THE WORDS AND SOUNDS OF TELEPHONE CONVERSATION 305 



observations were repeated this part of the list would be dupUcated 

 very imperfectly, since these words, while in general well-known, tend 

 to be technical or specific, hence dependent on particular types of 

 subject matter. All except ten of the omitted words are nouns, verbs, 

 adjectives or adverbs. 



100 



g80 



o 

 i^ 60 



o 



40 



u 



a. 

 uj 20 



Fig. 2- 



1 5 10 50 100 500 1000 



NUMBER OF DIFFERENT WORDS IN ORDER OF OCCURENCE 



-The cumulative curve obtained when the different words are arranged in order 



of occurrence. 



The importance of a relatively small number of different words 

 which are used very frequently is shown graphically in Fig. 2. The 

 curves shown are cumulative, giving the percentage of the total words 

 contributed by the different words when arranged in the order of their 

 occurrence. The curve labeled "Written" is based on the list given 

 in the study by Dewey, cited above. The economy exercised in con- 

 versation, or the poverty of conversational expression, according to 

 the point of view, contrasts sharply with written English. In conver- 

 sation 30 words account for half the total, in written English 69 words; 

 in conversation 155 words form 80 per cent of the total, in written 

 English 640. 



The 50 most common words in telephone conversation and in written 

 English are shown in Table IV, arranged in their order of frequency of 

 occurrence. These words form 60 per cent of the total in conversation 

 and 46 per cent in written English. There are 29 words which are 

 common to the two lists. The personal nature of telephone con- 

 versation is shown in the two words which head the list. The most 

 striking difference between the two is the large number of active verbs 

 which occur in the list for conversation: "get," "see," "know, etc., 



