The Hapax Legomenon: A Real or Apparent Phenomenon?
Gustav Herdan · Language and Speech · 1959
This paper discusses the question whether hapax legomena—words occurring only once in a sample—are also unique in a larger corpus from which the sample is taken. The discussion requires a knowledge of how words with a specific frequency of occurrence in the total are distributed in samples and this problem is treated empirically and theoretically. As a result, a general answer to the central question is advanced.