RF Annual Report - 1935 - The Rockefeller Foundation

288 THE ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION
ness to the importance of language as a social
instrument, rather than to the general student of
linguistics. Professor Thorndike, who has done
work in this field for many years, will direct the
staff organized for the elaborate analysis of
English usage. The routine of this study will be
similar to that for selecting words on the basis
of frequency of occurrence in a large collection
of samples from current materials in print. In
this case, however, the tabulations will be on the
occurrences of words having many accepted
meanings, and the aim will be to determine by a
semantic count which of the several meanings
attached to a given word are to be taught to beginners.
This process calls into play wholly new
factors requiring the use of expert workers who
read the context of each word, remember or consult
a list of its established meanings, and then
record their findings in a systematic manner.
Orthological Institute, London
Basic English in the Far East
A grant of $34,425 to the Orthological Institute,
London, is directed toward the improvement
of international communication by methods
which have had support from the Foundation
since 1932. In that year the Foundation granted
the Orlhological Institute the sum of $35,000 for
developing and testing the usefulness of Basic
English as an auxiliary language in China and
© 2003 The Rockefeller Foundation