I recall reading, a long time ago, that English has an unusually large number of words, the consequence as I recall of its being the fusion of a Germanic language – Anglo-Saxon – and a Latinate language – early French. This, I believe, was offered as the explanation for the richness of Shakespeare’s language. This fact about English contributes to the difficulty of the online word game Wordle, hosted by the New York Times. For those who are unfamiliar with the game, you are required to guess a five letter word in six tries (proper names, plurals, and gerunds not permitted.) If your guess contains a letter in the hidden word the letter lights up in orange and if it is in the correct place as well it lights up in green.
To see why the richness of English poses problems, suppose
you have somehow guessed the word “round” on your second try, and suppose further
that the o, the u, the n, and the d all light up green. You might think you
were on your way to an easy win but there are actually seven remaining words
possible and only four guesses left. The seven words are bound, found, hound,
mound, pound, sound, and wound. What to do? Well, as your third try you can
type in “swamp.” That contains four of the possible letters. If one of them
lights up you can solve the puzzle in four tries – a pretty good result. If
none of them light up try “beach.” Now you can solve the puzzle on the fifth
try. This avoids the condescending “whew,” which the WORDLE bot offers as a
consolation for those solving the puzzle in six tries.
Last night, I found myself at 3 AM half awake and thinking
obsessively of all five letter words that end in “irth.” Since I was doing all
this in my head I included five and six letter words that sounded as though
they were spelled this way. So I came up with birth, dearth, earth, girth,
mirth, and worth. Still unable to go
back to sleep, I started thinking up book titles using these words. Here are
some of what I came up with:
The Birth of Earth: a pictorial history of the origin of the
solar system for readers of all ages.
The Birth of Mirth: the development of humor in ancient
Greece.
The Mirth of Birth: jokes told by doulas.
The Mirth of Girth: fat jokes from old vaudeville routines
The Birth of Dearth: socioeconomic causes of poverty.
The Dearth of Birth: low fertility rates in Europe and
China.
The Worth of Girth: obesity as an emblem of social status in
premodern societies.
At this point I fell back into a fretful sleep.
22 comments:
The Pith of Math: The history of the development of mathematics.
The Wrath of Earth: The geologic explanation of volcanoes.
The Sixth Sith Myth: The story of the rise and fall of the sixth Sith in Star Wars genealogy.
I retract my examples. They do not end in "irth".
"Hard mode" is hard because it disallows the "SWAMP" tactic used in your example, Bob.
"SWAMP" encompasses four of the possible seven consonants, and "BEACH" sweeps up the remaining three.
But hard mode requires picking through the possibilities one at a time, using the remaining turns.
A Dearth of Girth?
Here is another go at it:
The Fourth Firth: A history of the geology of the fourth firth, from North to South, which border the east coast of Scotland.
There are actually five such firths. And the fifth firth which emanates from the River Forth is actually named the Firth of Forth.
Post-script:
That would be a great Final Jeopardy question: Name the most southern firth on the east coast of Scotland.
Follow-up on my analysis of the tragedy of Crosley Green:
I emailed my analysis of the 11th Circuit Court decision to a law professor at the University of Michigan who administers the Law School’s student advocacy program, and he agrees with me that it is probable that Ms. Hallock was the actual murderer.
I have emailed my analysis to Henry Louis Gates, and encouraged him to see if he can have a documentary made about the case, and generate publicity about its injustice in the African-American community.
I also emailed the analysis to Jacqueling Olive, an editor at Frontline, and the writer and producer of the documentary, “Always In Season,” about the 2014 lynching of Lennon Lacy, a high school student living in North Carolina, which the FBI ruled (contrary to all of the evidence) was a suicide. I urged Ms. Olive to produce a documentary about Mr. Green’s case and generate publicity about it.
This weekend, Detroit is presenting the Detroit Film Festival, which highlights movies and documentaries which focus on Michigan. One of the documentaries being shown is “Is That Black Enough For You,” produced by journalist and documentarian Elvis Mitchell, and starring Laurence Fishburne. Saturday evening they are showing Mr. Mitchell’s “The Treatment,” and Mr. Fishburne will be present. I intend to go down to the Detroit Film Theater, located in the Detroit Institute of Art, and deliver a copy of my legal analysis to both Mr. Mitchell and Mr. Fishburne, and urge them to produce a documentary about Mr. Green’s plight, and generate publicity in the media and in Hollywood.
Just reported: Harry Belafonte, superb singer, actor and civil rights activist has passed away at the age of 96.
“Some people see things as they are, and ask ‘Why’? Others see things as they are not, and ask ‘Why not’?”
Marc,
I'm pleased to see that you're informing a broader public about the Crosley Green case.
I guess there is no point in playing the game today anymore...
I do the wordle in the 'hard mode'. Mostly because when they came out with the 'wordle bot' thing it kept telling me I was stupid doing it the way I had been doing. Which was very much similar to 'hard mode'. Now, mostly, it tells me I'm way better than average at it. I'm not sure what it says about me that I would be willing to adjust what I do based on an evaluation from a wordle bot computer program, even if it is such a minor thing as wordle game.
But anyways, I had a long streak broken over the last week or so. Twice. (I guess the second time wasn't such a long streak). But I am happy to say that the wordle bot in hard mode did not solve either puzzle also. I'm not sure why that makes me feel better- but it does.
I would have to say that I am happy I don't think of wordle words in the middle of the night though.
A.K.,
I assume that by using the pronoun “you,” you are not referring specifically to Prof. Wolff, but to everyone. I query how you would know that, and on what basis you assert it? I, for example, just woke up, and my first thought was recalling that I have a court hearing this morning scheduled for 8:55 A.M. by Zoom, and I have to prepare and submit a proposed court Order before the hearing takes place.
Would it be scientifically possible to prove or disprove your hypothesis? I suppose it could be done as follows: By attaching electrodes to various subjects’ temples, scientists can correlate specific brain waves with thoughts. Dreams have a specific brain wave pattern, which are differentiable from thoughts. They would then have the subjects go to sleep, and as soon as they recorded brain wave activity which correlated with thought patterns, they would wake the subject and ask them if they remember what they were thinking, and describe it. An affirmative answer would disprove the first part of your hypothesis. I believe that by my statement above, I have disproved the second part of your hypothesis.
Post-script Clarification:
The scientists would have to wait until the first brain waves which indicate that the subject has fallen asleep appear, after the last brain wave indicating thought patterns occurred, and immediately wake the subject and ask the subject if s/he remembers what s/he was thinking. An affirmative answer would disprove the first part of your hypothesis. If it can be done with electrodes attached to a subject's head, there is no reason to believe it does not occur in ordinary life without being a subject in a scientific study.
Marc, there's a lot of work being done:
https://new.nsf.gov/science-matters/scientists-break-through-wall-sleep-untapped-world
Also religious aspects - e.g. Kashmiri Shaivism, Dzogchen, and
https://www.amazon.com/Sleep-Death-Rebirth-Perspectives-Post-Rabbinic-ebook/dp/B08YJTVJNJ?ref_=ast_author_dp
I haven't done Wordle in a while, but I remember thinking "hard mode" was bogus because it turned the puzzle into much more of a crapshoot. Winning in "hard mode" looks like more a matter of luck than of logic/vocabulary.
In the prof's example, with the "SWAMP" method disallowed, the player would be reduced to blindly guessing which single letter completes the "-OUND"; whereas it takes some clever strategizing (which I completely missed until someone else explained the strategy) to deliberately submit an incorrect word composed of those letters, precisely in order to minimize the blind guessing in the remaining plays.
aaall,
Thank you for the links.
The script for the movie “Blade Runner” was adapted from Philip Dick’s short story titled, “Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep.” With all the discussion lately of AI, one of the issues discussed in philosophical circles is whether if an android became so advanced that it eventually experienced emotions, would it have to be regarded as human. Would one of the prerequisites be that androids would have to experience dreams when in repose?
I'm not sure the presence or absence of emotions is dispositive. They might in fact get in the way of eliminating pesky encumbrances such as pesky humans. As for dreams, non-human animals seem to dream - at least the brain waves would indicate that as well as sleeping behavior.
Michael @1:18- correct. But what is the fun of playing a game you can always win? And it is not much of a crapshoot if you can still win 99% of the time :)
The Dearth of Berth: a study of small watercraft and commuter rail
Jerry Brown,
My condolences on the loss of your sister. What you say about her is very moving.
S. Wallerstein @ 11:26,
Thank you.
Jerry,
I just saw your comment regarding your sister's passing.
I extend my condolences also. May your recollections of her in good times sustain you.
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