Changing 
while(<>){
  my @list = shift =~ /([a-xA-Z'\-]+)/g;

[download]
to
while(<>){
  my @list = $_ =~ /([a-xA-Z'\-]+)/g;

[download]
gave me results now; could you explain a little what the match is doing to parse the lines?
C:\scripts>wordcount.pl alice.txt
distinct words: 2815
frequency of most common word: 1779
common word:

In reply to Re^3: using hash to find frequency count by jjohhn
in thread using hash to find frequency count by jjohhn

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