IV in Russian - Vocab word count

[Matthew Cissell]

Cute analysis. one thing though, should we not consider Shakes in light of the average vocab of his day? Joyce is good for vocab (tundish, anyone) but so is Beckett and he doesn't get mention by the IT article.

Also note that the articel distinguishes between active and passive vocab, the words you use day to day (active vocab) are lesser in number than the words you recognize. Try the dictionary exercise that is mentioned. 100,000 is hefty but not too far off.

Think about anatomy and other specific lexicon you might know, 60,000 isn't so much for a college grad (of course maybe that tilts in favor of those Humanities folk).

ciao
mc


________________________________
 From: Charles Albert <cfalbert at gmail.com>
To: Matthew Cissell <macissell at yahoo.es> 
Cc: "pynchon-l at waste.org" <pynchon-l at waste.org> 
Sent: Wednesday, July 17, 2013 10:35 PM
Subject: Re: IV in Russian - Vocab word count
 


I find the claim of 100,000 words somewhat incredible.....here is another view...

http://zwischenzugs.wordpress.com/2011/03/06/shakespeare_unexceptional_vocabulary/

love,
cfa


On Wed, Jul 17, 2013 at 4:02 PM, Matthew Cissell <macissell at yahoo.es> wrote:

For the words.
>
>
>http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8013859.stm
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>
>
>________________________________
> From: Charles Albert <cfalbert at gmail.com>
>To: Max Nemtsov <max.nemtsov at gmail.com> 
>Cc: pynchon-l <pynchon-l at waste.org> 
>Sent: Tuesday, July 16, 2013 8:52 PM
>Subject: Re: IV in Russian
> 
>
>
>Te salutamus!
>
>I recall from my brief fling with the yazik, that it has a very small root vocabulary. Assuming that current "word count" is a function of root vocabulary, I would think that translating the Popeian/Nabokovian version of English favored by Pynchon must raise the stakes for a translator by orders of magnitude.
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>Further, I recall reading somewhere that James Joyce is believed to have possessed the largest "working vocabulary" in English in recorded history at 40,000 words. Let's discount that by 15% for Pynchon, putting him in the nabe of 34,800. Along comes Max Nemtsov, non-native English enthusiast. I'm guessing Max is possessed of a working vocabulary, in Russian, of around 30,000. Max whips out a translation of Bleeding Edge in a matter of months.
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>Is Max G*d? And if so, must I avert my eyes when addressing you?
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>love,
>cfa
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>
>On Fri, Jul 12, 2013 at 9:09 AM, Max Nemtsov <max.nemtsov at gmail.com> wrote:
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>Dear colleagues,
>>this is just to inform everyone interested that IV will be published in Russian in late summer - early fall, in my humble translation.
>>here's the link to the cover: http://spintongues.livejournal.com/385558.html
>>
>>a-and the next step will be V. - the Russian publisher hired me to do the new translation, it's going to be the third one into Russian
>>no rest for the wicked
>>Mx
>>
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