Dennis

Message: 8499 From: djn@dennisnewson.de Received: Do Apr 28, 2005 10:23 Subject: Re: EfromZ: 2000 words

I remember WAY back in the 60s, when I first heard of frequency lists, reading that, for some odd reason that no-one could explain, one day of the week - Thursday, I think - didn't appear in frequency lists. So apart from mere frequency words were included according to 'coverage' . Since there was nothing else to cover the intuitively useful concept THURSDAY the word Thursday was included, even without a numerical frequency rating. I thought, too, Julian, that there was a difference between the special defining vocabularly lists for entries that one or two dictionaries have and a pucker frequency of occurrence (across the whole language) list. I can't help noting at this point that one is on much surer ground when one is talking about a specific language and its makeup than when one is in deciding how to get said language into someone else's head and behaviour. Dennis - who happens to be going to his first same-sex marriage ceremony in two weeks' time