How often do you come across a word you aren't familiar with? (Apart from coming across it in Wordcraft, that is.) After we're adults, do our vocabularies grow very much?

Shu asked me this question today, and I told him about once a day. He was shocked as it is much less frequent for him.

I am not sure about that statistic, but it seems close to being accurate.

shu asks After we're adults, do our vocabularies grow very much?

Does size really matter, after all?

After we're adults, do our vocabularies grow very much?

Not as rapidly as it does in the first seven years or so, but I don't think it shrinks or stays the same. We seem to learn new meanings and coined words easily enough.

Well, I can happily say that since I joined wordcraft I have learned at least 4-5 new words a week and sometimes every day. Yippee!

Before that, I would estimate that I learned on average about 2-3 new words a week. Not as much as I used to, especially while I was teaching.

It's not a matter of learning new words, it's more a matter of retaining and using them. I suggest that the size of our vocabulary does not increase dramatically in adulthood. Rather, we add new words and drop old ones.

I don't think I agree with that, Sigg.

I do know I have added new words ("epicaricacy" ), especially because of my posting here. However, it is hard to know if I've lost old words. I think not, but it is hard to prove either way.

Well! We're back to a topic I've read research about!

This is closely related with the idea that we have windows of opportunity in our brain development that lend themselves to developing certain areas of knowledge and skill. Just as spoken language is best learned before age 8 . . . vocabulary is mostly learned in those early years.

(soapbox alert!)
Many children in our country get to school with much smaller vocabularies than their more fortunate peers because their interactions with adults are largely custodial. Children whose primary caregivers share books and stories and generally just chat with their kids all the time have a much higher vocabulary than those whose partents just take care of their kids. Studies are showing that those kids who hear language all the time (live! tv doesn't count) have vocabularies that can be 4-5 times that of children whose interactions are mostly custodial (by the time they reach school). The gulf between the two groups of kids gets wider and wider each year.

This is such an important developmental process! Children with larger vocabularies are much more successful in kindergarten! They're going to have a much easier time learning to read because they're less likely to come across words they don't know.

However, in relation to this question, I would have to say that, although our gain in lexical knowledge slows down as we age, that is largely because there will be fewer and fewer opportunities to hear words that are new to us. People like us, who are constantly aware of language and quite often feeding one another's minds with new ideas on the topic, will be much more likely to learn new words. I'm sorry to say it, but all the articles I can find on the topic at this moment deal solely with vocab. development in children.

Concurrently, the continuing pursuit of knowledge will often help stave off the onset of senility and the decrease of mental acuity. So keep on learning!!!! It keeps your brain healthier!