Suggested addition for Trenchard - Vocabulary
Posted: January 31st, 2016, 12:40 pm
There is a lot of talk about frequencies in vocabulary learning. Trenchard arranges his work into cognates from pages 5 - 126. Each section of cognates contains a key word. What is lacking from that is a total number for the key word, giving the total number of occurrences for all of the cognates tallied up under the key word.
Having a list like that, and a list of cognate key words arranged in terms of their frequency would allow another way to categorise the most common words.
Would learning the key words for the cognate groups allow you to understand all the words in the group? No. It wouldn't necessarily do that. What it would do is allow a first step for the greatest number of words. It is like the large hammer making the first chunks off the marble, not the finest one doing the finishing touches.
Consider κλέπτω "I steal" which is a key word on page 57. The word κλέπτω itself has a frequency of 13, and together with κλέπτης "thief" and two others, the cognate group has a frequency of 32. That is similar in frequency to the cognate group of ἥλιος "sun" on page 45, which has the one large scoring word (ἥλιος), together with two low scoring ones. The total of the cognate group is 37. That is to say that the frequency of the cognate groups are similar, but not of the individual words.
The significance of such an addition to Trenchard is even more evident when there are three or more largish scorers in the cognate groups. An example of that is σθενόω "I strengthen, make strong" on page 99, itself only occurs once. Three familiar words ἀσθενέω (33 times), ἀσθένεια (24 times) and ἀσθενής (26 times) mean that the cognate group's total frequency is actually 85.
Considering those numbers will give a new perspective on frequencies.
Having a list like that, and a list of cognate key words arranged in terms of their frequency would allow another way to categorise the most common words.
Would learning the key words for the cognate groups allow you to understand all the words in the group? No. It wouldn't necessarily do that. What it would do is allow a first step for the greatest number of words. It is like the large hammer making the first chunks off the marble, not the finest one doing the finishing touches.
Consider κλέπτω "I steal" which is a key word on page 57. The word κλέπτω itself has a frequency of 13, and together with κλέπτης "thief" and two others, the cognate group has a frequency of 32. That is similar in frequency to the cognate group of ἥλιος "sun" on page 45, which has the one large scoring word (ἥλιος), together with two low scoring ones. The total of the cognate group is 37. That is to say that the frequency of the cognate groups are similar, but not of the individual words.
The significance of such an addition to Trenchard is even more evident when there are three or more largish scorers in the cognate groups. An example of that is σθενόω "I strengthen, make strong" on page 99, itself only occurs once. Three familiar words ἀσθενέω (33 times), ἀσθένεια (24 times) and ἀσθενής (26 times) mean that the cognate group's total frequency is actually 85.
Considering those numbers will give a new perspective on frequencies.