Analysis of Word Frequencies in Spoken Language of Children

Abstract

Zipf (1935) states that a statistical relationship has been established between high frequency, small variety and shortness in length of words, a relationship which is presumably valid for language in general. Zipf based his work on the analysis of written language. The present study is concerned with discovering whether this law also holds for spoken language of children and if age differences influence the relationship between variety and frequency of occurrence of words, as well as the frequency of specific word groups (such as negative words, self-reference, etc.). For this purpose 15 12-year-old and 15 16-year-old boys of average intelligence were each given a small tape recorder to use in recording their verbal output. Forty thousand words of each of the groups were analysed with the Starkweather programme on an IBM 7094 computer. The results are presented in terms of lists of words used, the ratios of the number of different words spoken to the number of total words, and the ratio of variety to frequency of occurrence. It was thought that this study will contribute to a better understanding of children's spoken language and the growth of their available vocabulary.