How many words does a person use in everyday life? What is the lexicon of modern man.

How many words do you think the average person knows? Everyone remembers the well-known excerpt from the immortal work of E. Petrov and I. Ilf "The Twelve Chairs" about the comparison of the vocabulary of Shakespeare and Ellochka the Cannibal. The same quote can be cited as a confirmation of the hypothesis that the lexicon of a person depends on what this person is like. For example, an uneducated person or small child will amount to several hundred; literate - several thousand.

And such geniuses as Pushkin or Shakespeare will have up to fifteen thousand. By the way, clarifications should be made on the account of the latter. The four-volume Dictionary of Pushkin's Language has 21,191 words. Scientists have calculated exactly this number of words used in all letters and works of the famous Russian poet. Vocabulary the great English playwright has a little less - about fifteen thousand words. But according to some sources, there are about eighteen thousand of them. With regard to ordinary people the picture looks somewhat different. But first, let's figure out what a lexicon is. We also define the concepts of passive and active vocabulary. So...

What is a lexicon?

From ancient Greek means "word", "turn of speech". The exact lexicon sounds like this: a combination of words of a particular language, parts of words or a language that a particular person or a certain group of people speaks. Vocabulary is the central part of the language that names, forms and conveys knowledge about any phenomena or objects. In other words, this is a language section that studies words, pronunciation, composition of speech, etc.

Passive and active vocabulary

When we are talking about a certain set of words that a person uses daily in his speech, which he uses to express his feelings and thoughts, then this implies an active vocabulary. The use and combinatorics of such words can be varied. But it is still a "tool" of thoughts, feelings, actions. In the case when a person does not use certain words, but knows their meaning (often very approximate), he recognizes in readable text, that means passive vocabulary. The passive lexicon includes words of special use: neologisms, archaisms, many dialectisms, and the like.

Number of words in the lexicon

It should be noted, returning to the question of what a lexicon is, that the active and passive dictionaries are individual for each person. It depends on the age, profession, general cultural level, personal qualities, tastes and even the place of residence of a person. According to statistics, the active vocabulary of an adult with a higher education is seven to nine thousand words. Passive - twenty-twenty-four thousand. Although in everyday communication we get by with just one or two thousand words. It is said that the possibilities of human memory are almost limitless. Therefore, you can safely increase your vocabulary and learn foreign words, thereby enriching the Russian lexicon.

It is believed that at the dawn of human existence, speech was not much richer than that of some animals. If, for example, in chickens the “language” has 10 simplest signals, the “language” of a baboon has 18, then primitive man, like chimpanzees, the "vocabulary" barely exceeded 30 signals - calls.

As society developed, human speech was constantly enriched with new words. Published in 1956-1965 by the Academy of Sciences, the "Dictionary of the Modern Russian Language" in 17 volumes contains 120,480 words.

How quickly do children learn language? If a child at the age of one year knows only three words, then after six months his vocabulary increases to 26-28 words. At four years old, he already knows about 1000 words, and at six and a half years old he pronounces an average of 2 thousand words and understands the meaning of another 6 thousand.

Scientists have conducted research and calculated that 6084 different words are found in the works of the ancient Roman poet Horace; the English poet Milton has about 8,000 words; in Homeric poems - about 9 thousand words; in the works of Shakespeare - 15 thousand words (according to other sources - up to 24 thousand words), in the works of Pushkin - 21 thousand words.

It is curious to compare with the dictionaries of great writers the number of words that ordinary people use. According to psychologists, a 14-year-old teenager uses 9,000 words, an average adult uses 11,700 words, and an educated person uses up to 13,500 words.

I wonder how many words a person says every day? It depends on temperament, profession and other conditions. Scientists nevertheless established an average figure: 30 thousand words. At the same time, a person speaks on average at a speed of 125-160 words per minute, and thinks with the same words twice as fast.

The recognized "talkers", according to research, are the French. Their average speech rate is 350 syllables per minute. They were followed by the Japanese - 310 syllables and the Germans are not far behind - 250 syllables. Polynesia and Melanesia - an average of 50 syllables per minute.

Finns are the most silent nation in the world. The Canadians follow. The most talkative and loud are Italians, Brazilians and Mexicans.

Is it good to talk? Useful - so says the American professor Williams. People who are not talkative are subject to various kinds of stress, as they do not give an outlet for the energy accumulated in them. As a result, they age prematurely.

And one more interesting data. Experts have calculated that each person on average speaks one hour a day. Over a lifetime, this is approximately 2.5 years. If everything uttered by a person during his life is fixed on paper, you get a thousand volumes of 400 pages each.

For a long time, many people think that women talk more than men. But recently, scientists have tested and refuted this opinion, establishing that, in general, both men and women pronounce the same number of words, which means they are equally talkative.

The Russian language is rich in vocabulary. Dahl's dictionary contains about two hundred thousand lexical units. AT Everyday life much fewer words are used.

Age norms for the number of words used

The number of words used changes throughout life. According to medical standards, the number of words a child uses preschool age should be between two and three thousand. Over the years schooling the active dictionary is replenished up to five thousand.

For people who have received higher education, the norm is a vocabulary within ten thousand words.

A group of scientists from America and Brazil conducted a study age-related changes vocabulary. Two hundred thousand people participated in the experiment, so the data obtained during it can be considered quite accurate.

The survey showed that the maximum rate of mastering new words falls on the age from three to sixteen years. During this period, a person learns an average of 4 new words every day.

After the age of sixteen, the speed decreases markedly and, up to fifty years, there is about one new word for every day of life. People over the age of fifty retain the previously acquired baggage of words, but practically no new ones are added.

How many words do you need for everyday communication?

It is necessary to distinguish between the concepts of active and passive vocabulary. For example, reading fiction requires the reader to know tens of thousands of words and phrases. But you don't have to use them all every day.

An adult in ordinary life a thousand words can be enough for a day if it professional activity unrelated to communication. But this is an extreme option; for full communication, at least two thousand are required. Professionals in different fields add one and a half to two thousand more special terms.

The task of the study was to determine the volume of the passive vocabulary of native speakers of the Russian language. The measurement was carried out using , in which respondents were asked to mark familiar words from a specially compiled sample. According to the rules of the test, a word was considered “familiar” if the respondent could define at least one of its meanings. The test methodology is described in detail. To increase the accuracy of the test and to identify respondents who pass it inaccurately, non-existent words were added to the test. If the respondent marked at least one such word as familiar, his results were not taken into account. More than 150 thousand people took part in the study (of which 123 thousand passed the test accurately).

First, let's analyze the effect of age on vocabulary.

The graph shows the percentiles of the resulting distribution. For example, the lowest curve (10th percentile) for 20 years gives 40 thousand words. This means that 10% of respondents of this age have a vocabulary below this value, and 90% - above. The central curve highlighted in blue (median) corresponds to such a vocabulary that half of the respondents of the corresponding age performed worse, and half better. The uppermost curve - the 90th percentile - cuts off the result, above which only 10% of respondents with the maximum vocabulary showed.

The graph shows the following:

1. Vocabulary grows at a nearly constant rate up to about 20 years of age, after which the rate of acquisition decreases, fading away by age 45. After this age, the vocabulary almost does not change.
2. While studying at school, a teenager learns 10 words a day. This value seems unnaturally large, but it is explained by the fact that in the test derivative words were taken into account separately, as independent ones.
3. By the time they graduate from school, the average teenager knows 51,000 words.
4. During schooling, vocabulary increases by about 2.5 times.
5. After graduation from school and before middle age, a person on average learns 3 new words a day.
6. After reaching the age of 55, vocabulary begins to decline somewhat. This may be due to forgetting words that are not used for a long time. Interestingly, this age roughly coincides with retirement.

Now let's divide all the respondents into groups according to the level of education. The following graph depicts the medians of the vocabulary of these groups. Curves start and end at different places due to the fact that the statistics for all groups are different - for example, there were not enough respondents with incomplete secondary education over 45 for the results to be statistically significant, so the corresponding curve had to be cut off so early.

From the graph, you can see that

1. Perhaps the saturation of the vocabulary occurs in different ages depending on education. So, for respondents with a secondary specialized education, saturation can be determined at around 43 years old, with a higher education - at 51 years old, for candidates and doctors - at 54 years old. This could be explained by the specifics of the work of the respondents - most likely, the holders of an academic degree continue to study various literature even in adulthood. Or permanent life in the university environment, with its abundance of communication with educated people of various specializations, constantly throws up new words. However, from a technical point of view, such conclusions should not be drawn yet - the resulting curves are quite noisy, and it is very difficult to determine exactly where saturation begins. Perhaps a further set of statistics will make it possible to see the dependence of the age of saturation on the level of education (if any) more clearly.
2. There is practically no difference in vocabulary between those who entered the university, but did not finish their studies, and those who went through this path to the end (for students: this does not mean that you can not go to lectures).

Let us now exclude the effect of age, leaving only respondents over 30 in the sample. This will allow you to focus on education.

From the graph we see the following:

1. Respondents who have just finished school know, on average, 2-3 thousand words more than those who did not finish it at the time.
2. The vocabulary of those who have received secondary or secondary specialized education is practically the same and averages 75 thousand words.
3. Those who studied at universities and institutes (and not necessarily graduated from them) know an average of 81,000 words.
4. Candidates and doctors of science know an average of 86,000 words. Thus, an academic degree adds about 5,000 vocabulary units compared to higher education.
5. Education, of course, affects the size of the vocabulary. However, the spread within each group with the same education is much larger than the difference between the group means. In other words, a person who has not finished school may well know more words than a candidate of sciences. Here are the specific figures - 20% of respondents with incomplete secondary education, who showed the best result for their group, have a vocabulary that exceeds that of half of the respondents with degree. They are more likely to read different topics are interested in and understand more areas.

The resulting vocabulary values—tens of thousands of words—seem to be quite large. There are two reasons for this. First, passive vocabulary (words that a person recognizes in text or by ear) was measured, not active vocabulary (words that a person uses in speech or writing). These reserves differ significantly - passive is always much larger. The calculated vocabulary of writers, for example, is precisely active. Secondly, in the test, all derived words were taken into account separately (for example, “work” and “work”, or “city” and “urban”).

Separately, I would like to note that the results obtained do not give an idea of ​​the vocabulary of the "average" (if such exists at all) native speaker of the Russian language. For example, the level of education of the respondents who passed the test is significantly higher than the national level - 65% of respondents have higher education, while in Russia there are only 23% of them (according to the 2010 All-Russian population census). Then, it is obvious that the respondents who passed the Internet test are mostly active Internet users, and this also makes the sample specific (mainly for older people). In the end, not everyone is interested in defining their vocabulary, among our respondents there are 100% of them. It is logical to assume that the vocabulary results obtained from such a special sample should be somewhat higher than the “average”.

So, the data obtained revealed a strong dependence of vocabulary on age, and a weaker dependence on the level of education. Obviously, there are other factors that affect vocabulary - reading, communication, work, hobbies, lifestyle. All of these are topics for future research.

The richest and most beautiful Russian language makes it possible for people who speak it to express themselves in a variety of ways. The accuracy of wording and beautiful speech depend on the vocabulary that a person owns. The more words he uses, the more intellectually developed he is considered. Therefore, it becomes important to increase the number of words used.

According to the scientific vocabulary is called a lexicon, meaning words familiar to an individual, group or included in the language. It is conditionally divided into;

• Active. The first group includes words used every day. They are included in both writing and oral speech. A sign of an active lexicon is free use that does not require additional effort.
• Passive. Passive words include understandable words that occur in various sources, but are not used in speech, or are used, but extremely rarely. They are used when necessary, but it takes effort to remember.
• External. The external lexicon denotes unknown words related to specific areas of knowledge. These are professional terms, neologisms and so on. It is hardly possible to draw clear boundaries between these groups. They are rather shaky and oscillate to one side or the other. When growing up and mental development vocabulary is growing.

So, if a child going to the first grade speaks two thousand words, then in the last one this number already grows to five thousand. For those who study and develop further, the vocabulary reaches 10,000 words or more. Then most of them are passive reserve.

Erudite people sometimes own even 50,000 words. But, only a small part is used daily in communication. The rest of the lexicon is used only with intellectuals like it.

Vocabulary exercises

The following exercises are done in writing or orally.

• Nouns. They tell a little story using only nouns. "Day. Work. End. Output. Door. Key. Entrance. The car. Key. Ignition" and so on.
• Verbs. The same thing that was told using nouns is repeated, only with verbs.
• Adjectives and adverbs. Then comes the turn of other parts of speech.
• Alphabet. Come up with related words that sequentially begin with the letters of the alphabet in order. “Alena talks in the evening, walking up to the cherished spruce, gesticulating and eloquently cherishing lovely tender dandelions. Pasha follows nearby, dragging a comfortable chrome-plated lantern, often catching the nimble chirping of extravagant humorous language».
• Monophone. Make up your own speech, the words of which begin with one letter. Each of them is connected with each other, even if the meaning suffers.

It is not easy to complete each of the exercises. But the words gradually move from the passive lexicon to the active one and its replenishment takes place.

Lexicon expansion techniques without extra time

The development of vocabulary, in fact, is necessary for voicing your thoughts, intentions, analysis and conclusions. This skill is reinforced by practice and weakened by its absence. Therefore, in order to develop your speech, you should constantly communicate. Vocabulary growth is ensured: when learning new words that we hear from interlocutors; exact definitions when words are translated from a passive lexicon into an active one.

• Therefore, it is desirable to communicate with dissimilar people. These are friends, neighbors, fellow students, comrades in gym. People meeting on the Internet on forums and pages social networks, fellow travelers and vendors also serve as an opportunity for communication and as a way to expand your speech.
• Another effective way replenish vocabulary, which does not require special time - listening to audio books. This is relevant when you have to spend a lot of time on the road, driving your car, ideal for auditory people (for people who perceive information better by ear). A variety of books are sold in this format: novels, aphorisms, and philosophical teachings. Having recorded on a flash drive, you can now not be bored in a traffic jam, but listen to a fascinating story. It is convenient to listen to audio books before going to bed.

Replenishment of the lexicon with the allocation of time

The following activities will help you increase your vocabulary.

• Reading. Reading is the richest source of information. Books, newspapers, online publications, magazines - everywhere there are inexhaustible reserves of replenishment of the lexicon. It is advisable to set aside an hour a day for this exciting activity. Sometimes it's good to say the words out loud.
• Study of foreign language. Do not limit your vocabulary to knowledge of one Russian language. Others are also useful to study. The more a person enriches his speech, the better connections are made, and the easier it is to recall words from memory.
• Games. There are interesting exciting linguistic games: charades, puzzles and the like. When they are guessed, they are involuntarily interested in words and meaning.
• Diary. Another useful activity is keeping a diary. When it is impossible to go to foreign language courses, they write for themselves. This is good way improve the vocabulary, as by taking notes, they formulate thoughts that are in the emotional and motivational spheres.
• Memorization. Memorization makes it possible to introduce new words into active stock. For this, there is a way of retelling what was heard, memorizing verses and definitions. It is one of the most effective methods of mastering new knowledge.

For this it is important:

• daily include new words in speech;
• use a notebook, entering intricate statements, words, phrases with clever expressions;
• learn the essence of new words by adding a visualization technique;
• memorize poems, quotes, sayings and so on.

To improve the vocabulary, conscious actions are needed. For achievement beautiful speech constant training is required. Ignoring new words will not give them a chance to get into the active or passive vocabulary. It turns out that those who want to expand their vocabulary and enrich their language should make regular strong-willed efforts for this.