[Lexicog] DIFFICULT WORDS

[Naomi Fox]

I confess I have degraded to the point that when in doubt about the  
spelling of a word, I look up the alternatives on Google and choose  
whichever one shows more hits. I rarely pick up a dictionary, but I  
do use online dictionaries if I'm really in doubt. I can't vouch for  
whether I'm average--for the college community perhaps, for other  
groups of people probably not. I also wonder how much it matters to  
writers in many situations whether a word is spelled right or not.
_________________________________
Naomi Fox
Center for American Indian Languages
University of Utah





On Jun 14, 2006, at 7:50 PM, Kenneth C. Hill wrote:

> When in doubt about a spelling I *always* consult the dictionary.  
> But am I an "average person"? Probably not, but until someone does  
> a study of what the real behavior patterns out there are, it seems  
> lexicographically irresponsible to make generalizations about the  
> behavior of "the average person."
>
> --Ken Hill
>
> jkrimer <jkrimer at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> Greetings,
>
> I believe the dictionary has (almost) lost one of its uses.
> Although spelling is still of some importance when communicating with
> the written word, the dictionary is not our first choice when
> confirming spelling. The average person uses a computer much more
> often and is more willing to turn on a computer than pick up a
> dictionary.
>
> What do you think?
>
> Jonathan
>
>
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