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Subject: Re: The influence of language on thought ( 14 of 58 )
Posted by Douglas Adams

It's not vocabulary size - it depends on which language you speak. French has a very small vocabulary, but a very precise form of grammar for constructing thought. English has a huge vocabulary and a looser, but much more subtle form of grammatical construction. That's one of the reasons why foreign speakers will tell you that English is one of the easiest languages to learn enough to get by in, but one of the most difficult actually to master.

Here's an interesting statistic:
Racine - total vocabulary in his writing: 3,000 words.
Shakespeare - - total vocabulary in his writing: 30,000 words.
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