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Topic : Re: How many different words are in the average novel? I realize there's going to be a bit of variation here from one author to the next and depending on length of the novel, but the range shouldn't - selfpublishingguru.com

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While I can't answer the "big" question of an average, I can answer the smaller question of whether anyone's heard/seen anything on the subject before. If anyone has answered a question like this I would assume it would be Franco Moretti or someone doing similar computational research into the statistical profiles of large literary corpora.

Wired did an article on Moretti's research a few years ago. He floats a concept of "distant reading" wherein we cover a lot of ground traditional criticism can't meaningfully cover through statistical methods. I haven't read him widely, so it's possible he's covered this somewhere. I've emailed him before and he was responsive to my questions, though I note from his faculty page that he's on leave this year which may have some effect (as might any pending publications he has on the topic). He also has related books, like Graphs, Maps, Trees & Distant Reading.


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