Ship of Fools: That's Not a Word

Thread: That's Not a Word Board: The Circus / Ship of Fools.

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Posted by ArachnidinElmet (# 17346) on :

The University of Ghent are doing some kind of study on word recognition. They're asking participants to separate out real and made up words. It's kind of fun if anyone wants to try it out. Here's the link.

Posted by Bishops Finger (# 5430) on :

I scored 93%, and I'm on the top level! Yay!

[Yipee]

Posted by Ariston (# 10894) on :

At a certain point, you start wanting the nonwords to be real.

Also, "foof" is a word. Maybe not a Standard Word, but most of those weren't either.

Posted by Leorning Cniht (# 17564) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Ariston:
At a certain point, you start wanting the nonwords to be real.

And the words to be false. When I marked "gormandizer" as false, I was thinking that it's probably a word, it's obvious what it means, but it's just too ugly to say yes to. Is there really a shade of meaning between gourmand and gourmandizer? Apart from the latter just sounding ugly?

Posted by St. Gwladys (# 14504) on :

87% so in the top level

Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :

I make up words all the time. (My newest: "Agapal", a descriptor for a way-out-there cult.) It is a natural human activity; we do it continually. Shakespeare I believe holds the record for words invented that make it into the language.

Posted by kingsfold (# 1726) on :

96%.

Posted by Sioni Sais (# 5713) on :

86%, didn't mark any non-words as words which is pleasing.

Posted by M. (# 3291) on :

Also 96%. Jostlement? Well, I can see where it comes from!

M.

Posted by mousethief (# 953) on :

93%. There were no nonwords that fooled me.

Posted by ArachnidinElmet (# 17346) on :

I scored 86% with no non-words.

There were a couple of words, though, that I recognised the second I pressed 'no', towards the end as I was getting used to the test and speeding up. Daft as it didn't really matter how long the test took.

Posted by Sipech (# 16870) on :

86% for me too. No false positives from me, though one I clicked 'no' on before I'd read it properly and knew half a second later what it was.

Posted by Banner Lady (# 10505) on :

94%

I did wonder if a couple were old English words no longer much in usage...and yes, they were. Not sure that knowing obsolete words should count towards anything in a vocab test. Might as well be old Norse or ancient Flemish.

Glad I didn't choose any that were non-words though.

Posted by Twilight (# 2832) on :

87% What's a houtboy?

Posted by Baptist Trainfan (# 15128) on :

I haven't been following this thread - but is it a "hautbois" or (in modern English) an oboe?

FYI there is a place in Norfolk named Hautbois, however it's pronounced "Hobbis"!

Posted by Salicional (# 16461) on :

That would be my guess too. In the 18th century it was frequently spelled 'hautboy'.

My score was 86%.

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