Discussion Groups / English Usage / May 2009

"Why?" you might ask.

So that we can perform studies on the various properties of language
as they relate to its day-to-day use. For instance, it may turn out
that words with primarily unvoiced consonants are more or less likely
to have certain connotations than other words.

Suppose we wanted to search for random entries whose consonants were
unvoiced and whose syllables were two or more. We would type something
like:

auc and (syl > 1)

To find words containing sequences of letters (like 'ph'), we would
type something like

has("ph")

We could combine these search criteria even further:

has("sh") and ((uc > 3) or (syl = 2))

Such a feature in an online dictionary would expand our capacity to
understand the linguistic relationships that arise from interactions
between human beings. It would not be hard to program, either.

What do you think of my idea?

If I wanted to begin a database containing the spelling and
pronunciation of all words in a dictionary, how would I legally do
this?