September 15, 2003
Blogs
So much for that.
Kieran Healy deconstructs the latest "fact" going around in "Word Salad." The short version: Most commonly-used English words are short and any word of three or fewer letters cannot be scrambled, leaving quite a bit of context from which we can discern meaning. Kieran then provides this example of a paragraph without those two characteristics:
Recrsheears souhld csrncotut secntnees unisg olny wodrs edxcieneg terhe lttrees. Tihs wlil psoe seevral polrbems beaucse wwreell-ittn Esglinh sluohd nlurtaaly cointan mnay sorht wrdos iunidnlcg pvrn-eborses, gtienvie csaes, cncoeinvets and (howpos) penrpsoitois, aongmst many ohtres. Lnoegr wrods soluhd povre useufl when tteinsg tihs ieda. Fatiensnredg wdors dviorecd from hplfeul cnotext mhgit aslo mkae fnie cidenadats for (siht) iiulsocnn. Eelhapnt. Preorpritay. Mainargl. Avtrinmdatiise. Boyend. Caainnbl. Wree tsohe tcekriir tahn tpyical sentecens? Ppostecirve linigusts wlil fnid csnuotntrcig w-llromefed, ativce senetcens fere form tohse mnay hfepull sohrt wrods raehtr dcffiuilt. Tihs txet smees edecnive eonguh of (carp) taht ponit. Neevretslhes, linigstus slohud sitrve twoards tihs goal. Cvioncning sitedus msut searapte ecah slmal wdor's cepvidnino-troxtg rloe from the (admn) sipecfic ieda taht praticular otparhghiroc tosntrianipsos gaurantee taht sesne wlil reiman eevn toughh itrnael snbairmclg occrus. Fanlily dleabielrty minlaaitpnug sacmrbled lteter oedrr sohlud make tihngs eevn mroe duffiilct. Raeeedrs wlil fnid wdros wtih vbres or (fcuk) cooatsnnns aaenrrgd ceiuoesctlnvy mkae uiansmnrbclg mroe dcffliiut.
Okay, I surrender.