An Introduction to The National Language Research Institute:
A Sketch of its Achievements
Third Edition(1988)/
HTML Version(1997)
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II.3.12 Studies on the Vocabulary of Senior High School
Textbooks I, II
(I. Report 76, 1983. 574 pages; II. Report 81, 1984. 470 pages)
These books report on a vocabulary survey of 4 science
textbooks (Physics I, Chemistry I, Biology I, Geology I) and
5 social science textbooks (Social Ethics, Politics and
Economics, Japanese History, World History, Geography B) used
in high schools in 1974. The purpose of this study was to
ascertain which vocabulary items are thought to be important
for the acquisition of technical knowledge in each field
as part of general education.
In contrast to previous surveys of this sort, which sampled
parts of textbooks, in the present survey we adopted a method of
total enumeration for the purpose of describing and analyzing
the system of vocabulary, writing forms, and expression in
written texts. We used the following two units, with refinements
of their previous definition: "W units," based on elements which
compose sentences and "M units," based on the elements
(morphemes) which compose words. The vocabulary counts obtained
were as follows:
M Units W Units
Running Different Running Different
Words Words Words Words
Science 205,582 5,304 159,046 13,067
Social Science 388,684 13,175 292,504 31,260
Total 594,266 15,662 451,550 40,998
In addition, the proportion of M unit word types,
disregarding auxiliary words, was as follows: Japanese
words- 40.1% (14.7%), Chinese borrowed words- 62.3% (58.8%),
borrowed words- 1.8% (6.1%), mixed words- 0.7% (0.7%),
personal names and place names- 5.2% (19.8%). (The
figures outside parentheses give the percentage of running
(total) words and the figures inside parentheses, the
percentage of different words.) It was particularly
noteworthy that Chinese borrowed words made up over half of
the total M units and that personal names and place names occupied
a high percentage of the total of different words.
All the data were in a form that could be processed by
computer. In addition, a concordance of the vocabulary with
context, Language Processing Data Source 1, Concordance of High
School Textbook Vocabulary with Context (microfiche), is
available to the public.
Report 76 contains a vocabulary table of words in order of
the Japanese 50-kana syllabary and a vocabulary table of words
in order of frequency of usage for the M units. Report 81
contains similar tables for the W units.
This research was directed by HAYASI Siro~, SAIGA Hideo,
TANAKA Akio, ISIWATA Tosio, TUTIYA Sin'iti, NAKANO Hirosi,
TURUOKA Akio, NOMURA Masaaki, SATAKE Hideo, SAITO Hidenori,
TANAKA Takusi, and YONEDA Masato. The results were written up
by TUTIYA Sin'iti, NAKANO Hirosi and TURUOKA Akio.
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