Page:Vocabulary of Menander (1913).djvu/36

32 {| align="center" cpds. in cl. authors cpd. words
 * 1st prep. of cpd.
 * | Total of these
 * | Total of these
 * | Total of these
 * Ratio
 * | ||  | 38 ||  | 113 || 1:2.973
 * | ||  | 80 ||  | 357 || 1:4.47
 * | ||  | 60 ||  | 393 || 1:6.55
 * | ||  | 24 ||  | 198 || 1:8.25
 * | ||  | 140 ||  | 1242 || 1:8.87
 * | ||  | 61 ||  | 670 || 1:11.—
 * | ||  | 60 ||  | 697 || 1:11.6+
 * | ||  | 2 ||  | 35 || 1:17.5
 * || | 465 ||  | 3705 || 1:7.967
 * }
 * | ||  | 61 ||  | 670 || 1:11.—
 * | ||  | 60 ||  | 697 || 1:11.6+
 * | ||  | 2 ||  | 35 || 1:17.5
 * || | 465 ||  | 3705 || 1:7.967
 * }
 * | ||  | 2 ||  | 35 || 1:17.5
 * || | 465 ||  | 3705 || 1:7.967
 * }
 * || | 465 ||  | 3705 || 1:7.967
 * }
 * }

The significance of these figures may be seen by a comparison with the use of all words by the same group of authors, in relation to their use by later writers: The total number of words on 72 pages of the lexicon, chosen at random, is 3730, of which 858 are found in the classical authors; the ratio being 1:4.347. Since about 1 in 8 of the double compounds is found in classical authors, and about 1 in 4⅓ of all words, the use of the double compounds must have increased nearly a hundred fold in later writers.

The relative frequency of these forms in Menander, as tested once more by the selected list of classical and later writers, appears from these figures: