What makes a word a word?

One of the challenges of developing a strong spell checker is creating a database of words that are considered correct; or rather the question of how we decide what word is a word?

We could use an already-existing dictionary, and agree that all the words that appear in there are real words, while other words must be mistakes. But dictionaries are static, and the English language is dynamic and changes constantly. Think of a word such as “email.” Twenty years ago, who knew what it means?

Here at Ginger, we are constantly trying to keep up with the changes the English language goes through. Our advantage is that we learn from the internet, which is the largest, freshest source of text. When we recognize new words or expressions that are massively used, we can quickly add them to our database, and remain the most up-to-date grammar/spell checker. So if you have a great new word you’ve invented, start using it! If it catches fast, we might stop correcting it soon

In the meantime, check out this scene from Curb Your Enthusiasm. What do you think, is LOL a real word?

Yours,

Adva and the Ginger Team.

Posted in Archive, English Language, English learning, English writing

8 Comments

8 Responses to What makes a word a word?

1. seema says:

   August 17, 2011 at 5:55 am

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   • Ramon says:

     June 6, 2012 at 3:14 am

     Hi Graeme,Thanks a lot for your explanation. That was very ennlnhteiigg. I’m an ESL learner so oftentimes I get confused when rules are not applied strictly. I’m beginning to realize that we are free to make our own rules and if we do, there’s really nothing other people can do about it. To me now, the test of effective writing is not whether you are correct or not, but whether you are understood or not.Again, thank you.Angge

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