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Statement from WESPA Dictionary CommitteeHome » Dictionary » Statement
ABSP Committee Meeting: June 2006: Report from Dictionary Subcommittee
A quick recap:
(1) The Dictionary Committee has not accepted the Collins Official Scrabble Dictionary (COSD) because of the number of errors - omissions (words which should have been included, but weren't) and misinclusions (words included which shouldn't have been). The DC agreed with Collins to proceed to a reprint of the COSD, in an attempt to address the most significant of the errors and to meet the criteria agreed at the 2005 AGM. Between November 2005 and February 2006, many errors were identified. The DC agreed with Collins to freeze the errors and corrections which had been identified by 7 February this year, and agreed that corrections would be given in a reprinted edition of the COSD, with omissions in an appendix.
(2) During March-April the DC continued to collect errors, most of which were long words unlikely to be of everyday use for Scrabble players or definition errors. But during late April, the DC identified numerous errors of misinclusion which did not satisfy the acceptance criteria agreed with Collins (as supported by the 2005 AGM). Collins has generated verb forms for words that are not verbs (and then wrongly defined the words). Most of these errors occur in the P section but are not unique to the P section and none are words given to the DC to verify in the original checking exercise. Collins has also generated plurals of adjectives, double plurals and a variety of other invalid words. Most of these newly found misinclusions are in the 2-9 letters section.
(3) These errors have been brought to the attention of both Collins and Mattel. We see it as Collins’ responsibility to determine the full extent of these errors and correct them. We do not expect Collins merely to correct just the examples that the DC has found. Having brought this problem to the attention of Collins and Mattel in late April, we have heard nothing further. We have no idea how Collins intends to address the errors. Until we have a clear idea of what is being proposed, we are at an impasse regarding moving ahead with the COSD. Meanwhile, the DC will be reviewing all options available for an official ABSP/WESPA word authority by the end of 2006.Now for the update:
The DC has made a clear statement (representing WESPA and ABSP) to Mattel that the COSD in its current form is unacceptable, and will not be recommended to the Committee for acceptance.
The DC has also had a meeting with the new managing director at Chambers. We have outlined the COSD problems, and have been encouraged by Chambers’ enthusiasm to approach Mattel to explore future possibilities based on its previous long-standing relationship. We believe a meeting is being scheduled around the end of June. While the DC is keen to see Chambers return as the official Scrabble publisher, we have also presented some ideas as to how Chambers might publish a “wordgamer’s dictionary” (ie avoiding specific use of the name Scrabble) which could be adopted by WESPA (and the ABSP). Note that the new words from Chambers 2003 have already been identified and the new USA words are separately available. We await the outcome of Chambers’ discussions with Mattel. Meanwhile, we restate our intention to have a new authoritative Scrabble word source in place ready for adoption at the beginning of 2007.
Darryl Francis
6 June 2006