accurate measure of the intellectual ability of youths to justify the use of vocabulary tests in examinations for entrance to 42 VOCABULARY STUDIES college. College work is supposed to be general in its character, demanding general ability, of which the vocabulary test Ought to give an indication. Of course if students should devote their time to a special study of the dictionary, the test would be- come special and valueless, since size of vocabulary would not then be an accompaniment and indication of experiences and intellectual advances, but of special study of modes of defining words in terms of other word symbols" (33). As to sex influences upon the size of vocabulary we again find little except of a very general nature. Kirkpatrick is of the. opinion that there is no constant difference between the sexes (33). Whip- pie did not feel that a positive sex difference had been established, though there was a suggestion of superiority of boys over girls, and of men over wom- en (59). Doran thought it very probable that up to the fourth or fifth year girls knew or used more words than boys did. Among students he claims that in northern schools boys in the same classes and of the same age knew more words than did the girls, while in southern schools the reverse was true. He supposes this geographical influence to arise from the fact that the northern boy is more bold, aggressive and interrogatory than the nor- thern girl or the southern boy ; the southern girl is supposedly bolder and more aggressive than her sis- ters of the north and her brothers of the south. Ac- cording to Doran, man should, in general, have the larger vocabulary because of his aggressive and in- quisitive disposition ( 18) . Several authors agree that in infancy up to the fourth or fifth year the girl knows the most words. The boy learns to talk at a later- age than the girl. For several years he is behind her in size of vocabu- lary, but at the age of five or six he takes the lead and retains it throughout the remainder of life. Thus, after the age of infancy the boy knows more GENERAL DISCUSSION 43 words than the girl, the man has command of a lar- ger vocabulary than the woman (18). The field of vocabulary study is a fertile one. The investigators in this line of work have been compar- atively few. Their methods of conducting the re- search have been various. The results and conclu- sions are more or less inconsistent. Yet, when we group their results as a whole, we find that a great deal has been accomplished by these pioneers in the study of vocabularies. PART III. FALSE DEFINITION TEST. The question has arisen as to the practicability of substituting a vocabulary test for examinations for college entrance, promotion, etc. Since a word is a sign of an idea, surely the more words one knows, the more ideas he possesses. The larger his vocabu- lary, the greater we would expect to find the scope of his general knowledge. If words indicate ideas and ideas indicate intelligence, why should we not simply employ a vocabulary test when the intellectual abili- ty or status of an individual is to be ascertained? In the case of grading, or rating, students in the schools and colleges, could a vocabulary test be sub- stituted, either wholly or partially, for the methods now. in vogue ? Is a vocabulary test a satisfactory substitute for examinations in determining the qual- ifications of an individual, either for admittance to a school or college or for advancement within or graduation from the school or college? Is there a correlation between grades or rank and the size of vocabulary? A satisfactory answer to -these ques- tions can be found only by the method of experimen- tation. The fundamental purpose of the vocabulary tests which were conducted at Colorado College was to as- certain what relation, if any, the size of an individu- al's vocabulary bore to that individual's college rank and grades. A secondary purpose was to discover whether or not sex influences play an important part in the size of vocabularies. The attempt to deter- FALSE DEFINITION TEST 45 / mine the actual size of individual vocabularies was given less consideration, for reasons which will pres- ently appear. We have seen that different investigators have used different methods for the determination of size of vocabulary. For testing the vocabulary of infants the actual words used by the infant during a certain period of time may be recorded. For determining the size of an adult's vocabulary the individual to be tested may be asked to define each word in the dic- tionary with which he is familiar. Or he may be asked to define, or perhaps simply indicate, each word of a representative group of which he knows the meaning, the total vocabulary being estimated from the smaller group. Other methods for ascer- taining the size of vocabularies have been employed, but these here mentioned, the one for testing infants and the other two for experimentation with adults, are probably the most noteworthy. For the experiments conducted at Colorado Col- lege a new form of vocabulary test was devised. The plan was to select one thousand representative words and have each followed by four definitions, of which one was correct and the other three wrong. The position of the correct definition among the four was determined purely by chance, the order being based upon the results of a number of casts of dice. The subject was requested to check the correct defi- nition of every word with which he was familiar. The one thousand words were selected from the Funk & Wagnalls New Standard Dictionary, in which the space devoted to the vocabulary comprises 2757 pages ; the method was to take the first word of the third column of every third page and of every thirtieth page. The object being, obviously, simply to obtain representatively distributed words. After the words were selected it was found that a large number of them were so unusual as to be, for the most part, unfamiliar to the average person. For 46 VOCABULARY STUDIES this reason the system of using four definitions, correct and three wrong, for each word, as explained above, was applied to only six hundred of the words on the entire list; of the remaining four hundred, consisting of such terms as were considered unfa- miliar to the average person, the subject was asked to define those words which he knew. This division of the entire list of one thousand words into two parts was done as a matter of convenience, both to the experimenter and to the subject, and for the sake of economy. The reason for employing a sys- tem whereby the subject checks the correct defini- tion rather than a system in which the subject must actually furnish the definition himself is twofold: in the first place, definitions, whether written or oral, as given by students or others who are not specialists in philology are often of a very vague and hazy nature so vague and hazy in fact that it is at times impossible to determine whether the subject really knows the word or not ; in the second place, a person may be familiar with a word but because of lack of proper associations he may be unable to de- fine it in terms of other word symbols. It was for the purpose of minimizing these difficulties that the system of four definitions was used. It is quite ob- vious that the difficulties above referred to would still be encountered in the list of four hundred words those for which no definitions were furnished; however, these words were for the most part so un- usual to the average person that the final results were vitiated very little by the fact that for this part of the list definitions were not furnished. In preparing the list of words, biographical and geographical terms were omitted. Excluding these, the total number of words remaining in the diction- ary used amounts to approximately 375,000. This number includes derivatives, compounds, homo- nyms, variants, obseletes, colloquialisms, etc. Owing to the manner of selecting the words used in the vocabulary test, and because of the dictionary ar- FALSE DEFINITION TEST 47 rangement of main words and relatives or sub- words, the list of one thousand words is not a fail- sample of the entire 375,000. However, it is safe to say that, at the lowest possible calculation, the list of words as used in the test is representative of not less than 250,000 vocabulary terms. In recording the results the number of words hav- ing the correct definition checked was noted ; from this, one third of the number of words wrongly checked was deducted, the theory being that accord- ing to the laws of probability the subject could, by pure chance, guess the correct definition for unfami- liar words once out of every four times ; so that for every three which he had guessed wrongly the chances were in favor of his having guessed one cor- rectly. To the number of words thus determined as known on the list of six hundred was added the number of words correctly defined on the list of four hundred. The result, that is, the total number of words considered as known on both lists, was called the vocabulary index. The vocabulary index mul- tiplied by the number of words of which each word of the test is representative gives the total vocabu- lary. Thus, if we consider this test as representa- tive of 250,000 words, in order to calculate the size of the total vocabulary the index must be multiplied by 250. Owing to the method of selecting the words, as explained above, the best we can hope for in the present test as regards the size of the entire vocabulary is a very rough approximation. But in using these figures the results can scarcely be too high. The minimum is used because of the fact that even the results as thus obtained in regard to the size of individual vocabularies are greatly in excess of those obtained by other investigators. Whatever may be the faults and inadequacies of the system of vocabulary test that has just been de- scribed, the test is at least relative. It was not de- signed primarily as a means of determining the 48 VOCABULARY STUDIES size of an individual's total vocabulary, but rather for the investigation of such relationship as it was felt might exist between the size of vocabulary and grades or sex. It is the opinion of the writer that for this purpose the test is wholly adequate and practicable. A sample of the test sheets as actually used will be found in the appendix and may be re- ferred to at any time. In conducting the vocabulary experiments at Colo- rado College the subjects were obtained chiefly from classes in Psychology, Education, and English. In this way, strictly representative groups were se- cured, especially since the courses in Psycology and in English were required respectively of all Juniors and Freshmen. For tabulation the subjects were grouped according to college classification. The ex- periment was extended to include a number of high school seniors and freshmen. A few individuals other than college or high school students were also tested. Subjects were requested not to check words of which they were reasonably doubtful. They were warned that a certain deduction would be made for all wrongly marked. And yet, though many of the subjects thought the deduction would consist of as many words as they had wrongly checked, the av- erage number of words incorrectly marked on each list of six hundred was almost fifty. This shows how predominant is the characteristic of tending to overestimate one's mental capacity. The results of these experiments are to be found in Tables VIII to XXIV inclusive. The results are tabulated in regard to the size of the vocabulary in- dex, being arranged in regularly descending order. Tables VIII to XIII inclusive show the words by classes without regard to sex. Tables XIV to XIX inclusive illustrate the sex influences. Tables XX and XXI show the results obtained from the experi- ments carried on with a few individuals not regis- tered in college or high school. Table XXII pre- FALSE DEFINITION TEST 49 sents the relation between vocabulary and major subject. Table XXIII offers generalizations in ref- erence to sex differences, and Table XXIV pre- sents calculations in regard to the total size of vocab- ularies. In the tables the index number (Ind. No.) refers to the particular person, or "subject", under con- sideration. In other words, the index number is merely a substitute for the subject's name. The vo- cabulary index (V.I.) shows the number of words known in the total list of one thousand (after all corrections and deductions had been made). The average grade (Av. G.) has reference to the aver- age grade or mark received by the individual for all his college or high school classes. The age is given in years and is only approximate. Sex is indicated by M. for male and F. for female. TABLE VIII. College Seniors. Ind. No. V. I. Av. G. Age. Sex 4D2 492 93 22 M. 4H2 449 82 23 F. 4W1 417 89 24 M. 452 408 86 27 F. 4D1 405 83 26 M. 4S1 396 91 23 F. 4K1 389 81 22 F. 453 374 89 21 F. 4H3 358 79 21 M. 4M1 354 75 25 F. 4H1 339 73 24 F. 4R1 339 71 22 F. 4G1 329 85 23 F. 4A1 301 80 23 M. 4B1 295 82 28 F. Total 5645 1239 354 (Continued on next page) 50 VOCABULARY STUDIES (Table VIII, continued) Average 376.3 82.6 23.6 Median 374 82 23 M. V. 42.89 4.97 1.65 TABLE IX. College Juniors. Ind. No. V. I. Av. G. Age. Sex 3J2 467 91 27 F 352 445 92 21 F. 3S1 442 89 22 M. 3N1 442 78 21 M. 3H8 437 78 24 M. 3H2 436 86 22 M. 3S8 435 88 20 F. 3M1 427 78 21 M. 3W1 424 74 20 F. 3G3 407 80 23 F. 3E2 404 82 22 F. 3H6 403 72 21 F. 3B6 402 69 22 F. 353 391 77 22 M. 3C2 381 78 23 M. 3S6 379 88 21 F. 3R3 376 82 21 M. 354 369 76 21 F. 3T2 367 75 21 M. 3E1 365 75 21 M. 3B9 365 , 68 22 F. 3F1 358 78 23 F. 3Y1 358 77 23 F. 3H7 357 83 22 F. 3B5 356 75 21 M. 3F2 355 78 20 F. 3H1 355 76 20 F. (Continued on next page) FALSE DEFINITION TEST 51 3E3 354 3B7 345 3D1 345 3T1 342 3L1 337 3V1 333 3B3 327 3B2 327 3J1 324 3H5 318 3B4 314 3G2 314 3P2 311 3L2 299 3P1 291 3S5 279 3C1 279 3B1 274 3R2 269 3B8 264 3R1 , 264 3S7 222 3G1 221 3H4 216 3H3 208 Total 18080 Average 347.7 Median 355 M. V. 48.9 (Table IX, continued) 85 21 F. 86 22 M. 78 22 F. 73 22 M. 85 21 F. 80 22 F. 85 26 F. 71 24 M. 76 22 F. 82 20 F. 70 23 M. 86 22 M. 80 20 F. i 88 22 F. 91 21 F. 78 22 F. 67 25 M. 72 21 F. 69 22 M. 77 20 F. 75 28 F. 87 24 F. 69 21 F. 84 25 M. 75 24 F. 4112 1149 79.1 22.1 78 22 3.48 1.2 52 VOCABULARY STUDIES TABLE X. College Sophomores. Ind. No. 2J2 2W6 2H2 2N1 2S4 2T2 2F1 2P1 2T1 2W2 2B3 2K1 2G3 2W3 2B6 2C6 2B5 2M2 2G2 2W1 2W4 2D2 2W5 2J1 2S1 2T3 2C5 2C1 2S2 2M1 2S3 2A1 2C4 2C3 2B4 V.I. 434 418 414 409 403 401 398 395 388 383 380 375 371 367 362 355 354 354 351 350 345 341 340 338 331 330 328 327 324 322 321 320 314 312 311 Av. G. 77 76 80 77 77 79 92 87 90 81 87 72 94 78 86 80 71 70 72 65 67 76 75 68 82 93 80 93 66 87 85 88 86 73 66 Age. Sex 20 M. 23 M. 20 F. 23 M. 22 M. 22 F. 21 M. 24 F. 26 F. 21 M. 19 F. 23 M. 20 F. 25 M. 19 M. 21 F. 21 M. 24 M. 20 F. 22 F. 21 M. 19 F. 21 F. 23 M. 20 F. 21 M.. 22 F. 18 F. 23 M. 23 F. 21 F. 20 F. 20 F. 18 F. 23 M. (Continued on next page) FALSE DEFINITION TEST 53 (Table X> continued) 2C2 296 67 23 2E1 287 86 22 2H1 286 76 21 2L1 281 72 22 2Y1 280 87 21 2D1 277 81 20 2B2 273 76 19 2B1 271 79 19 2G1 194 63 20 Total 15011 3463 936 Average 341.2 78.7 21.25 Median 340.5 78.5 21 M. V. 38.3 6.9 1.45 F. F. F. F. M. F. F. F. M. Ind. No. 1J2 1W4 1S5 1A2 1R3 1A3 1H3 1R2 1C1 1F2 1S9 IC2 1G4 1G6 1B1 101 1M9 1S3 TABLE XL College Freshmen. V. I. Av. G. 420 411 401 387 382 381 372 372 371 370 365 364 356 355 352 351 346 346 65 73 69 60 84 54 84 75 85 79 75 78 67 73 91 62 76 66 Age. 20 19 20 19 23 20 21 19 17 19 21 19 19 20 20 22 18 19 Sex M. M. M. M. F. M. M. M. M. M. F. M. M. M. F. M. F. F. (Continued on next page) 54 VOCABULARY STUDIES (Table XI, continued) 1K3 340 77 18 F 1P2 339 88 18 M 1A1 337 71 20 M 1M3 335 76 20 F 1S1 333 66 21 F 1F1 331 84 20 F* 1J1 330 92 20 M 1S4 329 83 19 M 1M7 329 65 21 M 1B3 321 74 20 M' 1G2 320 71 21 M IMS 317 63 21 F 1S6 315 76 19 F* 1W1 311 87 19 F 1H1 305 76 20 F* INI 297 72 19 F 1ST 294 67 21 F 1D2 293 82 20 M. 1M6 292 88 18 F 1T3 290 72 18 F* 1P3 283 67 24 M. 1K1 282 80 20 F 1W5 277 66 24 M 1S2 277 52 19 M.' 1L4 276 70-17 F 1D1 276 65 20 M 1K2 273 88 20 M 1H4 268 75 22 M* 1N2 267 65 19 F* 1T4 265 69 20 F* 1F3 261 72 19 F* 1L2 260 61 20 M 1B2 259 76 19 M. 1G5 257 66 20 F 1T1 251 86 18 M 1G3 246 92 19 F 1S8 245 77 29 M 1E1 238 68 20 F.' (Continued on next page) FALSE DEFINITION TEST 55 (Table XI, continued) 1L2 1M5 1M4 1W2 1P1 1T2 1B4 1B5 1W3 1H2 1R1 1M2 1M1 1L3 235 234 232 230 229 223 220 217 215 177 175 173 130 111 Total 20622 Average 294.6 Median 293.5 M. V. 53.6 62 19 67 19 65 22 59 19 72 19 81 17 73 19 73 19 65 19 61 19 56 20 87 19 57 20 57 20 5076 1387 72.5 19.8 72 20 7.9 1.1 F. F. F. M. F. M. F. F. F. M. F. F. M. M. Ind. No. V.I. 04E1 426 04S3 376 04S1 366 04G1 365 04T1 363 04R1 332 04H1 330 04G2 327 0401 326 04L2 310 04M1 305 04B1 296 TABLE XII. High School Seniors. Av. G. Age. Sex A 18 F. B 17 F. A 19 M. B 18 M. A 18 F. B 19 F. B 18 F. B 17 M. C 18 F. B 20 M. C 18 F. B 18 F. (Continued on next page) 56 VOCABULARY STUDIES (Table XII, continued) 04B3 278 C 19 04G3 274 A 19 04B2 273 B 18 04C1 265 B 19 04L1 257 B 19 04K1 248 B 18 04C2 245 C 18 04H2 238 A 17 04S2 204 B 18 Total 6404 383 Average 305 18.24 Median 305 18 M. V. 44.9 .94 M. F. F. F. M. M. F. M. F. TABLE XIII. High School Freshmen. Ind. No. V. I. 01S4 352 01G1 339 01M2 317 01M1 314 01A1 305 01P1 300 01T1 297 01L1 295 0151 290 01Y1 276 01N2 270 01H1 264 01S3 264 0152 258 01M3 256 01J2 245 01D2 231 01J1 218 (Continued on next page) Av. G. Age. Sex A 15 M. C 16 M. B 14 M. A 17 F. A 15 F. A 17 F. B 16 M. B 15 M. A 15 F. C 16 F. B 14 M. B 14 F. B 16 M. B 15 M. C 15 F. C 16 M. C 15 M. C 15 F. FALSE DEFINITION TEST 57 01N1 01D1 01P2 01F1 Total Average Median M. V. (Table 202 196 194 182 XIII, continued) B 14 C 16 C 16 B 16 5865 266.6 267 38.4 338 15.4 15 .5 F. M. M. F. TABLE XIV. Sex Influences. A. Male. Ind. No. V.I. 4D2 492 4W1 417 4D1 405 4H3 358 4A1 301 Total 1973 Average 394.6 Median 405 M. V. 52.1 College Seniors. B. Female Ind. No. V. I. 4H2 449 4S2 408 4S1 396 4K1 389 4S3 374 4M1 354 4H1 339 4R1 339 4G1 329 4B1 295 Total 3672 Average 367.2 Median 364 M. V. 36 TABLE XV. Sex Influences. College Juniors. A. Male. B. Female Ind. No. V. I. Ind. No. V. I. 3S1 442 3J2 467 3N1 442 3S2 445 (Continued on next page) 58 VOCABULARY STUDIES (Table XV, continued) 3H8 437 3S8 435 3H2 436 3W1 424 3M1 427 3G3 407 3S3 391 3E2 404 3C2 381 3H6 403 3R3 376 3B6 402 3T2 367 . 3S6 379 3E1 365 3S4 369 3B5 356 3B9 365 3B7 345 3F1 358 3T1 342 3Y1 358 3B2 327 3H7 357 3B4 314 3F2 355 3G2 314 3H1 355 3C1 279 3E3 354 3R2 269 3D1 345 3H4 216 3L1 337 3V1 333 Total 6826 3B3 327 Average 359.3 3J1 324 Median 365 3H5 318 M. V. 44.3 3P2 311 3L2 299 3P1 291 3S5 279 3B1 274 3B8 264 3R1 264 3S7 222 3G1 221 3H3 208 Total 11254 Average 344 Median 354 M. V. 50.5 FALSE DEFINITION TEST 59 TABLE XVI. Sex Influences. College Sophomores A. Male. B. Female Ind. No. V. I. Ind. No. V. I. 2J2 434 2H2 414 2W6 418 2T2 401 2N1 409 2P1 395 403 2T1 388 2F1 398 2B3 380 2W2 383 2G3 371 2K1 375 2C6 355 2W3 367 2G2 351 2B6 362 2W1 350 2B5 354 2D2 341 2M2 354 2W5 340 2W4 345 2S1 331 2J1 338 2C5 328 2T3 330 2C1 327 2S2 324 2M1 322 2B4 311 2S3 321 2Y1 280 2A1 320 2G1 194 2C4 314 2C3 312 Total 6379 2C2 296 Average 354.4 2E1 287 Median 358 2H1 286 M. V. 39.9 2L1 281 2D1 277 2B2 273 2B1 271 Total - 8632 Average 332 Median 327.5 M. V. 33.4 60 VOCABULARY STUDIES TABLE XVII. Sex Influences. College Freshmen. A. Male. B. Female Ind. No. V. I. Ind. No. V. I. 1J2 420 1R3 382 1W4 411 1S9 365 1S5 401 1B1 352 1A2 387 1M9 346 1A3 381 1S3 346 1H3 372 1K3 340 1R2 372 1M3 335 1C1 * 371 . 1S1 333 1F2 370 1F1 331 1C2 364 1M8 317 1G4 356 1S6 315 1G6 355 1W1 311 101 351 1H1 305 1P2 339 INI 297 1A1 337 1S7 294 Ul 330 1M6 292 1S4 329 1T3 290 1M7 329 1K1 282 1B3 321 1L4 276 1G2 320 1N2 267 1D2 293 1T4 265 1P3 283 1F3 261 1W5 277 1G5 257 1S2 277 1G3 , 246 1D1 276 1E1 238 1K2 273 1L2 235 1H4 268 1M5 234 1L2 260 1M4 232 1B2 259 1P1 229 1T1 251 1B4 220 1S8 245 1B5 217 1W2 230 1W3 215 1T2 223 1R1 175 (Continued on next page) FALSE DEFINITION TEST 61 (Table XVII, continued) 1H2 177 1M2 173 1M1 130 1L3 111 Total Average Total 11049 Median Average 306.9 M. V. Median 325 M. V. 59.9 l^ABLE XVIII. Sex Influences. High School Seniors. A. Male. B. Female Ind. No. V. I. Ind. No. V. I. 04S1 366 04E1 426 04G1 365 04S3 376 04G2 327 04T1 363 04L2 310 04R1 332 04B3 278 04H1 330 04L1 257 0401 326 04K1 248 04M1 305 04H2 238 04B1 296 04G3 274 Total 2389 04B2 273 Average 298.6 04C1 265 Median 294 04C2 245 M. V. 43.4 04S2 204 Total 4015 Average 308.8 Median 305 M. V. 46.1 62 VOCABULARY STUDIES TABLE XIX. Sex Influences. A. Male. Ind. No. V. I. 01S4 352 01G1 339 01M2 317 01T1 297 01L1 295 01N2 270 01S3 264 01S2 258 01J2 245 01D2 231 01D1 196 01P2 194 Total 3258 Average 271.5 Median 267 M. V. 40.4 High School Freshmen. B. Female Ind. No. V. I. 01M1 01A1 01P1 01S1 01Y1 01H1 01M3 -01J1 01N1 01F1 Total Average Median M. V. 314 305 300 290 276 264 256 218 202 182 TABLE XX. General. Ind. No. V. I. Bl 576 Jl 510 B2 498 SI 490 Al 461 Rl 452 G2 451 Gl 430 G4 429 HI 426 Wl 414 (Continued on next page) Sex M. F. M. M. F. M. M. F. F. M. F. FALSE DEFINITION TEST 63 G3 Kl H2 W2 Dl (Table XX, continued) 384 376 368 333 315 Total Average Median M. V. F. F. F. F. M. 6913 432 429.5 51.7 A. Ind. No. Bl 576 B2 498 SI 490 Rl 452 G2 451 HI 426 Dl 315 TABLE XXI. Sex Influences. General. Male. V.I. Total 3208 Average 458.3 Median 452 M. V. 39.8 B. Female Ind. No. V. I. Jl 510 Al 461 Gl 430 G4 429 Wl 414 G3 384 Kl 376 H2 368 W2 333 Total 3705 Average 411.7 Median 414 M.V. 41 64 VOCABULARY STUDIES TABLE XXII. Relation Between Major Subject and Vocabulary Ind. No. 3J2 3H2 3W1 3G3 3E2 3H6 3C2 3R3 3S4 3T2 3B9 3F1 3Y1 3H7 3H1 3E3 3L1 3B3 3J1 3H5 3G2 3P2 3L2 3P1 3S5 3C1 3B1 3R1 3S7 3H4 3H3 College Juniors. V. I. Major Subject 467 English. 436 Physics 424 Biology 407 Economics 404 English 403 English 381 English 376 Biology 369 English 367 English 365 Education 358 English 358 Education 357 Biology 355 Psycology 354 English 337 German 327 Education 324 English 318 English 314 English 311 English 299 Latin 291 Mathematics 279 English 279 Chemistry 274 Philosophy 264 English 222 History 216 Mathematics 208 Biology FALSE DEFINITION TEST 65 TABLE XXIII. Sex Influences upon Size of Vocabulary. Scholastic Status. V. I. Male. V. I. Female College Seniors 394.6 367.2 College Juniors 359.3 344 College Sophomores 354.4 332 College Freshmen 306.9 281.6 High School Seniors 298.6 308.8 High School Fr'hmen 271.5 260.7 Total* 1985.3 1894.3 Average* 330.9 315.7 Total for College only,* 1415.2 1324.8 Av. for College only* 353.8 331.2 TABLE XXIV. Average Vocabulary in Relation to Scholastic Status Scholastic Status. Vocabulary. High School Freshmen 66,650 High School Seniors 76,250 College Freshmen 73,650 College Sophomores 85,300 College Juniors 86,925 College Seniors 94,075 High School, average* 71,450 College, average* 84,988 A glance at the tables is sufficient to convince the most skeptical that, taking the cases individually, there is no agreement worthy of note between the size of vocabulary and scholastic grades. In the case of the college seniors the individual who leads in the vocabulary list also has the highest grade. But the person ranking second in size of vocabulary falls below the average in respect to grades. Among * Computed by class averages. 66 VOCABULARY STUDIES the juniors we find an individual with a grade of 91, which is exceptionally high, ranking far down on the scale in size of vocabulary. The sophomore leading the list has a grade of 77, which is below the average, while the freshman leading his class in vo- cabulary has an average grade of only 65. In brief, considering the cases individually, we are forced to the conclusion that there is absolutely no agreement adequate for practical purposes between the size of vocabulary and scholastic grades. Nevertheless, in a very general way there is a cer- tain agreement between size of vocabulary and grades. Thus, if we take the average vocabulary in- dex for all the college seniors who rank above the average in scholastic grades and compare this with the vocabulary index for all those seniors ranking below the average in grades we find a difference of 50. The vocabulary indices are 403 for those above the average grade and 353 for those below. Treating the other college classes similarly the results show that in every instance the average vocabulary index for those students ranking above the average in scho- lastic grades is greater than that for those ranking below the average. The figures are, for the juniors, 355.2 and 342.2, giving a difference of 13; for the sophomores, 343.4 and 338.9, the difference being 4.5; and for the freshmen, 310.5 and 279.6, with a difference of 30.9. We may, therefore, make the assertion that in a very general way there is a posi- tive correlation between size of Vocabulary and scho- lastic grades. Tables XIV to XIX inclusive show that, in gener- al, the vocabulary of the male is somewhat larger than that of the female. This fact is shown more clearly in Table XXIII. In only one class, the high school seniors, does the average vocabulary for the female exceed that for the male. Taking the college classes only, the superiority of the male's vocabulary is quite marked. It is well to state here that, in the FALSE DEFINITION TEST 67 opinion of the writer, the college students who acted as subjects for this vocabulary test were more repre- sentative than were the high school students. This was due to the manner in which these subjects were selected. Furthermore, in the college classes, with the exception of the seniors, the groups tested are much larger than in the high school classes. For this reason the data concerning the college students is probably more reliable than that concerning the high school students. Tables XX and XXI, which present data concern- ing a number of people not entered in either the high school or the college, are offered merely for compari- son, and as individual tests having to do with total size of vocabularies. The persons experimented up- on were from various walks of life, some of them be- ing college graduates and others having had only a common grade school education. Their ages are for the most part between 20 and 30. The number of persons is too few and the data concerning them too inadequate to furnish material for reliable conclu- sions. The persons are certainly not representative of the average type of individual. The majority of them are college graduates. Several, however, who have had no college education, perhaps not even a high school education, rank above the average of this group in size of vocabulary. And the average for this group is far above that for any other group considered. According to the data presented in Table XXII, there is little, if any, relation between major subject and size of vocabulary. Apparently English majors are slightly above the average, though without more complete data we are not warranted in arriving at any trustworthy conclusions in this respect. As a matter of fact, among the seniors who were tested those majoring in English were not up to the aver- age in respect to size of vocabulary. Only juniors are represented in Table XXII, the reason being 68 VOCABULARY STUDIES that for this class only was there sufficient data at hand for adequate tabulation concerning majors. The seniors were not selected due to the paucity of those tested. Table XXII should, however, prob- ably suffice to show that major subjects furnish us with no means of judging reliably the relative size of vocabularies. Note. A great deal has been said, especially in recent years, concerning the value of Latin and Greek and the effects of these subjects upon the English vocabulary. As has been previously mentioned, the tests at Colorado College give us practically no reliable data on this phase of the subject. In the writer's opinion, however, the value of a study of the classics in connection with English has been somewhat uni- versally overestimated. A few possibly go to the other ex- treme. Beyer says, "Ninety-nine and a half per cent of the words we speak and hear are native English" (9). Cham- berlain claims that the modern English requires "a lexicon nearly fifty times as large as that which interprets all there is left of the prose and verse of her would-be Latin masters" (15). It is true that many of our words are based upon Latin and Greek roots, while a comparatively few have come to us with little or no change. However, it is well to bear in mind the fact that modern English words which are founded upon Latin or Greek bases have in many cases be- come so dissimilar to the originals that even the best student of the classics is unable to define them accurately simply Dy applying their former classical meaning. The writer has observed a number of hiq-hly ludicrous attempts at the defini- tion of English words by use of the meaning of the Latin or Greek originals. Nevertheless, let us not lose sight of the fact that in general extensive knowledge of Latin and Greek roots, prefixes, and suffixes will prove to be an almost incal- culable aid in certain lines of study, especially in a number of the sciences. It is in this realm that we may expect the clos- est approximation to the English definition by use of the original meaning. That the classics are a great aid to the scientist who wishes to form new words need not be question- ed. For example, the chemist may desire to follow the Ger- man plan of including in one word an entire descriptive sen- tence, and as a result we have the following rather startling contribution: tetramethyldiamidotriphenylmethane. The psy- chologist desires to use a term expressing an unreasonable fear of losing one's position; not being able to find such a term in the dictionary, he has recourse to the classics and manufactures the word, deempleophobia; this word carries FALSE DEFINITION TEST 69 with it the antonym expressive of the hobo's attitude toward work, empleophobia ; similarly, as a counter-term to empleo- mania we may devise the expression, deempleomania. Thus the classics are called to aid when the approved vernacular is found to be inadequate. The results offered in Table XXIV are computed on the basis that each word in the vocabulary test represents 250 words in the dictionary. According to these calculations the average college student is in command of 85,000 words, while the average high school student knows about 14,000 fewer terms. These results seem very much out of proportion when compared with the figures offered by other in- vestigators. Additional comment upon this matter is to be found in Part IV of this treatise. It is of interest to note the extremely wide vari- ation in the size of individual vocabularies. For ex- ample, a number of college freshmen rank above the average senior in vocabulary index. Several high school freshmen rank higher than the lowest of the college seniors. One high school senior actually has at command, if the test is a reliable indicator, more words than any one of the college freshmen. The mean variation of a group demonstrates nicely the wide range of individuals within the group. We have seen that there is no correlation, except in a very inadequately general way, between size of vocabulary and scholastic grades. Can we then ad- here to the statement that words represent intelli- gence? Is theory overthrown by fact? Grades rep- resent a certain kind of intelligence. If words also represent intelligence, and there is no correlation worthy of note between grades and size of vocabu- lary, how are we to explain this paradox ? We find, furthermore, that, as a general rule, the vocabulary of the male is larger than that of the female. Is there any explanation for this phenomenon ? Then, too, how are we to explain the great discrepancy which these tests which have just been described 70 VOCABULARY STUDIES bear toward the experiments of others in reference to the total size of vocabularies? These problems and others of a similar nature will be discussed in "Dm4- T\T Part IV. CONCLUSIONS. PART IV. As has been previously mentioned, we find in the field of vocabulary research a wide divergence of opinion. It is only by the generalization of data col- lected from various sources that one is able to arrive at trustworthy conclusions. Consideration must al- so be given to the methods employed by the investi- gators. Let us review briefly several of the most important of these methods. In determining the vocabulary of an infant, doubtless the most satisfactory process is that of re- cording all the words used by the infant during a period, a month for instance ; taking care that arti- ficial occasions are produced for the use of such words as it is felt the child may know but has failed to use spontaneously. This method, or a variation of it, is the only one feasible for the study of the vocabulary of a very young child. It is obvious that the infant cannot define words in terms of other word symbols, nor can he recognize definitions of words in terms of other words. Hence the only adequate manner in which the vocabulary of the child up to the fifth or sixth year can be determined is to record the words actually used by* him. The method of recording the words actually used is of little value for investigations beyond the age of infancy. For after the child has reached the age 72 VOCABULARY STUDIES of five or six he knows a great number of words which he has no occasion to use in ordinary conver- sation. Therefore a different method must be em- ployed for the calculation of his vocabulary. To the writer it seems that in order to record with even satisfactory approximation the child's vocabu- lary after he has passed the age of infancy, resort must be had to the dictionary. For the child in the lower grades a small dictionary, such as the Elemen- tary School Edition of Webster's, should be efficient. The investigator should present the words, one at a time, to the child, asking him to define, or explain, each word with which he is familiar. Such words as it is felt the child does not know may be omitted from the test. Until the child has reached an age at which he is able to recognize in print practically all the words which he knows, the experiment must be conducted vocally, on the part of both the instruc- tor and the child. A less accurate method than that of taking all the words in the dictionary is to take a representative list and calculate the total vocabulary from the number of words known in this list. The latter process is, except in the case of thorough in- dividual tests, the most satisfactory, especially for older children and adults. As the child grows older a larger dictionary should be used. For adults the largest dictionary available will give the most reliable results. For the older child and the adult the experiment may be conducted either orally or in writing or print. If the individual who is being tested is required to give definitions for the words, the final result will be the number of words which he can actually define. This might, for want of a better term, perhaps be called his absolute vocabulary. However, every person is more or less familiar with a number of words which he can not define but would recognize in context. These words, together with those which he can actu- ally define, would constitute his understanding vo- CONCLUSIONS 73 cabulary.* The term "practical vocabulary" may be applied to either of these two kinds of vocabularies depending entirely upon the manner of consider- ing the term. For the former, or absolute, vocabu- lary is practical in one sense that of individual usage; while merely for the purpose of individual understanding, the latter vocaublary is. to be consid- ered practical. For the estimation of an individual's absolute vo- cabulary the greatest difficulty to be encountered is in regard to the accuracy of his definitions. It is of- ten extremely hard to judge by a person's definition of a word whether or not the meaning of the word is clear to him. The system of having the subject merely mark those words with which he is familiar is very unreliable and should not be used without an adequate means of checking the errors. In order to estimate an individual's understand- ing vocabulary a system similar to that used by the writer will probably prove to be the most satis- factory. In this particular instance definitions were supplied for only a portion of the words. The re- mainder are so unusual, however, that even though suggestions had been offered few of the words would have been known to the average person. Further- more, these words for which definitions were not supplied are for the most part of such a nature that in order to be able to understand them, except in a vague, general way, one must be able actually to define them. Note: Certain preliminary investigations and obser- vances lead the writer to believe that a reasonably adequate *Dr. G. Stanley Hall apparently recognizes a very similar distinction: "He (the child) may live as a peasant, using, as Max Muller says many do, but a few hundred words during his lifetime, or he may need 8,000, like Milton, 15,000, like Shakespeare, 20,000 or 30,000, like Huxley, who commanded both literary and technical terms ; while in understanding, which far outstrips use, a philologist may master perhaps 100,000 or 200,000 words" (23). 74 VOCABULARY STUDIES test for determining the size of an individual's vocabulary could be obtained by simply applying a thorough dictionary test of all the words beginning with the letter c; the result multiplied by 10 should give a fairly close approximation to the total vocabulary size. It is the writer's hope at some future date to be able to present a scale of perhaps one thousand words, arranged in order of their difficulty, beginning with the simplest words of infancy and ending with the most complex words of ma- turity. The scale could be graded in terms of percentage or otherwise. In order to conduct a vocabulary test with this scale, the experimenter would merely determine at what posi- tion on the scale the individual tested could no longer give adequate definitions; it goes without soying that allowances would need to be made for isolated words, both known and unknown. A suggestive list somewhat of this sort is to be found in the appendix. Preliminary investigations with this list have been very encouraging. Let us now review briefly the results of the tests which have to do with size of vocabulary in com- parison to scholastic grades. Doran believed that those who ranked high in their classes had a good vocabulary, and that those who had a good vocabu- lary ranked high in their classes. Kirkpatrick found in general a tendency toward positive corre- lation between size of vocabulary and class records (33). Whipple arrived at similar conclusions (59). Kirkpatrick even suggests that vocabulary tests might be substituted for college entrance examina- tions (33). Babbitt actually employed a vocabulary test in connection with examination for entrance to, and graduation from, certain courses in German (1). The results of the experiments conducted at Colo- rado College prove conclusively that the substitution of a vocabulary test for examinations to determine a person's qualifications in regard to scholastic stat- us as recorded in the present system of grading would be absolutely futile. Individuals making very high grades are to be found near the bottom as well as at the top of the vocabulary scale. Other indi- viduals whose grades are below the passing mark rank far above the average in size of vocabulary. Results of classes overlap, even through such a wide CONCLUSIONS 75 range as that between the high school freshmen and the college seniors. Though there is a very general positive correlation between size of vocabulary and scholastic grades, the individual variations are too common and too great to permit conclusions to the effect that a person having a large vocabulary will make good grades, or vice versa. How then are we to explain the paradoxical state- ment that vocabularies, as well as grades, are an in- dication of intellect? Since a word is the sign of an idea, and since ideas make for intellect, certainly the more words, and combinations of words, which an individual has at his command, the greater will be his range of intelligence. But this is general in- telligence. Class grades are an indication of ap- plied, or specific, intelligence. Herein we see the explanation for the lack of positive correlation be- tween grades and size of vocabulary. Though both indicate intelligence, the intelligence in the one case is specific while in the other it is general. A person of comparatively low general intelligence may, by thorough application to the particular subjects un- der consideration, make most excellent grades. Whereas a person ranking high in general intelli- gence may encounter either a real or an imaginary obstacle in the way of his making high marks in the class room. In certain cases it may actually be im- possible for a person of high intellect to apply his intelligence to the particular subject under consider- ation with sufficient specificity to rank high in that subject. Scholastic grades are an indication of the specific application of intelligence. This intelli- gence may be either general or specific in itself. Or- dinarily we would expect the person with high gen- eral intelligence to be able to apply himself specifi- cally with more effectiveness than the person with a low rate of general intelligence. This supposition is confirmed by the fact that in a very general way there is a positive correlation between size of vocab- ulary and grades. 76 VOCABULARY STUDIES In regard to sex influences, other investigators have furnished us with very little reliable data. Sev- eral authors agree that there seems to be a tendency toward a larger vocabulary for the man than for the woman. The boy, except in the case of infants, is thought to know more words than the girl. Among infants, it is generally agreed, the girl has the larger vocabulary. It is commonly known that girls usu- ally learn to talk at an earlier age than do boys. Though data to prove these statements is lacking, we may doubtless accept them as reliable.* According to the results presented in the tables of Part III the vocabulary for the male is, in general, larger than that for the female. In only one class test, that of the high school seniors, was the reverse true. Neither of the high school groups, owing to the manner of selection, is to be considered ade- quately representative. Considering the college stu- dents alone the preponderance of the male's vocabu- lary over that of the female is quite marked. We are justified in concluding that, in general, the man has a larger vocabulary than the woman. The girl learns to talk at an earlier age than does the boy, and thus at the beginning has the lead in the race for vocabulary. The boy, however, after once acquiring speech, develops in linguistic powers more rapidly than the girl. He becomes of an in- quisitive turn of mind, spends much of his time out of doors, comes into contact with more varied exper- iences than does his sister, and consequently be- comes the possessor of a larger vocabulary. The girl is more quiet and reserved than the boy; she plays with dolls while her brother is, though neces- sarily in a small way, coming into contact with the outer world; the girl, being less inquisitive, conse- quently learns fewer general terms; her tendency is to concentrate on the things most closely related *Whipple (59) and Hall (23) have both shown that there tends to be a superiority of range of information in the male. CONCLUSIONS 77 to her. Thus, even in childhood we find a tendency on the part of the male to generalize, while the fe- male specializes. This tendency is retained through- out life. Hence the male has the larger vocabulary, whereas the female apparently tends to make better scholastic grades.* As was pointed out in Part II, there is a wide di- vergence in the results supplied by various investi- gators in regard to total size of vocabulary. Where the experiments have been carefully conducted the results show more uniformity than is at first obvi- ous. Kirkpatrick(33) and Whipple (59), employ- ing similar tests and basing their calculations upon dictionaries of the same size, obtain closely agreeing results. Babbitt (1), using a dictionary containing over 100,000 words, finds the average vocabulary of college sophomores to range from 50,000 to 60,- 000 words. When we consider that the dictionaries used by Kirkpatrick and Whipple contained less than 30,000 words the results obtained by Babbitt are no higher than is to be expected. The larger dictionary contains, in addition to a number of en- tirely different words, more forms of the same fundamental words. The almost inconceivably large vocabulary of an adult is due largely to the multi- plicity of words formed from the same root. In using a still larger dictionary than was used by Babbitt it is to be supposed the results would be considerably higher.** In the writer's opinion, the lowest possible estimation based upon the results of the tests conducted by him places the average col- lege student's vocabulary at 85,000 words. This is doubtless far too low, as the figures are computed *A somewhat similar explanation is given for the apparent preponderance in vocabulary size of the Speyer School chil- dren over those of other schools. Cf. page 38. ** Later data, concerning the tests conducted at Speyer School, validates the above statements admirably. Use of a larger dictionary almost doubled the apparent size of vo- cabulary of grade children (10). Cf. page 38. 78 VOCABULARY STUDIES * upon the basis that the test represents only 250,000 words, whereas the dictionary, exclusive of proper names, contains about 375,000. It seems scarcely too much to say that, at the time of graduation, a college student should be in command of 100,000 words, the estimation having for its basis the dic- tionary vocabulary, exclusive of biographical and geographical terms. In addition to the 100,000 words, more or less, which constitute the individ- ual's vocabulary as estimated, we must not lose sight of the fact that he knows countless words which do not appear in any dictionary. Thus there are thou- sands of familiar biographical and geographical names. The writer has taken no consideration of such terms in forming his estimations, for the rea- son that he believes it to be impossible to calculate with even vague approximation the total number of biographical and geographical words known to an individual. Biographical and geographical terms making for general intelligence vary for different persons and in different localities. Consider the im- mense number of purely local proper names known to every one in his particular locality which, for that individual and that locality, are an indication of general intelligence. Therefore, to the 100,000 word vocabulary let us add all the names of persons and places familiar to the individual ; let us also add the names of characters of books ; names of personified objects, as ships for instance; brands of goods; slang expressions and colloquialisms; and a host of other familiar terms which are not to be found in any dictionary and the result is an indefinitely large, truly appalling, vocabulary. The number of words which an intelligent individual has at his command is simply terrific. Note : It might be well here to suggest that perhaps at some future date statistics may be available to show the rate of vocabulary increase in .terms of per cent from year to year. Unquestionably the greatest per cent of increase is to be found in the earlier years of a child's life. The average child should have a vocabulary of about 10 words at one year of CONCLUSIONS 79 age. During t the second year this number should be in- creased to 450 or 500, giving an increase of 4500 to 5000 per cent. The per cent of increase during the third year appar- ently has dropped to 200 or 250. Indications lead one to be- lieve that during the fourth year the per cent of increase has fallen to about 75. The actual number of words gained each year, however, shows a distinct increase over the num- ber gained during the previous year.* It is probable that this decrease in per cent of gain and increase in actual num- ber of words gained continues through the period of distinct mental expansion of the individual that is, until 25 or 30 years of age. It is also to be supposed that there will be a decrease in acceleration of both decrease of per cent of gain and increase of actual numerical gain from year to year. It seems, as may be ascertained from the tables in Part III of this discussion, that the per cent of gain from year to year during the high school and college period varies from 5 to 10 ; while the actual numerical gain yearly is probably in the neighborhood of three to five thousand words. This does not mean that during one year the individual will actually come into contact with and learn from three to five thousand new verbal terms ; it means, rather, that he will have this remark- ably large gain in potentiality and not in actuality. In a great many cases each new word learned carries with it in potential a number of other words founded upon the same root or symbol. As a homely example let us take the term "health"; at once we have the potentials of such words as: healthless, healthlessness, healthsome, healthsomeness, health- ward, healthful, healthfully, healthfulness, healthy, healthily, healthiness, unhealthy, unhealthily, unhealthiness, unhealth- ful, unhealthfully, unhealthfulness, etc., ad nauseam. It will be seen that the acquisition of a new prefix or suffix will, in general, have an even more startling effect upon the size of vocabulary. By a comparison of Table XXIV to Table VI it will be seen that the results obtained in the experi- ments at Colorado College are about four times as great as those obtained by Kirkpatrick for corre- sponding classes. Though Kirkpatrick's results, show a very uniform increase in size of vocabulary from the second grade to the college, his figures are doubtless too low. A rough correction might be made by multiplying by four the figures which he presents for the high school, normal school, and col- lege. Corrections for the vocabularies of the grade pupils should perhaps not be so great, though what *Cf. pages 26 to 28. 80 VOCABULARY STUDIES this correction should be it is difficult to say with- out more complete data. Note: Several months after the above was written an arti- cle, already referred to, (page 38), which describes the results of tests carried on at Speyer School appeared in School and Society (10). In these tests the use of a 44,000 word dictionary indicated an average vocabulary of 27,918 words for the children of ,the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth grades. Kirkpatrick's average for the same grades is 9,805. In the light of this additional data, especially when it is considered that the Speyer results are probably too low rather than too high, it seems only reasonable that an ap- proximate correction for the vocabularies of grade pupils as determined by Kirkpatrick could be obtained by multiplying his figures by 3 or 4. In concluding this discussion on vocabularies it is scarcely necessary again to emphasize the impor- tant role which words play in our lives. A word may aptly be called an incarnate thought. Without words civilization would have been impossible. The power of words is incalculable. Their influence is illimitable. Their mysticism is entrancing. A word is sufficient to lighten the burden of the weary, to uplift the depressed, to bring joy to the sorrowing ; a word may blast the fondest hopes, and darken the brightest life. Words of love increase life's blessings, and words of hate augment life's curses. Words are sufficient to express the pro- foundest thoughts of the philosopher, or the sim- plest wants of the little child. Words convey the sublimist emotions of the poet, and the rudest im- pulses of the swain. A word may soothe the tu- multuous mob and bring peace and happiness to the populace. A word may plunge nations the entire world into chaos. Words transport us from the present to the dimness of the fading ages of long ago, or whisk us in an instant to the beautifully dreamy times that are to be. A word erases the finite and replaces it with the Omnipotent. APPENDIX. LABORATORY TEST SHEET A. In this list each word is followed by four definitions, of which ONE is correct. Check the correct definition of the words familiar to you. For every one incorrectly marked a deduction will be made from those correctly marked. Aabec (a) A boat used by the natives of the Kongo region. (b) An ape-like animal of South America. Pertaining to blood relation- ship. Anemometer (a) One who speaks profusely, .(b) An instrument for measuring the force or velocity of wind. (c) An officer sent to plead com- promise. (d) A measure of liquid pressure. Angler (a). One who fishes with rod, line, and hook. (b) One who pretends. (c) The steersman of a scow. (d) A pitcher of curves. Anti (a) A descent. (b) Before. (c) A bringer of ill tidings. (d). One opposed to any proposed or enacted policy. Antiparallel (a) A straight line and a curved line side by side, (b), A perpendicular line or surface connecting two parallel lines or surfaces. (c) One of two or more lines or surfaces making equal angles with two others, taken in con- trary order. (d) The projection of a curved sur- face upon a plane surface. Anxious (a) Extremely joyful, (b), Subject to painful or disturb- ing suspense. (c) Without forethought. (d) In a provoking manner. Apices (a) A form of Greek architecture, (b). Plural of apex. (c) A small temple. (d) A species of finch. Apprehensive (a) Thoughtful. (b) Pertaining to laziness. (c) Anticipative of evil. (d). Capable of understanding. Aqueous (a) Compounded with acid, (b), Watery. (c) Aiiy. (d) Having to do with the brain. Architecture (a). The art of designing and con- structing buildings. (b) One who plans and designs buildings. (c) A landscape gardener. (d) Having a beautiful contour. Areach (a), Coupling of a wagon. (b) Noise made by a double reed whistle. (c) To jump. (d) Extend. Arm (a) To provide with food. (b) A small animal similar to the lemur. (c) A tendency to swoon, (d), Any weapon. Arrant (a) Victorious. (b) Notoriously bad. (c) One who pilfers. (d) Playing the part of a dandy. Artful (a), Characterized by cunning. (b) Beautiful or shapely. (c) Having a desire to paint or sketch. (d) Quick of movement. Associate (a) A kind of iron ore. (b) Having a metallic lustre. (c) Pertaining to sedition, (d), United. Atom (a) A contraction of "At Home." (b) One of the hypothetical indivi- sible parts of which all matter is supposed to be formed. (c) A small camera. (d) A primitive cell. Attorney-general (a). The chief law officer of a gov- ernment. (b) The officer second in command of an army. (c) The attorney for a general in a law suit. (d) A judge of the supreme court. APPENDIX Augury (a) The process of boring holes. (b) Intensification. (c). The art of foretelling by signs or omens. (d) Having to do with the ear. Authorized (a). Formally sancitioned. (b) Composed by an author of re- pute. (c) Prohibited or prevented from action. (d) Written with accuracy. Ave (a) Evening. (b) State of being tired. (c)> Sweet or gentle. (d) A word of salutation. Avow (a) To use profanity. (b) An evergreen tree found in central America. (c) v To promise, (d) To nullify. Backwoods (a) A species of oak. (b) Any rural and uncultivated re- gion. (c) Fallow land lying beside a for- est. (d) The inner portion of a forest. Bailee (a) A dipper used for dipping wa- ter from a boat. (b) A Hawaiian land- toboggan. (c). One who receives certain per- sonal property in trust to per- form some act in respect to it. (d) A species of salt-water tortoise found in southern waters. Bale !a) To dip water from a boat, b) That which causes ruin or sor- row. (c) Security given in order that a person may be set free. (d) A decision. Balsamous (a> Having the qualities of balsam. (b) A kind of petrified wood found in certain sections of North America. (c) Gentle and soothing. (d) Said of lumber of a loose tex- ture. Bar (a) An honest fellow. (b) A C. G. S. unit of atmospheric pressure. (c) Bread made by fermentation. (d) A punch for making four or more holes in paper. Bargained (a) Borrowed. (b) Sold at below cost. (c) Negotiated. (d) Brought on a barge. Baronetage (a) The income derived by a baron from his lands and vassals. (b)The rank or state of a baronet. (c) A long reed musical instru- ment with seven keys. (d) A crown of the same height all around. Baseball (a) A black ball. (b) An evil fellow. (c) A marker used to show the des- tination for a foot race. (d) A game played with bat and ball, named from the four bases which mark the course each run- ner must take. Bassoon (a) A stick fashioned for the use of police. (b) A wooden reed-instrument with curved mouth-piece. (c) The lowest line on a musical staff. (d) To fasten by means of brads. Battening (a) The putting on of scantlings. (b) Damming a river by building from both sides toward the cen- ter. (c) To strike a ball with a bat. (d) Acting foolishly, like a bat. Baubling (a)v Paltry. (b> Dreamily speaking. (c) Disconnected discourse. (d) Sounds like those coming from hollow vessels. Bear (a) To hide in a snow drift. (b) To uncover. (c) A dust explosion. (d) To force down the price of. Beechen (a) To turn white by exposure. (b) A small deformed bee. (c). Pertaining to the beech-tree, (d) Whining like a dog. Beholden (a) Contained in a measure. (b) To keep an object that is not prized. (c) Held under obligation. (d) Trumpery. Bellmouth (a) A large South American moth. (b) Hilarious. (c) To shape at the mouth or muz- zle like a bell. (d) Lucky coin. 84 VOCABULARY STUDIES Benefice (a) Soft mush-ice. (b)An ecclesiastical living or pre- ferment. (c) A cheerful face. (d) A weight to help lower a diver. Bereave (a) To deprive. (b) To bind with hoops. (c) A brace in cast iron. (d) Short of breath. Best (a) Mold in which brass castings are made. (b) A polishing brush. (c) Fine sand to pack in with course gravel. (d) The most excellent thing. Billing (a) Two pendulums swinging in un- ison. (b) Cording pig iron in sacks. (c) Putting weights in order. (d)u The act of making out a bill. Black (a) % Having little or no power to reflect light. (b) A sinner. (c) Chimney choking with smoke. (d) Over-indulgence. Blame (a) Short arm on a mast. (b) Indigestible food. (c) Support for a stone. (d) The act of censuring. Blemished (a)* Censured. (b) Rough surfacing of a file. (c) Cut off abruptly. (d) A hopeless saint. Block (a) Fulcrum end of a lever. (b) A dull feeling over the eyes. (c), That which hinders or ob- structs. (d) A sign in musical composition. Blubber (a) A boy with large eyes and small mouth. (b) Broad band running half-way around a coat. (c) Strong. (d\ The layer of oil-yielding fat be- neath the skin in cetaceans. Bolt (a), A nearly horizontal cylinder covered with silk or other fabric for separating the flour of wheat from the hull or bran. (b) The large end of a pear. (c) The largest man in a crowd. (d) Husks of nuts, fruits, grain, etc. Bone-cartilage (a) Old bones that are used in the manufacture of fertilizers. (b) Cars used for hauling refuse. (c) A paste made from animal glue. (d)i.The gelatinous matrix left af- ter dissolving out the calcium salt of bone with dilute acid. Brachia (a) Upper part of wind-pipe. (b) The weight on a pile driver. (c) Processes resembling arms, (d)^ Gases arising from stagnant water. Bran (a), Marking with a hot iron. (b) To borrow. (c) To reduce to scrap. (d) The crow. Breacher (a) A breaker. (b)f The hip part of a horse's har- ness. (c) A cheap detective. (d) The large rope with which a vessel is tied. Breathable (a) A board on which bread is dis- played. (b)Fit to breathe. (c) A husky sound or voice. (d) Broad-minded religiously. Bridgewater (a) Water lying under a bridge. (b) A broadcoth once manufactur- ed at Bridgewater, England. (c) Tears shed at the loss of a game of cards. (d) A beverage made of oatmeal and water. Brood (a) Blood-clot. (b) Hard-baked stale bread. (c). Having young, (d) A course heavy cloth. Brush (a) Twelve logs fastened together in a raft. (b) The front seat in an open boat. (c)i To touch with a light stroking movement. (d) To argue vehemently. Buckish. (a) A rapid muscular activity. (b) u Delightful. (c) A sharp, acrid taste. (d) Foppish. Build (a) Form of construction. (b) A picture. (c) A broad substantial foundation. (d) A very narrow waist or corset. APPENDIX 85 Burden (a) A poisonous berry. (b) Something often repeated or dwelt upon. (c) The metal part of a loose-leaf binder. (d) The last hard piece of leather on a shoe heel. Burro (a), A very small donkey. (b) The covering of a chestnut. (c) Lumps of rust on old iron. (d) A rough, stony path. Bust (a) The human chest or breast. (b) Soiled with clay. (c) The pithy center of corn cobs. (d) The metal binders on smok- ing-pipes. Butler (a) A designer of buttons. (b\ A man servant who has charge of the dining-room, etc. (c) An expert bell founder. (d) A device for drawing liquors from casks into bottles. By (a) To purchase. (b). Near. (c) Sleepiness. (d) A Japanese sweetheart. Cable (a) To insult by laughing. (b) Profuse flow of saliva. (c).To send by submarine tele- graph. (d) A nervous twitching of the lips. Calf (a) The rounded prominence of the hinder part of the human leg, be- low the knee. (b) The crying of a large boy. (c) To tease. (d) The supporting timbers of a dormer-window. Canage (a) This age in which so much canned goods is eaten. (b) v A factory in which canned goods are made. (c) A bloody encounter. (d) Rent in kind. Canopy (a) An overhanging screen or shel- ter. (b) A seat on which two can sit. (c) A pale pink precious stone. (d) A very soft, yet durable, tin. Cartilage (a) Gristle. (b) A packing material made from the fibers of banana stalks. (c) Constant good nature. (d) The act of snubbing. Cast-iron (a) A metallic boat. (b) Brittle. (c) Scroll forms for rock chiseling. (d) Made of cast iron. Categorical (a) A howling noise. (b) An absolute proposition. (c) Fictitious. (d) A proposition to be proven. Cathead (a) To open a wound by means of a rubber tube. (b) Excessive secretion by the kid- neys. (c) A large round spotted bean. (d) To make fast to the capstan. Cavil (a) To find fault with captiously. (b) To ring by means of a hammer. (c) Heavy breathing. (d) The small sharp lip on an au- ger. Cella (a) A cavity. (b) A musical stringed instrument. (c) A small dish for spices. (d) A machine for forming chair seats. Center (a) A mythological animal covered with feathers. (b) A gift booklet. (c) A needle for making holes in wax. (d) The middle. Certification (a) Distinction. (b) Notification. (c) Arranging according to class. (d) Amelioration. Chain (a) To tug fiercely. (b) A succession of events. (c) A variegated Indian blanket. (d) A string of interlinked rings or links. Chameleon (a) To provide with fruit in season. (b) A poisonous mushroom. (c) A family of limicoline birds, including plovers. (d) An American anolidid or igu- anid that has the power of chang- ing its colors. Charge-sheet (a) Daily register of charges and arrests against prisoners. (b) A monthly bill, or dun. (c) In an account book, a specifi- cation of merchandise bought on credit. (d) In printing, a corrected proof- sheet. 86 VOCABULARY STUDIES Chaste (a) The indentation at the butt of a knife blade. (b) To punish. (c) Virtuous. (d) A small owl found in Porto Rico. Chiasm (a) An abyss. (b) A decussating or X-like com- missure. (c) A nervous disease characteriz- ed by violent trembling. (d) An antelope found in Asia. Chimerize (a) To make horrible. (b) To clothe a new-born babe. (c) Use discretion in judgment. (d) Entertain absurd fancies. Chirpling (a) An ornamental carving on a dresser. (b) A U-shaped moulding. (c) A little chirper. (d) Producing a succession of sharp, quick sounds. Chromosphere (a) A lens made of glass which contains chromium. (b) A relatively thin layer of in- candescent red gas surrounding the sun. (c) An instrument for determining relative humidity. (d) A glass globe used by spiritu- alists in their profession. Chuck (a) A river fish, similar to the sal- mon. (b) A sub-order of ctenoidians. (c) A short sudden noise. (d) Brittle. Church (a) To preach. (b) A building dedicated to Chris- tian worship. (c) A plow equipped with a colter. (d) To give alms. Circumcision (a) Spiritual purification. (b) Encircling. (c) A wave of the voice embracing both a rise and a fall on the same syllable. (d) Act of undulating. Citrous (a) Having a yellow color. (b) Having the qualities of citrine. (c) Pertaining to citrus. (d) Possessing acridity. Clip (a) To name. (b) A dandified young man. (c) An appliance that grips. (d) A canter. Coak (a) Word used to call horses. (b) An oxide of iron. (c) A coal from which the volatile constitutents have been removed. (d) A fossil sea shell. Cobby (a) Headstrong. (b) A cab-driver. (c) Spick and span. (d) Pilot of a barge. Cochineal (a) A protoxide of barium. (b) A dyestuff made from certain insects. (c) In Great Britain, a second king at arms. (d) A Bohemian folk-dance. Code (a) To make flattering remarks. (b) In music, the close of a com- position. (c) A nuciferous tree of the West Indies. (d) Shoemakers' wax. Cogger (a) A clevis. (b) One who makes gear-cogs. (c) A rustic, or miserly man. (d) One who shirks his duty. Coin (a) A gift. (b) A supercilious youngster. (c) An inventor of words. (d) A piece of metal or alloy for use as money. Colorable (a) That which may be colored. (b) To be regretted. (c) A genus typical of a certain family of crinoids. (d) Pertaining to an unruly mob. Compart (a) Studded with nails. (b) Condensed. (c) Partition. (d) The forecastle of a vessel. Compelled (a) Hindered. (b) Shaped like a fresh-water eel. (c) Involuntary. (d) Foppish. Compositor (a) More compact. (b) One who instructs. (c) One who or that which angers another. (d) One who sets type. Conception (a) A literary style overloaded with double meanings. (b) Apprehension of anything by the mind. (c) Capable of perception. (d) An analogous term. APPENDIX 87 Conferential (a) Private, or trusting. (b) Pertaining to a meeting for deliberation. (c) Having great influence. (d) A form of sonnet used by early writers. Congratulation (a) Punishment unjustly inflicted. (b) A resemblance. (c) Being confined to certain limits (d) Complimentary expression of sympathetic satisfaction. Connivent (a) Diverging. (b) Converging or coming into con- tact. (c) Part of a circumference. (d) A circle in juxtaposition to two parallel lines. Consist (a) To withhold. (b) To be composed or constituted. (c) To continue firmly or steadily in any course undertaken. (d) Part of a ship's mast. Constriction (a) Perambulation. (b) Deprivation. (c) Act of checking. (d) Local or transverse contraction Continental (a) Characteristic of a continent. (b) Local. (c) By force of habit. (d) A variety of iron pyrites. Contralto (a) Second bass. (b) A market-place. (c) Pertaining to a part between al- to and soprano. (d) Pertaining to the lowest part for the female voice. Contribution (a) Act of dabbling in water. (b) A plain-song. (c) State of being varied by modu- lation. (d) The act of givmt for a com mon purpose. Conviction (a) Complaint. (b) The embryo of a plant. (c) Annullification. (d) The state of being convinced. Corn (a) The seeds of cereal plants used for food, as maize, barley, rye. wheat, and oats. (b) Plash. (c) A tree of the family Vochysi- aceae.