INTRODUCTION

I of this

book is a list of words, each

of oc
currence of the word in general, and in four
different sets of reading matter.
In the first column after the word is a
number stating the occurrences per million
words. 1 = at least one occurrence per mil
lion and not so many as two per million;
2 = at least two per million and not so many
as three per million; and similarly up to 49;
A. = at least 50 per million and not so many
as 100 per million; AA = 100 or over per
million.
In the other four columns are numbers
giving the number of occurrences in approxi
million words of (T) the Thornmately
dike general count of 1931, (L) the Lorge
magazine count, (J) the Thorndike count of
120 juvenile books,
and (S) the Lorgesemantic
Thorndike
count.
The numbers
under T are computations from the Thorndike 1931 data, made as described on page
251. An M in the T column means that the
word was one of the 500 commonest by the
Thorndike count, and occurred from 800 "to
100,000 or more times per 4% million words.
An M in the L column means that the word
occurred 1,000 times or more in the Lorge
The exact number of oc
magazine count.
currences is given in Part IV. An M in the
column means that the word occurred 1,000
times or more in the count of 120 juvenile
books; an M* means that it probably did.
M and M* in the S column mean that the
word had 1,000 or more occurrences in the
semantic count, surely (M) or by estimate
(M*). The exact number when known is
given in Part IV.
The starred numbers in the
column are
Part

estimates

made

as described

on page 253.

it is followed by a question
mark or replaced by a question mark, as in
the cases of Adrian, Aesir, and Agatha. A
question mark in the T, L, J, or S column
means that for some special reason no reli
able estimate could be made for the count
in question.
Regular plurals, comparatives and super
latives, verb forms in s, d, ed, and ing, past
participles formed by adding n, adverbs in
ly that occur less than once in a million
words, and equally rare adjectives formed
by adding to names of places are ordinarily
counted in under the main word.
So are
words which have special meanings when
capitalized and words usually capitalized
which have special meanings when not cap
italized. In cases where it seems desirable,
a reminder of such inclusion is given by a
letter in parenthesis after the word. For ex
ample, we have acropolis (A), Bolshevik (b),
and Albania (n). Some adjectives in ing or
ed and some nouns in ing are entered sep
arately, the word being followed by (adj.)
or (.). For example, we have the main entry
one of the counts,

abandon

38

119

150

130

285

and the entry

abandoned (adj.)

11

14

12

27

We have
acting (n. adj.) 16 75
But in general participial

78

75*

73

adjectives and
verbal substantives are included under the
main word. The general principles followed
are:
Every occurrence is counted somewhere.
No occurrence is counted twice.
Certain facts about the inclusion of vari
ant forms and spellings are reported by let
All these will
ters or words in parenthesis.
be self-explanatory.
Examples are :

Other starred numbers are also estimates.

In some cases where the number of occur
rences per million depends very largely upon
the extremely frequent use of the word in

abscess

(ed)

to show that

abscessed

is included,
accouterments
coutrements
1

[i:

Generated for onur.akturk.8969@gmail.com on 2015-05-29 03:36 GMT / http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015004757442

Open Access, Google-digitized / http://www.hathitrust.org/access_use#oa-google

followed by a record of the frequency

(re)

to show that ac

is included,