Lexicometric paradoxes of frequency: Comparing VoBIS and NVdB

An emblematic “anti-spoken” canon, the linguistic variety offered as the standard model in Italian schools following national unification, while show-ing some signs of evolution over time, has remained relatively artificial and resistant to change. The lexical frequencies documented for scholastic Italian can therefore be intrinsically unaligned with those of the base vocabulary, as well as with data for apparently similar varieties of Italian. This implies a need for interpretive models that assess quantitative data in light of the com-plex paradigmatic relations among potential competing usages as well as the multi-layered connections between the number and type of meanings ob-served across different contexts of use. In this paper, I review the scholastic Italian modelled by teachers in the first 150 years after unification, with a view to assessing the strengths and weaknesses of applying lexicometric pa-rameters to a linguistic variety that was targeted at an inexpert audience but specialist in nature, informed by lofty ideals but conditioned by practical ed-ucational needs, and constantly evolving yet resistant to the pull of contem-porary living varieties.