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0 Introduction Word frequency and word predictability have both been proposed in the literature as explanations for word shortening or reduction. Traditionally, these two explanations have been modeled separately. Frequency models focus on the fact that words with high use frequency are shortened compared to low frequency words, whether in the lexicon (Zipf 1929) or during phonetic production (...

Despite the abundance of research investigating general and academic vocabularies and developing dozens of word lists, few studies have compared academic vocabulary with general service word lists such as conversation vocabulary. Many EAP researchers assume that university students need to know all the words in West’s (1953) General Service List (GSL) as a prerequisite to academic words (e.g., ...