| Abstract: Words belonging to the Swadesh list of basic vocabulary are not only stable but also frequent. For each word, frequency varies across different languages and periods of time, but in general, more than half of the Swadesh items belong to the first thousand of the most frequent words, and ca. 80% of Swadesh items belong to the first three thousand, irrespective of language. It seems a priori probable that a meaning would belong to the basic vocabulary if it were easier for the speakers to remember an already existing word than to replace it witha new derivative or borrowing. Given the construction of the human brain, things that are more frequent tend to be more strongly memorized (since the corresponding neuron circuits are strengthened, according to Hebb’s postulate). For a preliminary testing of this hypothesis, we analyzed the Swadesh wordlist items in frequency dictionaries of 15 languages belonging to different families and linguistic areas. In all of these languages, 21 meanings were expressed by words belonging to the first thousand of the most frequent words. In most languages more than 60 words belong to the first two thousand and, typically, more than 80 words belong to the first three thousand of the most frequent words.
There is a rather strong correlation between frequency ranks of words with the same meaning in different languages. There are a few easily explicable counterexamples to this rule: e.g., if a word has several meanings, it will have a higher frequency. Languages of different
families inherit different polysemy models from their protolanguages, which is why a universal wordlist containing a representative amount of words but not influenced by polysemy cannot be generated. Although frequency may vary depending on the speakers’ way of life, a considerable amount of items on the Swadesh wordlist retain high frequency under any circumstances. Our data show that even if languages are closely related or involved in intensive contact, frequency changes within them are independent.
Observations on frequency ratings of different lexemes make it possible to provide some refinements to the method of compiling Swadesh wordlists. Thus, for terminative verbs, a perfective form should be chosen, while for non-terminative verbs, an imperfective form would be more appropriate. For verbs of movement, forms denoting a single directed movement should be chosen. For verbs of physical perception, forms denoting unintentional perception should be preferred. For the word ‘hand’, one should rely on functional rather
than anatomical contexts.
Swadesh wordlist items are learned very early: thus, in Russian, children are expected to know ca. 70 Swadesh items before they are 3 years old. Words are acquired through their contexts, which is why the method of compiling Swadesh wordlist via diagnostic contexts is
the most appropriate. The degree of stability of a word with a certain meaning differs in different languages; however, different samples of basic vocabulary show almost the same correlation
with frequency. Though there is no direct dependence between frequency and stability of words, the relation between belonging to the subset of basic vocabulary and the subset of frequently used words is not random.
There is a correlation between early acquisition and frequency (but not stability). This is probably due to the fact that early acquisition and modern day frequency are more deeply connected with modern day lifestyle, while stability reflects previous epochs. Frequency of the words with the same meaning differs in different languages (and even in the same language in different times). This is, apparently, a universal principle: if it were not so, words
would never have an opportunity to be eliminated from the Swadesh wordlist, since they would be so frequent that nobody could forget them and replace them with derivatives, borrowings,
or other words. However, the list itself has a probabilistic nature: it cannot be predicted which meanings would gain higher frequency in a certain language at a certain period of time, but the majority of items on the Swadesh wordlist still belongs to it in any language
at any period of time. |