Table 1
Selected Statistics for Major Sources
of Spoken and Written Language
(Sample Means)
Rank Rare
of Words
Median per
Word l000
I. Printed texts
Abstracts of scientific articles 4389 128.0
Newspapers 1690 68.3
Popular magazines 1399 65.7
Adult books 1058 52.7
Comic books 867 53.5
Children’s books 627 30.9
Preschool books 578 16.3
II. Television texts
Popular prime-time adult shows 490 22.7
Popular prime-time children’s 543 20.2
shows
Cartoon shows 598 30.8
Mr. Rogers and Sesame Street 413 2.0
III. Adult speech
Expert witness testimony 1008 28.4
College graduates to friends, 496 17.3