[Ads-l] Size matters

[Laurence Horn]

Don’t know about that but there was an interesting piece in today’s Times suggesting that decrease in type/token ratio can be used as a (non-invasive) kind of indicator for the effects of C.T.E. (athlete’s brain damage caused by concussions) and more generally the onset of dementia (and specifically Alzheimer’s, as in the case of President Reagan): https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/29/health/cte-brain-inuries-football.html

LH

> On May 30, 2017, at 7:50 PM, Shawnee Moon <moon.shawnee at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> Hello,
> 
> I'm curious if anyone knows of a program which can estimate a person's vocabulary.
> 
> I know my book-writing program (iBooks Author) can tell me how many times I used certain words, but not how many different words I used. But I'm not talking about my writing, I'm talking about public speakers, presidents (ahem) or whomever.
> 
> I just wondered if there's an algorithm or other program that can "hear" a variety of speeches made by a person and give a reasonably close estimation of the number of different words the speaker uses, (in public speaking, unless one would be willing to wear a microphone all the time) and then perhaps an estimate of their total vocabulary. 
> 
> Bottom line: I'd like to know the difference between Trump's total vocabulary versus other presidents or g-men. There, I said it.
> 
> Mailed from the Moon 🌜
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org