ABSTRACT
For the sake of precision the authors should wish to make their test upon a language as it exists at one point of time. Language is forever changing, and the truth will be clouded for us if, for example, they take as representative of modern English the Oxford Dictionary, which exhibits much of the vocabulary of English in use at any time over the last millennium. Let us take the vocabulary of the chief glory of their literature, Shakespeare. It is for several reasons the most suitable for their purpose. But in the heart of Shakespeare’s vocabulary — as in the vocabulary of everyone else — there is a small number of words which are used with great frequency; and, on the other hand, at its extremities is a large number of words which are rarely used. To count the whole without differentiation is to get a false picture of his language.
