Do today's writers have less vocabulary than writers of yesteryear?

Question

I often read authors from the 17th and 19th centuries. And authors of today. And honestly, I regularly find that today's writers can't match the rich vocabulary of the ancients.

Here's an example from two 19th-century authors

" The room where my mother gave birth overlooks a deserted part of the city walls, and through the windows of that room, one can see an endless sea crashing against reefs. I was nearly dead when I was born. The roar of waves, lifted by a storm heralding the autumn equinox, drowned out my cries: I’ve often been told these details; their sadness has never left my memory. There isn't a day when, dreaming of what I have been, I don’t see in my mind the rock on which I was born, the room where my mother inflicted life upon me, the storm whose sound lulled me to my first sleep, and the unfortunate brother who gave me a name I have almost always borne in misfortune. It seems as if heaven gathered these different circumstances to place an image of my fate in my cradle. "

And another 19th-century author

"He had heard these things so many times that they had nothing original for him. Emma was like all his mistresses; and the charm of novelty, gradually falling away like a garment, revealed the naked, eternal monotony of passion, which always has the same forms and the same language. This man, so full of practical sense, did not distinguish the dissimilarity of feelings under the similarity of expressions. Because libertine or venal lips had murmured similar phrases to him, he scarcely believed in the candor of these; one had to discount, he thought, exaggerated speeches hiding mediocre affections: as if the fullness of the soul did not sometimes overflow through the emptiest metaphors, since no one can ever give the exact measure of their needs, or their conceptions, or their pains, and human speech is like a cracked kettle on which we beat out tunes for bears to dance to, when we would like to move the stars to pity."

Do todays writers have less vocabulary than writers of yesteryear?

CupcakeTheDestroyer · Accepted Answer

Speaking as someone who graduated with a degree in writing, took extensive classes on English literature and studied the history of the English language, the answer is… complex.

There are a lot of vocabulary words we don’t use as often as our ancestors did two centuries ago, same as they don’t use a lot of the same language you would see 4 centuries ago. It’s a way to note the development of language and how a number of people often work to sort of optimize it for one’s social groups. The people that were writing and publishing books 200 years ago were undoubtedly upper-middle and upper class folks who not only had the time to write, but the money to invest in their publishing efforts. Naturally, when one is of a higher social class, you’ll see not only exclusions of certain words but a very large vocabulary that promotes their intellect and education. For example, the word “ain’t” was considered high class and a natural contraction alongside shan’t and won’t, but as the lower class started picking up this language and using it, the higher class began to reject it in an effort to separate themselves, saying it wasn’t a proper word and all that.

Now things are a bit different, while there are still differences in education levels between upper and lower class citizens, the vocabulary has been much more optimized over the last two centuries to include not only a great deal more vocabulary words, but also a bit more streamlined in terms of sentence organization and conjugation. It’s not that people in the past were somehow more knowledgeable than us here in the present (there was a 19th century science fiction novel by Frank Reade Jr. that predicted we would have automated horses to pull carriages rather than the invention of the car that would come in the 20th century) but they were speaking their language to people who would understand it. Now there is something to be said about the somewhat alarming rise in illiteracy today considering 54% of American adults can’t read and write above a 6th grade level, but very rarely are the people who read and write books among their numbers. We simply have different vocabulary words, not fewer. Goodness knows if you tried to tell someone from the 19th century anything in our speech today, they’d have a really hard time understanding a lot of common lingo like “cool” and “awesome” from old surfer dialects of the mid-20th century.

TheRealPepperPotts · Accepted Answer

I don't think so; I think it's simply the market demands and the publishing business. A kid's first "book" was often a King James Bible; there wasn't the variety or the fast pace of today. The readers of today don't need to progress to higher reading levels in order to be functional in society or to enjoy an interesting story.

I have been reading books from authors like Dumas and Hugo since I was a teen, and I loved them. But reading books like that is no longer a common pastime. Agents and publishers will reject manuscripts that are too flowery as amateur. They can't sell them to the general market. They want a product that hooks the reader from the first sentence, not a work of art that forces people to think.

I promise that if I wrote something in college that was similar to the examples you gave, I'd be told to simplify and not use so many adjectives and cliches by my professor; the "sea crashing", the "roar of waves", etc. People know what the ocean sounds like. Basically, take an old writer and throw them into a modern college class, and they'd struggle, not because they don't know how to write, but because their writing would be shorn drastically. Originality and creativity are not valued in college classes; technical correctness and efficiency are.

It's not that the writers of today are necessarily dumb or lacking in vocabulary, it's that we live in a different kind of culture with different needs and motivations. It's sad, but it's reality.

WindAtMyBack · Accepted Answer

Writing style has changed, and for the better in my opinion. The old style concentrates too much on being creative, when I wish they'd just get on with the story.

Who the hell wants to read an entire page from Moby-Dick that doesn't actually say anything? Yea, I know it's a classic, but I bet not many people have made it through that book.

If you want a modern writer with a large vocabulary, try Stephen R. Donaldson. It's not so much flowery writing, but he uses a lot of obscure and archaic words. He also uses strange forms of words. He can take a simple root word and change it into something unrecognizable.

"an endless sea crashing against reefs"

Some of this is OK, but too much gets tedious.

NathanDavis · Accepted Answer

the writers from forever ago that you would get to pick from... have been selected through centuries, so of course... you would only see the best of the very best

and so, for you to select the writers of today... that match the same sample of forever ago, would take you a long long long time to filter first, and then select later

so that's kind of not fair, lol

and the rest is... mere perception

There are truths which are not for all men, nor for all times ~

purplepoppy · Answer

In modern English, there's more of an emphasis on both brevity and using the simplest words we can get away with. We're taught to write so all may understand our words and not just the highly literate. Padding out pages with superfluous language is frowned upon, but it's created a populous scared of using 'big words'. No doubt this has a lot to do with learning to write for the American market.

Old writers were paid by word so there was a financial incentive to pad things out a bit. But our standard of English is influenced by what we're exposed to, so perhaps not seeing the flowery language of yesteryear is why so many today can't grasp simple concepts like 'to, too, two'.

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HighValue · Answer

I seriously dislike writing like the second example you posted. Overly descriptive language like that is often used to lengthen stories and make them drug out and boring to me. Even some modern authors write long winded, unnecessary descriptions like that and I avoid them. Some authors waste the reader's time in my opinion, but they do it to make more profit because many people still think more pages in a book equals more value and they are willing to pay more. That is also why many books are 4" by 6" instead of 5" by 8" because with the same amount of words, they perceive the book as longer since it is thicker.

bobby_bush_eater · Answer

Becoming an adult and now reading books regularly I've noticed the power of literature, something I'd have mocked in high school.

Most of what I read is old but I have noticed a lot of fiction authors establish one or two really good ways to tell a narrative but they then repeat it over and over in different books.

Honestly most of the fiction I read is around 8th grade level so I can't really comment on the difference overall in vocabulary because the non fiction history I read is very much so up to snuff with the past but it's far less popular (I'm not reading WW2 or modern wars).

Syntosi · Answer

I have seen plenty of authors that can go toe-to-toe with Shakespeare himself. That said, I do enjoy a more simplified language. Language should convey meaning rather than make you sound pompous while doing so.

There is also much to be said about how limiting yourself while performing art such as writing can be a great show of skill as well as enhance your creativity.

FoxnEagle · Answer

Less vocabulary? Sure
Worse writing? I wouldn't say that at all.

I have found that older writing goes into a lot more detail to paint the exact picture the author wants the reader to imagine whereas more modern writing leaves more to the imagination of the reader.

If you want a conspiracy theory, I blame Hollywood. The less descriptive you make characters and events, and focus more on plot and character development, the easier it is to make a movie out of it!

DJB72 · Answer

The average student in school at the end of the 19th Century had a larger vocabulary than most language majors doing a Masters degree today.

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Dargil · Answer

I think yes although dictionaries and Thesauruses online are very helpful to fine tune meaning and not repeat words. But today's writers, including me, are also less literate i. e. classical literature. We know less stuff.

exitseven · Answer

There are still a few writers that can invoke the imagination. However newspapers often have grammatical and spelling errors today. I never used to see that years ago. Same with news casters. They use inproper grammar as well.

slatyb · Answer

You are reading the wrong writers. Have you tried Umberto Eco or John le Carré? There are many others you might enjoy.

RageBabe · Answer

No, but here is a list of languages with the most vocabulary: Korean, Japanese, Italian, and English.

RavVid · Answer

Wow! A semicolon and a colon is used in the same sentence of the second passage. Yeah, they were better than us.

Daniela1982 · Answer

All they need is AI and they can be like Poe or Shakespeare.

Billlewis · Answer

Maybe, but not me. I believe I'm one of the best ever.

dreamstar72 · Answer

Yes and no.  Yesterday writers had it in their head Today writers has it their google fingers Closely where their

LiamJHayden · Answer

Hard to compare, really. Books that have survived to now had to have been the cream. Most random books from now will probably not be read in a couple of centuries.

LostandFound__x · Answer

Yes and I would argue that the English language has changed and continues to do so.

Anonymous · Answer

Writers today write on subjects they've no knowledge of and don't do proper research.

SuchSightsToShowYou · Answer

Me not think so. Me like authors of today. Authors of past do too much word-using. Make head hurt.

msc545 · Answer

Most people in the US can barely read at all, so the writing including vocabulary has to be a lot more rudimentary.

Anonymous · Answer

why do some people pay so much attention to detail  like just be happy that books still even exist after all the technology that's come out this past freaking decade

DrPepper12 · Answer

Yes. re-state//background_color_rgba (0, 0, 0, 0), font_color_rgb (77, 77, 77), justifyLeft

RedInnocent69 · Answer

Probably. You write for your audience. People are t getting brighter

Masticophis80 · Answer

I think people today in general lack vocabulary.

NewWaves · Answer

I think so, yes

jahaims · Answer

Language evolves

Jmmmfi4 · Answer

GOOD POINT

Do today's writers have less vocabulary than writers of yesteryear?

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