Re: Plausibility Check


Franz Gnaedinger wrote:
Me:

Fact is you can't say how many words English had in
Shakespeare's time.$

Peter T. Daniels:

I personally? Of course not. Neither can you.

In your message from Sat, Jul 15 2006 4:18 pm you quoted
my statement (quote from a radio program on a topic of
linguistics):

English in the time of Shakespeare had some 200,000 words,
information technology alone introduced

and replied thusly

Now you even lie about even readily verifiable facts. Where
do you GET this bull***???????

So tell me about the "even readily verfiable facts." You can't?
Well then, apologize for having accused me of lying.

Do I have to tell you AGAIN that the electronic OED can be searched by
date?

I happen not to have access to the electronic OED. Like many things
from OUP, it is seriously overpriced. You, however, since you are
frequently at your university library, do have access.

But the number of words that happened to be used in writing between,
say, 1590 and 1620 and preserved until the 19th century can easily be
determined using the OED's software.

Okay, easily determine the number of English words
in Shakespeare's time using the OED's software.
You are easily accusing me of lying, now I wan't to
see how you are easily determining that number
and providing them "even readily verifiable facts."

Buy me a subscription to the online OED (which I basically have no use
for, since I own the Compact Editions of the original and of the
4-volume Supplement equivalent to the Second Edition), or buy me a copy
of the CD-ROM (its list price was $1000 when it was published a few
years ago).

.