A lognormal model, suggested by Carroll, provides a satisfactory description of the frequency-of-occurrence distribution for trait adjectives which are scaled for likeableness. There are strong similarities between the best-fitting functions for trait adjectives and for nouns from a familiarity scale. The similarities suggest that there may be a family of lognormal functions which are common to words which are selected for grammatical class.
References
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BowenJ. H.Familiarity scale values for 420 nouns in twelve combinations of frequency of occurrence and conceptual categorization. Psychological Reports, 1969, 25, 899–910. (Monogr. Suppl. 3-V25)
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CarrollJ. B.A rationale for an asymptotic lognormal form of word-frequency distributions. Princeton, N. J.: Educational Testing Service, 1969. (Res. Bull., RB-69-90)
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