English words, we got a million of 'em

Are you a locavore{+1} who decries the tapafication{+2} of restaurants or a latte liberal{+3} on the fence about Billary{+4}? No matter, the explosion of new words in the English language is enough to make you ...

[Elisha Moor]

It's estimated that William Shakespeare used a total of 31,534 different words in his combined works. Hmmm... Not bad content creation from such a limited pallet - don't you think? Perhaps its not the not the total number of words available that's important after all, but rather the results. And yes, he was guilty of coining new words as well. Think quality, not quantity and we'd all be on a better path.
Elisha

[KTL]

And the illegals shall learn none of it.

[Buck Turgidson]

Oh, my! What a useful enterprise--inventing ways of counting words in a language! Isn't there some man-bites-dog story that you failed to report while covering this nonsense? Paul Payack is a complete huckster, trying to get media attention with nonsensical claims about language and the reporters are only too happy to oblige. Let's make it very clear--Payack's claim is a complete fabrication with no legitimate science behind it. What boggles the mind is why some reporters are so gullible. Worse--they take nonsensical sensationalist claims and fail to verify them with honest professionals--no serious linguist would ever back Payack's contention.

Oh, wait! You did talk to serious linguist and they did reject the one-million contention. But, still, the Payack version of language is presented as the main line of the story and the serious people are "critics". Worse, there is a chart of word count of several languages. Do all the Bushisms (decider, misunderestimated, etc.) count?

[Marius]

maybe the one millionth word will be "chinglification," the mutual embrace of English and Chinese languages and cultures.