vocabulary
A vocabulary is commonly defined as "all the words known and used by a particular person".
[1] Unfortunately, this definition does not take into account a range of issues involved in
knowing a word.
Productive and receptive
The first major distinction that must be made when evaluating word knowledge is whether the knowledge is productive (also called active) or receptive (also called passive) and even within those opposing categories, there is often times no clear distinction. Words that are generally understood when heard or read or seen constitute a person's receptive vocabulary. These words may range from well-known to barely known (see
degree of knowledge below). In most cases, a person's receptive vocabulary is the larger of the two. For example, although a young child may not yet be able to speak, write, or sign, he or she may be able to follow simple commands and appear to understand a good portion of the language to which he or she is exposed. In this case, the child's receptive vocabulary is likely tens, if not hundreds of words but his or her active vocabulary is zero. When that child learns to speak or sign, however, the child's active vocabulary begins to increase. Productive vocabulary, therefore, generally refers to words which can be produced within an appropriate context and match the intended meaning of the speaker or signer. As with receptive vocabulary, however, there are many degrees at which a particular word may be considered part of an active vocabulary. Knowing how to pronounce, sign, or write a word does not necessarily mean that the word has been used correctly or accurately reflect the intended message of the utterance, but it does reflect a minimal amount of productive knowledge.
Degree of knowledge
Within the receptive / productive distinction lies a range of abilities which are often referred to as
degree of knowledge. This simply indicates that a word gradually enters a person's vocabulary over a period of time as more aspects of word knowledge are learnt. Roughly, these stages could be described as:
- Never encountered the word.
- Heard the word, but cannot define it.
- Recognize the word due to context or tone of voice.
- Able to use the word but cannot clearly explain it.
- Fluent with the word – its use and definition.
Depth of knowledge
The differing degrees of word knowledge imply a greater
depth of knowledge, but the process is more complex than that. There are many facets to knowing a word, some of which are not hierarchical so their acquisition does not necessarily follow a linear progression suggested by
degree of knowledge. Several frameworks of work knowledge have been proposed to better operationalise this concept. One such framework includes nine facets:
- orthography - written form
- phonology - spoken form
- reference - meaning
- semantics - concept and reference
- register - appropriacy of use
- collocation - lexical neighbours
- word associations
- syntax - grammatical function
- morphology - word parts
Types of vocabulary
Listed in order of most ample to most limited:[2][3]
Reading vocabulary
A person's
reading vocabulary is all the words he or she can recognize when reading. This is the largest type of vocabulary simply because it includes the other three.
Listening vocabulary
A person's
listening vocabulary is all the words he or she can recognize when listening to speech. This vocabulary is aided in size by context and tone of voice.
Writing vocabulary
A person's writing vocabulary is all the words he or she can employ in
writing. Contrary to the previous two vocabulary types, the writing vocabulary is stimulated by its user.
Speaking vocabulary
A person's speaking vocabulary is all the words he or she can use in
speech. Due to the spontaneous nature of the speaking vocabulary, words are often misused. This misuse – though slight and unintentional – may be compensated by facial expressions, tone of voice, or hand
gestures.
Focal vocabulary
"Focal vocabulary" is a specialized set of terms and distinctions that is particularly important to a certain group; those with a particular focus of experience or activity. A lexicon, or vocabulary, is a language's dictionary, its set of names for things, events, and ideas. Some linguists believe that lexicon influences people's perception on things, the
Sapir–Whorf hypothesis. For example, the Nuer of Sudan have an elaborate vocabulary to describe cattle. The
Nuer have dozens of names for cattle because of the cattle's particular histories, economies, and environments. This kind of comparison has elicited some linguistic controversy, as with the number of "
Eskimo words for snow". English speakers can also elaborate their snow and cattle vocabularies when the need arises.
[4][5]
Vocabulary growth
Initially, in the infancy phase, vocabulary growth requires no effort.
Infants hear words and mimic them, eventually associating them with objects and actions. This is the
listening vocabulary. The
speaking vocabulary follows, as a child's thoughts become more reliant on its ability to express itself without gestures and mere sounds. Once the
reading and
writing vocabularies are attained – through questions and
education – the anomalies and irregularities of language can be discovered.
In
first grade, an advantaged student (i.e. a literate student) knows about twice as many words as a disadvantaged student. Generally, this gap does not tighten. This translates into a wide range of vocabulary size by age five or six, at which time an English-speaking child will know about 2,500–5,000 words. An average student learns some 3,000 words per year, or approximately eight words per day.
[6]
After leaving school, vocabulary growth reaches a plateau. People may then expand their vocabularies by engaging in activities such as reading, playing
word games, and participating in vocabulary programs.
The importance of a vocabulary
- An extensive vocabulary aids expressions and communication.
- Vocabulary size has been directly linked to reading comprehension.[7]
- Linguistic vocabulary is synonymous with thinking vocabulary.[7]
- A person may be judged by others based on his or her vocabulary.
[edit] Native- and foreign-language vocabulary
[edit] Native-language vocabulary
Native speakers' vocabularies vary widely within a language, and are especially dependent on the level of the speaker's education. A 1995 study estimated the vocabulary size of college-educated speakers at about 17,000 word families
[clarification needed], and that of first-year college students (high-school educated) at about 12,000.
[8]
Foreign-language vocabulary
The effects of vocabulary size on language comprehension
Francis and Kucera
[9] studied English texts totaling one million words and found that if one knows the words with the highest frequency, they will quickly know most of the words in an English text:
| Vocabulary Size | Written Text Coverage |
| 1000 words | 72.0% |
| 2000 | 79.7 |
| 3000 | 84.0 |
| 4000 | 86.8 |
| 5000 | 88.7 |
| 6000 | 89.9 |
| 15,851 | 97.8 |
