Is there a word frequency list based on a spoken corpus?

[Friday]

I want to improve my ability to understand spoken conversations by expanding my vocabulary.

 

Most of the words I know are nouns which only appear in specific contexts, but there are certain words which appear in many different situations. I'd like to find a long list of words, arranged from most frequent, to least frequent, so that I can identify high frequency words that I don't know.

 

Has anyone created a word frequency list that is based off of spoken Chinese conservations from daily life?

[querido]

I understand your interest in this approach but it probably won't work out as well as you hope. Having the support of a context - reading the text from which the words are taken - outweighs many fold having them ordered, I think, as long as the source text is at a reasonable level. We have threads about graded readers, for example, which talk about such graded, reasonable texts.

 

Edit: And a textbook series such as NPCR is also a graded reader that's conversational.

[Shelley]

I have to also recommend New Practical Chinese Reader (NPCR) it is a very well organised textbook.

[xiaokaka]

See this: http://crr.ugent.be/programs-data/subtitle-frequencies/subtlex-ch

Word frequencies based on film subtitles.

[wibr]

Word lists are difficult to come by since there is no word separation in Chinese. For spoken language the file linked above based on subtitles might be the best option. I once made an average list of many textbooks which can be found here.

[Friday]

Did anyone get the http://crr.ugent.be links to work? When I try to download any of the files, it just redirects me to the department's main page.

[Shelley]

Anyone want to tell me why I got a down vote?

[xiaokaka]

Oh, they seem to be down now. I attached the excel files and the pdf to this message.

Cai & Brysbaert 2010 Plos One.pdf

SUBTLEX-CH-CHR.xlsx

SUBTLEX-CH-WF.xlsx

[abcdefg]

I want to improve my ability to understand spoken conversations by expanding my vocabulary.

 

I would respectfully suggest that maybe just expanding your vocabulary by memorizing more words isn't the best way to improve your ability to understand spoken conversation.

 

Why not explore the whole topic of ways to improve conversational ability? You might find some organic solutions that provide more bang for the buck, a better return on investment of time.

[Friday]

xiaokaka,

 

Thanks for posting the files!

 

abcdefg,

 

As I see it, vocabulary is the biggest bottleneck to conversation. If the speaker says a word I do not understand and cannot guess from context, there is not much I can do. If I ask for clarification, the most speakers either (1) repeats the same word again and again, which really doesn't help, or (2) quickly decides they don't want to talk with me anymore.

 

What kind of other solutions do you have in mind?

[querido]

To Friday (with regard to your question to abcdefg):

 

You're right; you must know the words and that's a bottleneck. But even if you did know all the words there's another bottleneck and it's much deeper-running, as being able to ride a bike runs deeper than knowing how to ride a bike from reading a book about it. My warning to you is that, while you're learning words, you should verify that you can converse with the words you already know before taking on the burden of thousands more. The materials and methods you use to "verify that you can converse with the words you already know" will include context, and will not necessarily introduce the words in frequency order. 

 

For example, one of my graded readers at the 300 word level I think included the word cyanide (to support the story being told). That might be a tiny annoyance, but the rest of the book is full of repetition of the other 299 or so words, most of it dialogue. 47 short pages of Chinese-only, try typing it all with pinyin or other IME (I did in a few hours, and I promise you I got faster as I went) and then make those flashcards. They are not in frequency order but they are all from a context you know, and you could re-read this book at any time. Does it sound like ordinary advice so far? Now, listen to the audio that comes with the book. Behold that there is still a gulf between you and being able to converse with these 300 words. 

While you're working with these 300 (using methods that would be covered in another thread) you could press on in the same series, maybe some hundreds of more words, but not thousands, is my advice.

[abcdefg]

What kind of other solutions do you have in mind?

 

I agree with Querido. Good advice.

 

When I was starting out and didn't know many words, what I still found most useful was to learn what I suppose one could call "situational phrases."

 

If I studied lots and lots of dialogue about ordering a meal in a restaurant, the constructions and grammar allowed me to "fill in the blanks" by learning new words as I went along. And then I practiced it in real life, a luxury that you might not have available. As I practiced and made lots and lots of mistakes, I learned from the corrections that resulted. 

 

When I met a new item I could still ask, "Is this sweet or salty or sour?" Then I could ask if it was steamed or fried and so on. Then I'd make a point of using it every time I possibly could for the next few days, to the point of being almost ridiculous. Then that new word was mine forever. I owned it.

 

I'm not a language scholar, teacher or theorist, but what I'm suggesting is learning "organically;" learning in situations that are driven by actual daily China life. View phrases and sentences as the skeleton, and vocabulary as meat on the bones.

 

If you aren't here in country, the story scenarios from books, TV, and movies are the closest you can come. I used all those Chinese Breeze readers that Querido is mentioning, and found them extremely helpful. Even the silly little sketches and skits in my textbooks served as useful "bread and butter" sources. I always used several textbooks at a time; I "mined" them for useable information.

 

I've met so many people who can rip through a huge deck of flashcards, but cannot ask directions to the train station or order a bowl of noodles that I think a dry, academic, book-only memorization approach is badly flawed. It can be a useful component, but it's not enough on its own. "My Anki deck has 7,000 words, but I can't make an understandable sentence" is a complaint all of us have heard more than once.

 

In all candor, my practical method is also flawed. I cannot read worth a damn, even after 7 or 8 years. I don't chalk that up to a problem of method as much to a problem of personal laziness. I focused on what mattered most in my life and failed to push on once I became comfortable. I haven't struggled enough to improve my reading.

 

Apologies for having rambled.