--- Erik Reuter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> As far as it taking an inordinate amount of time to run an email through
> a spellchecker, I can't see how an intelligent person is hoodwinked by
> this ridiculous propaganda.
Now your just being a jerk.
On the off chance, let me explain:
Running a spellchecker is not a solution. Such algorithms work by finding
words that are close in spelling not close in pronunciation. Believe it or
not, these are not the same thing. Since there are so many ways to
phoneticaly represent a word, most of them are no where near the actual
spelling. Therefore in cases where the phonetic representation I select at
any particular time is not a close match to any spelling, I have to try
alternat phonetic representations till I find one that the spell checker
accepts as a hit. This can take minutes for each word, often 10 minutes in
some cases. In other cases I simply can never find the word, and I have to
resort to changing the sentence to use a differnt word. This can take several
additional minutes.
Once the spell checker does make a sugestion which looks phoneticaly correct
there is an aditional delima. Often more than one suggestion is made, or for
some reason it doesn't seem like the right word. I then have to look every
sugjestion up in a dictionary. This takes several minutes until I find that I
have the right spelling for the right word. Sometimes I find that none of the
spellings represent the right word and I must then either start over with
phonetic representations, or rewrite the sentence.
You see, your brain has a component which automaticaly matches phonetic
streams, to words, to spellings, to meanings, to the appearence of a written
word (which is actualy differnt than spelling.) It does this on automatic,
just as your hand recoils from a hot surface without you haveing to think
about it. What is more when you have a thought, it is highly likely that the
thought you have is in language.
My brain does not do this. I think in pictures, in consepts, in abstractions
without language. I have to conciously translate my thoughts into language. I
have many more standard meanings than their are words to repersent. My
thoughts are often more granular, but also often less granular than words
allow. To translate a very small thought into words I must select from an
abundence of possibilities. Usualy each one of these is equaly insuficient
for what I wish to say. I then construct the sentence linearly, all the while
processing the next sentence and thinking ahead. Aranging and rearanging
consepts so that the structure of my conversation can be more easily
processed linerly. If I am writing then as I do this the words which I chose
must be sounded out and the english phonetic system employed to represent the
sounds. All of this is up-front, first order conciousnes. Nothing happens on
automatic. Everything must be thought about and considered.
The spelling of a word to me is transparent. When I read I only read
phenomes, not words. If I tried to concern myself with spelling, not only
would I not be successfull in spelling properly, but I would never be able to
get a sentence out. I would get stuck on a sentence and have to divert
resources to spelling thus shutting down the processes which are buisy
translating my thoughts into words. And again, I still would not spell
correctly.
In the past 10 years or so, I have been able to spell much better, becouse I
have shiften my word memory from the abstract to the physical. By typing I am
amble to store more words which can be recalled somewhat on auto. But "muscle
memory" is not so exact. Sometimes I get the right phonetic grouping (FREX
"tion" instead of "shun"), but voul sounds are still quite problemeatic.
Forign words, especialy french words, are nearly imposible. My muscle memory
knows that there is a C in muscle and a G in forgin, but I can not tell you
whether or not I have spelled either corectly my looking at them. FORIGN
FORIN FOUREN FORIGHN FOWRIN FUERIGN FORAN FORIEAN FAURGHIN all stimulate me
to subvocalize "forign", and that subvocalization can then be translated to
meaning (once again -conciously-). My ..."fingers" tell me that "forgin" is
the right pattern, but I have no way of knowing if this is corect or not. And
give me a few hours or seconds and I might select an alternate spelling. Even
now "forighn" also --feels-- right. I really have no way of knowing.
I do get something in return though. I do visiual, abstract, pattern
recognition, etc. on automatic. When I think of an object which is 3
demensional, I do not think of that object ~from and perspective~. I am able
to hold more an process more in my head at one time, and much faster. I have
to to be able to even speak and comunicate.
You could suggest that everyone has hurdles and everyone has differnt things
to deal with, and that is just life, and, after all, a few extra minutes
spellchecking is something I will just have to deal with.
And when you consider a few posts here and there, it doesn't seem
unreasonable. However, if you add up all that time, from all the text that I
write in a day, if I were to worry about spelling in each of them, it would
take me over a week to write all of that text. If I am to write a short post
and time permits, I will often perform a spell checking session. If I am
writting for buisness, and more than my emediat associates will be reading
it, then I do the session. Otherwise I do not.
It's not as if others can not read phoneticaly. There was a time in history
when all reading was performed phoneticaly. It might take you 3 or 4% more
time to read, but you can still read everything else much faster than I can
anyway. You still use your frontal lobes when you read properly spelled text
anyway. And it's not like I misspell every single word.
If it bothers you that much, then fine, don't read it. But don't call it
propoganda if you don't know what you are talking about.
=====
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Jan William Coffey
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