CHARACTERISTIC CURVES OF COMPOSITION. 135 



tours of word-curves are necessarily due to any personal peculiarities 

 in the respective authors. 



The average word-length may be reasonably assumed to depend 

 upon other factors besides the author's word-sense, as the form of 

 composition, the subject matter, etc. A man's gait differs according 

 as he is walking for pleasure or on business, alone or in the company 

 of others, on a long journey or to escape from danger. Similarly the 

 average word-length of the language current in the market place, the 

 street or the drawing-room differs from that employed on the rostrum, 

 in learned discourse or in polite conversation, even though used by the 

 same person. Why should not this difference manifest itself in the 

 written utterances of an author ? 



Dr. Mendenhall, by an enormous expenditure of labor, attempts to 

 prove his second assumption. How ? By taking for granted the con- 

 verse of the very proposition which he wishes to establish. He actually 

 constructs the word-curves for Mill, Jonson, Dickens, Bacon, Shake- 

 speare and finding that they differ in contour, attributes these differ- 

 ences to personal peculiarities of the respective authors. Not once seems 

 the question to have been raised, much less answered, whether these 

 differences are not due wholly or in part to other determining condi- 

 tions, such as the form of composition or other accidents. 



Now not only can it be shown that the form of composition, at least, 

 is a modifying factor of the word-curve and average word-length, but 

 it appears, indeed, to be the predominating factor, overshadowing all 

 others. Works agreeing in form of composition, though written by dif- 

 ferent authors, will be found to yield curves more nearly in agreement 

 than different works of widely divergent forms of composition by the 

 same author. Whether or not the author-component in the word-curve 

 can be separated from the others is unknown ; certain it is that nothing 

 of the kind has as yet been attempted. With our present knowledge 

 concerning word-curves, conclusions regarding the authorship of spuri- 

 ous or disputed writings based upon a comparison of the word-curves of 

 works differing either in the form of composition or in other essential 

 respects must be considered worthless. 



It is not difficult to predict in a general way in what respects word- 

 curves of different types of composition will differ. In the vernacular 

 of a language, so nearly devoid of inflection as our English, three- and 

 four-letter words will naturally predominate. The development of 

 oral speech, following the path of least resistance, will naturally be 

 from the simple to the complex. Combinations of five, six or more 

 letters, representing as many elements of sound, will not generally be 

 resorted to so long as there are abundant simpler combinations, con- 

 sistent with the possibilities of vocal articulation, to draw from. Now 

 while the possible combinations of two and three letters into words is 



