Abstract:
This is the study of the general English vocabulary which do not occur in textbooks used in Secondary and Primary level in a selected text on psychology. The analysis concentrates on the new vocabulary, its frequency of occurrence, its word formation as well as the proportion in which they fall into nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. The psychological text entitled Introduction to Psychology by Hilgard and Others is chosen as the sample for analysis. By the application of the simple random sampling method, alternative chapters of the book are analyzed. It is found that 4,263 words are new words, out of which 1,968 or 46.68% are nouns, 625 or 14.66% are verbs, 1,413 or 33.14% are adjectives an 239 or 5.61% are adverbs. The ratio of the nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs is 83:26:59:10 respectively. As for the frequency of occurrence, it is found that 3,492 words (81.91%) occur between 1-5 times, 431 words (10.11%) occur between 6-10 times, 197 words (4.62%) occur between 11-15 times, 82 words (1.21%) occur between 16-20 times, and finally 92 words (2.13%) occur more than 20 times. Furthermore, the study shows only 688 words (16.14%) are found listed in A General Service List of English Words by Michael West. Out of 4,263 words, 621 words (14.57%) are words formed by adding prefixes and suffixes to the roots already occur in the secondary level. Therefore, only 3,642 words(85.43%) can be really called new vocabulary. Out of these 3,642 words, 1,387 words (32.54%) are found to be derivatives.