List of words and frequency in a document

[The Moose Is Loose]

I know I am crazy, but I need to create an index for a 550 page fairly technical document. Is there a way to generate a list of words in the document and how often they are used? 

[Jongware]

Absolutely -- it needs a script but nothing extraordinary.

What is in your opinion a "word"? A deliberate tricky question! Capitalization, hyphens, apostrophs, punctuation etc. all count.

What are you planning to do with the word frequencies? I bet "the" comes first, then "is" and "a".

[Vendolis]

I also would be super interested in this. It gives a good overview of the importance of words in a text. esp. in translating manuals, being aware of often used words can help with finding a good translation for them before actually starting the translation process.

Are there scripting guides for InDesign to help with writing such a tool? You make it sound that it should not be a big task.