#3730. Lexical use and social class: A study on lexical richness, word length, and word class in spoken English

October 2026publication date
Proposal available till 08-06-2025
4 total number of authors per manuscript0 $

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Journal’s subject area:
Language and Linguistics;
Linguistics and Language;
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Abstract:
Lexical use is an important indicator of an individuals social class, and previous studies found that speakers from different social classes show distinct features in their lexical use. The analysis yielded several interesting findings. First, speakers from the middle and upper-middle classes produce utterances of a higher lexical richness than those from the lower class. Second, individuals from all social classes tend to produce utterances of a lower lexical richness and with shorter words in spoken language than they do in writing, which indicates the spontaneous nature of spoken language. Third, speakers from the middle and upper middle classes have similar lexical features such as the more frequent use of derived -ly adverbs (particularly intensifiers), conjunctions, and prepositions.
Keywords:
Lexical richness; Lexical use; Social class; Word class; Word length

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