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How large is your passive vocabulary compared to your active vocabulary?

C

Crono

Lifer
How large is your passive vocabulary - the words you recognize and know well enough to define - versus the words you use in everyday language?

Or, in other words, how much are you "dumbing down" or refraining from using more sophisticated (bigger) words in everyday conversation?

My vocabulary isn't as vast as the typical newspaper writer/blogger, but I still find that I don't use about 1/5th of the words that I know. I would guess that is true for most of you; the average person doesn't like to throw around words like perspicuity or deleterious (though those words aren't rare in print) for fear of sounding stuck up, which is a shame. I would love to improve my vocabulary through absorption via hearing and practice, especially if there is context for me to be able to figure out the meanings of new words, though I will resort to using a dictionary when I have time.

Do you avoid using big words or just find few occasions to use your full vocabulary?
 
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I don't know, maybe half? My writing here is pretty conversational, and how I generally speak. I try to use the appropriate word for the occasion. If that's a $5 word, that's the way it goes. I know a lot of obscure words I don't have much opportunity to use, and others I don't quite know, but can put together the meaning by how they're composed. I figure I speak on an 8th grade level, but that might be from years past. I'm not sure the current 8th grade could keep up :^/
 
The dichotomy strikes me as odd. You use the words appropriate to a given situation, otherwise what is the point of a large vocabulary to begin with? I don't think I buy the "passive" vs. "active" vocabulary idea. You either know what a word means, and have it available in your kit bag, or you don't. There are words you use more often, certainly. I don't have a reason to say "polymorphism" very often, but that doesn't mean my knowledge of the word is somehow more passive than my knowledge of some other word.
 
Markbnj said:
The dichotomy strikes me as odd. You use the words appropriate to a given situation, otherwise what is the point of a large vocabulary to begin with? I don't think I buy the "passive" vs. "active" vocabulary idea. You either know what a word means, and have it available in your kit bag, or you don't. There are words you use more often, certainly. I don't have a reason to say "polymorphism" very often, but that doesn't mean my knowledge of the word is somehow more passive than my knowledge of some other word.
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I'll disagree. With a larger vocabulary you might know synonyms that are perhaps slightly more apt but that are more likely to cause confusion in the listener or reader. For example I might say that a business partner "reluctantly agreed" to a suggestion rather than they "acquiesced.". John Goodman's character in O Brother Where Art Thou? offers an example of adding verbal complexity for its own sake.

Lisa: Relax? I can't relax. Nor can I yield, relent, or... Only two synonyms? Oh my God! I'm losing my perspicacity. Aaaaah!
Homer: Well, it's always in the last place you look.
 
DaveSimmons said:
I'll disagree. With a larger vocabulary you might know synonyms that are perhaps slightly more apt but that are more likely to cause confusion in the listener or reader. For example I might say that a business partner "reluctantly agreed" to a suggestion rather than they "acquiesced.". John Goodman's character in O Brother Where Art Thou? offers an example of adding verbal complexity for its own sake.

Lisa: Relax? I can't relax. Nor can I yield, relent, or... Only two synonyms? Oh my God! I'm losing my perspicacity. Aaaaah!
Homer: Well, it's always in the last place you look.
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Agreed, I get all those variations and elements of style. What I don't get is why one approach constitutes the passive vocabulary, and the other an active vocabulary. Wouldn't they switch roles depending on who you're addressing and in what context?
 
Markbnj said:
Agreed, I get all those variations and elements of style. What I don't get is why one approach constitutes the passive vocabulary, and the other an active vocabulary. Wouldn't they switch roles depending on who you're addressing and in what context?
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Good point. I do switch between different sets of words in different contexts, such as using a more technical description of a design feature with a fellow developer than with management or marketing.

But there's a subset of my vocabulary that I rarely if ever use in writing or speaking in any context, that I've acquired over decades of reading. The "five dollar words" some authors use to make their prose more interesting. Perfectly cromulent words that add spice to their text while making it harder for the casual reader to understand. Yes, me book smart!
 
I've forgotten more than I ever learned.

I often say things no one understands, in fact my students gig me for it on evals every semester.

Guess how many shits I give.
 
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It always depends on whom I am speaking to. I adapt my vocabulary to the person I am speaking to, either up or down. Slang usage changes, curse words, and even pronunciation and drawl enters into play. The english language is so vast that depending on the audience you might as well be speaking a different dialect.

Markbnj is exactly right in his post above. If the point is effective communication, a larger toolkit to draw upon will make things go more smoothly with more people.
 
I no plentee of wurds that I don use bekase they be to big for udder peeples to onerstan.
I kuda bin a geenyus, insed, I piked to bee gud luuking.
 
DaveSimmons said:
Good point. I do switch between different sets of words in different contexts, such as using a more technical description of a design feature with a fellow developer than with management or marketing.

But there's a subset of my vocabulary that I rarely if ever use in writing or speaking in any context, that I've acquired over decades of reading. The "five dollar words" some authors use to make their prose more interesting. Perfectly cromulent words that add spice to their text while making it harder for the casual reader to understand. Yes, me book smart!
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You've inspired me to embiggen my vocabulary today.
 
People think I don't know enough big words but actuarially I do.

My verbal volcabulary tends to match my written volcabulary. If I am writng for a general audience I will try to simplify my language. I don't usually do that in verbal communication as I would end up sounding condenscending. My passive volcabulary is larger than my active volcabulary but only because I don't often have need to use many of the words I read.
 
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I don't think its anything to do with 'dumbing down'. It is, surely, more to do with wanting to avoid being pretentious, and, also, perhaps, to do with the fact that knowing words isn't necessarily the same thing as having them immediately available for use.

I think some people have more of their vocabulary immediately available and have a greater ability to access the precise word at the precise moment.

That's sort-of the reason why one friend slaughters me at Scrabble, even though she doesn't really have a larger vocabularly as such (OK that's more about spelling than semantics, but its related).

The worst case, though, is when people use longer and more technical words when there are shorter and more common words that would actually fit _better_ than the pretentious word does.

Its amusing to hear people trying to use long words when they don't quite understand what they mean. Trying to speak in a more high-status register than your own, and getting it wrong. Dubya and Quayle both did that a lot, but even supposed genuine intellectuals do it, especially when it comes to scientific terms.
 
pmv said:
Its amusing to hear people trying to use long words when they don't quite understand what they mean. Trying to speak in a more high-status register than your own, and getting it wrong. Dubya and Quayle both did that a lot, but even supposed genuine intellectuals do it, especially when it comes to scientific terms.
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I hear that more with corporate speak, and people trying to sound "official". One of my biggest peeves is the use of impact to replace affect. People think it makes them sound intelligent, but it only showcases their inability to differentiate between effect and affect.
 
I dumb down what I say...a lot.

Most of the time I am talking to customers, less tech savvy employees or overseas tech support with poor English. In the past 4 months, I have talk to exactly 2 people I didn't have to dumb down my speech to.

In general conversation, I always dumb down what I say. I don't want people thinking I am smart, tech savvy or helpful in any way.
 
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