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A comparative analysis of the number of different words (a measure of the vocabulary richness) in 50 of the world’s greatest novels
ESSAYS
lundi 12 août 2024, par
Using a special in-house tool we have analysed the vocabulary of 50 of the world’s most famous Russian, English, French, German, Italian and Spanish novels [1] — in their original language — to determine which of these works have :
– the greatest number of different words
and
– the highest “vocabulary-richness ratio”, the ratio of the number of different words to the overall word-count of the work in question.
For the purpose of this analysis all punctuation marks (other than apostrophes and embedded hyphens) and numbers, special characters, initials and Roman numerals have been ignored.
Upper-case/lower-case variations of the same word have also been ignored for comparison purposes.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
2. THE NOVELS WITH THE GREATEST NUMBER OF DIFFERENT WORDS
3. THE NOVELS WITH THE GREATEST VOCABULARY-RICHNESS RATIO
1. THE NOVELS ANALYSED
We have selected the following major masterworks of Russian, American and European literature for analysis :
2. THE NOVELS WITH THE GREATEST NUMBER OF DIFFERENT WORDS
To put the above figures in perspective, the authoritative study of Shakespeare’s vocabulary by Marvin Spevack (« A Complete and Systematic Concordance to the Works of Shakespeare », 1968) established that there were 29,066 different words in his collected theatrical works.
3. THE NOVELS WITH THE GREATEST VOCABULARY-RICHNESS RATIO
Although novels with a relatively low word-count inherently have a relatively elevated vocabulary-richness ratio, this table is again quite dominated by the masterworks of Russian literature.
4. THE VOCABULARY LISTS
The complete vocabulary lists of each of these masterworks can be consulted below.
1. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man vocabulary list
2. Anna Karenina vocabulary list
3. Barchester Towers vocabulary list
4. Buddenbrooks vocabulary list
5. Crime and Punishment vocabulary list
6. David Copperfield vocabulary list
7. Dead Souls vocabulary list
8. Don Quixote vocabulary list
9. Eugénie Grandet vocabulary list
10. Fathers and Sons vocabulary list
11. Germinal vocabulary list
12. Great Expectations vocabulary list
13. Gulliver’s Travels vocabulary list
14. In the Shade of Young Girls in Flower
15. Jane Eyre vocabulary list
16. Les Misérables vocabulary list
17. Life and Destiny vocabulary list
18. Lost Illusions vocabulary list
19. Madame Bovary vocabulary list
20. Martin Eden vocabulary list
21. Middlemarch vocabulary list
22. Moby Dick vocabulary list
23. Oblomov vocabulary list
24. Oliver Twist vocabulary list
25. On Swann’s Side vocabulary list
26. Pride and Prejudice vocabulary list
27. Splendours and Miseries of Courtesans vocabulary list
28. The Brothers Karamazov vocabulary list
29. The Chartreuse of Parme vocabulary list
30. The Count of Monte Cristo vocabulary list
31. The Divine Comedy vocabulary list
32. The Grapes of Wrath vocabulary list
33. The Great Gatsby vocabulary list
34. The Idiot vocabulary list
35. The Magic Mountain vocabulary list
36. The Man Without Qualities
37. The Master and Margarita vocabulary list
38. The Mill on the Floss vocabulary list
39. The Portrait of a Lady vocabulary list
40. The Red and the Black vocabulary list
41. The Sun Also Rises
42. The Three Musketeers vocabulary list
43. Tom Jones vocabulary list
44. Tristam Shandy vocabulary list
45. Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea vocabulary list
46. Ulysses vocabulary list
47. Vanity Fair vocabulary list
48. War and Peace vocabulary list
49. White Fang vocabulary list
50. Wuthering Heights vocabulary list->#50.]
1. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man vocabulary list
2. Anna Karenina vocabulary list
3. Barchester Towers vocabulary list
4. Buddenbrooks vocabulary list
5. Crime and Punishment vocabulary list
6. David Copperfield vocabulary list
8. Don Quixote vocabulary list
9. Eugénie Grandet vocabulary list
10. Fathers and Sons vocabulary list
12. Great Expectations vocabulary list
13. Gulliver’s Travels vocabulary list
14. In the Shade of Young Girls in Flower
16. Les Misérables vocabulary list
17. Life and Destiny vocabulary list
18. Lost Illusions vocabulary list
19. Madame Bovary vocabulary list
20. Martin Eden vocabulary list
21. Middlemarch vocabulary list
24. Oliver Twist vocabulary list
25. On Swann’s Side vocabulary list
26. Pride and Prejudice vocabulary list
27. Splendours and Miseries of Courtesans vocabulary list
28. The Brothers Karamazov vocabulary list
29. The Chartreuse of Parme vocabulary list
30. The Count of Monte Cristo vocabulary list
31. The Divine Comedy vocabulary list
32. The Grapes of Wrath vocabulary list
33. The Great Gatsby vocabulary list
35. The Magic Mountain vocabulary list
36. The Man Without Qualities vocabulary list
37. The Master and Margarita vocabulary list
38. The Mill on the Floss vocabulary list
39. The Portrait of a Lady vocabulary list
40. The Red and the Black vocabulary list
42. The Three Musketeers vocabulary list
44. Tristam Shandy vocabulary list
45. Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea vocabulary list
47. Vanity Fair vocabulary list
48. War and Peace vocabulary list
49. White Fang vocabulary list
50. Wuthering Heights vocabulary list
[1] and a poem in the case of Dante’s epic The Divine Comedy.