The Growth of Words

Words...from 0 to 170,000

We come into the world with 0. There are about 170,000 total in the English language. On average, a person uses 20,000-30,000.

That’s a lot of words to get in order.

An adverb...substituted

“That puppy is walking down the stairs very goodly.”

And from the mouth of my 2 and ¾-year-old, I realized how intricately our brains are designed. They are wired to communicate, and they will overcome obstacles to do so.

Sure enough. There was that dog walking down the stairs so goodly.

But I was much more interested in T’s ability to identify the need for an adverb in that sentence. 

Goodly.

I don’t know why the English language uses “well” instead of “goodly.” I think I’m with my 2 and ¾-year-old here. I like patterns and rules in language, and goodly makes a ton of sense. 

T didn’t have the right word, so he formed one into the proper pattern based on other words he knows and uses. He applied a rule - that we’ve never discussed or taught - and used it to expand his communication skills beyond what they’d been.

A language...substituted

And again, I remember my now 4 and ½-year-old doing a very similar thing when she was a bit younger than T’s age. I went to get B from bed one morning and she had a memory she wanted to communicate to me. 

I wasn’t understanding her toddler talk at all that morning, so after having repeated it three times, she switched tactics. “Zapatos. Sucios. Biblioteca. Bailando. Mimi triste.”

Excuse me while I pick my jaw up off the floor.

My thick, adult skull couldn’t pick up what my young 1 and ¾-year-old had been trying to tell me, so she switched languages. 

Here was B, not even speaking full sentences yet. But she knew she had the tools to communicate beyond what her physical speech skills were capable. 

Oh. My. Goodness. 

Her toddler brain wanted me to share in her memory so badly, that she spoke in a way I was sure to understand. She had been sad the other day when we went to the library to do a painting activity. The children stepped in the paint and danced on the paper to the music. But B (who had referred to herself as “Mimi” at the time) didn’t like getting her feet dirty and preferred to just watch.

Talk so they understand

And I guess in a way, that’s our job as entrepreneurs. We put our words out there in a way that our people will understand us. 

Because, after all, your words are only as good as how goodly well they communicate.