| Abstract [eng] |
The Vocabulary Size of Lithuanian Native Speakers The goal of this work is to measure the vocabulary size of an adult native Lithuanian speaker. The purpose of this work is to estimate the size of the vocabulary of 2 adult age groups while providing some insights into whether factors such as age, gender, education, profession, knowledge of foreign languages and reading have any influence on the size of the vocabulary. The material for this study consists of a sociolinguistic survey questionnaire (prepared by the author of this work) and a vocabulary size test (created by Vilkienė and others (2019)). The descriptive statistics, inferential statistics, and qualitative analysis methods were chosen for the analysis. In total 132 participants (who were divided into two age groups) participated in the research. The average age of the younger group is 22. This group consisted of 68 participants: 31 females and 37 males. The average age of the older group is 49. This group consisted of 64 participants: 30 females and 34 males. The aim of the research was also to balance each group regarding the factor of gender. Therefore, each age group included at least 30 females and 30 males. The data of the younger age group was collected at Vilnius University (females from the faculty of Philology and males from the faculty of Physics were asked to participate in the study). The data of the older group was collected using the "snowball’’ method. It has to be underlined that this research is the first to measure the vocabulary size of an adult native speaker. The study showed that the vocabulary size does not differentiate in regards to gender. However, the study revealed that the vocabulary size was affected by age and it may be implied that vocabulary grows with age. Thus, it has been found, that the vocabulary of a native Lithuanian student (mean age is 22) is about 57,000 words, and the vocabulary of a native adult (mean age is 49) is about 60,000 words. The study also revealed that the size of the vocabulary was higher in both age groups for those who read often or daily. In the older group, it can be noted, there is a pattern in regards to education. For example, the higher the level of education, the greater the size of the vocabulary. The same tendency is fixed in regards to the knowledge of foreign languages – the more foreign languages are known, the bigger the vocabulary may be. The study also showed that the size of the vocabulary may be influenced not only by individual factors but also by their totality. In the author's opinion, this study could be interesting for linguists who do research on vocabulary. |
