It is a stereotype as old as time: women are chatterboxes, while men tend to be more reticent.

但奥斯汀得克萨斯大学(University of Texas)的研究人员进行的一项新研究发现，在闲聊这个问题上，男性和女性几乎是一样的，他们每天平均用词都达1.6万。

But a new study by researchers at the University of Texas at Austin has found that when it comes to gabbing, men and women are about equal, with each using an average of 16,000 words a day.

在今天出版的《科学》(Science)杂志上，这项研究驳斥了10多年来人们一直认为女性每天用词量多于男性的说法。人们通常引用的一组数据是，女性每天用词2万个，而男性只用7000个。

The study, published today in the journal Science, refutes more than a decade of claims that women use more words each day than men. One set of numbers that is commonly tossed around is that women use 20,000 words a day compared with only 7,000 for men.

研究人员首次开发出了一种方法，利用电子激活录音器(electronically activated recorder)记录正常语言。这种数字录音器能追踪人们的互动行为，包括对话。

The researchers first developed a method for recording natural language using the electronically activated recorder (EAR). The digital voice recorder tracks people's interactions, including their conversations.