More or Less: Behind the Stats artwork

Shakespeare vs Rappers

More or Less: Behind the Stats

English - September 15, 2014 11:00 - 9 minutes - 8.8 MB - ★★★★★ - 740 ratings
News Education Science Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed


It's a 'fact' beloved of English teachers around the world: that Shakespeare, the greatest playwright in English, also had the greatest vocabulary. But research published earlier this year suggests English teachers might have to look elsewhere to establish the superiority of the Bard - apparently his vocabulary lags behind the best and most famous rappers of the last decades. Is this comparison fair, and if so, does it diminish the Bard's lustre? This programme was first broadcast on the BBC World Service.