Quote:
Originally Posted by encapuchado
Do you really know every word in your language? You must be a big-shot among the ladies! I can't do the same claim, even when I read in Spanish, so I'm glad to have a dictionary in my reader.
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No-one knows every word in their language, but a well educated adult isn't going to meet many new words when reading unless the reading is in a very specialised area. And even when a word is one that one hasn't met before, the meaning can usually be deduced either from the context or from the structure of the word (if, say, it comes from Greek or Latin, as do so many English words). Any really puzzling ones I can always look up afterwards.
I would add that seeing how words are used in context is OTW much more valuable for enlarging one's vocabulary than just looking them up in a dictionary. Of course there is a danger that the writer has misused a word and then you too can come away with the misuse implanted in your brain.
If I read for pleasure, there is simply no way I'm going to look up unfamiliar words as part of the reading process. If I'm reading something technical, then I may well stop to check the definition of a term to make sure that I'm not misunderstanding it. But I expect that sort of reading to take longer and if I read a page of mathematics I may have to stop to work out how one line follows from the line before.