一个词的交际价值可能会因人而异。这篇文章我教过上百遍，但除了dolphin以外，其余六种鲸的名字我都没有记住，原因是它们对我来说没有交际价值。我只需要知道与鲸对应的单词是whale就可以了。但是，如果是一个海洋生物学家看这篇文章，他就会用心去记所有的名字，包括那个亚目的名字 Odontoceti，因为这是他需要掌握的专业内容，写论文、做报告都要用到，对于他来说就有交际价值。

    这一原则在英国孩子中间也得到了印证。请看以下报道 ：

    Britain is turning into a nation of “tabloid spellers”—spelling Jane Austen is a far bigger challenge for children than getting David Beckham’s name right. A survey carried out by Oxford University Press in research for a new dictionary showed that only 32 percent of school-age children could spell Shakespeare correctly. Only eight percent managed Jane Austen—variations such as Jayne and Jade proved especially popular. But JK Rowling did at least win top marks for teaching the children of the world the joy of reading with her Harry Potter sagas. The young magician’s school—Hogwarts—was spelt correctly by 85 percent of the kids polled. Vineeta Gupta, senior editor of Oxford’s Children’s Dictionaries, said: “We were surprised at how many children managed to spell even quite difficult words correctly if they had a connection with popular culture that caught their imagination.” Nearly 15 percent, for example, could spell metatarsal, a word almost unheard of before David Beckham’s pre-World Cup fitness problems.