Surprising fact learnt today

[AndySpeed]

In another one of my interesting linguistics lectures (no more 'eats shoots and leaves' for now : ) I found that women don't actually talk as much as men! From a corpus of language, it is found that (from the British National Corpus):

Females speak a total of 3,267,444 words
Males speak a total of 4,920,742 words

I find it hard to believe, women always seem to have the most pointless conversations

[Brown, Jon Brow]

Have you ever had a conversation with a women. It's always the man that asks the questions to start a conversation, then men have to put so much effort into keeping the conversation going.

[BDunnell]

I remember a similar study a few years ago, which concluded that women nag their partners more in the evenings because they use up fewer words over the course of the day. This makes being gay an even more preferable option.

[Brown, Jon Brow]

I remember a similar study a few years ago, which concluded that women nag their partners more in the evenings because they use up fewer words over the course of the day. This makes being gay an even more preferable option.

[edv]

Wasn't there a study published this past month claiming that women talked 3 times as much as men?

[viper_man]

I do not beleive that information at all, everyone knows women talk a hell of a lot more than men. Whether it be pointless, interesting or otherwise, women talk more.

[Andrewmcm]

Wasn't there a study published this past month claiming that women talked 3 times as much as men?

Yeah, I saw that too. I imagine there is a difference between the number of words that a preson says, and the number of words a person has in their vocabulary.

[EuroTroll]

From a corpus of language, it is found that (from the British National Corpus):

Females speak a total of 3,267,444 words
Males speak a total of 4,920,742 words

What does this mean? What's "a corpus of language"?

[LotusElise]

Surely it depends on a lot of factors - a person who lives alone probably talks less than someone who lives with their partner and children. A person who doesn't own a telephone may speak less, for example.

Who goes round counting words anyway?

(I'm sure that the Corpus study is to do with the size of a person's vocabulary rather than the amount they speak anyway, although I have no idea how you measure that objectively either.)

[schmenke]

...everyone knows women talk a hell of a lot more than men. Whether it be pointless, interesting or otherwise, women talk more.

Mrs. Schmenke is living proof...