Gerard Meijssen wrote:
Muke Tever wrote:
Gerard Meijssen gerard.meijssen@gmail.com wrote:
The reason for this is that like in a paper dictionaray we only want correct spellings and an incorrect spelling should result in a "not found" message.
In the US, and probably in other places where spelling is not phonetic, one of the most common uses for a dictionary (if not the most common) is to find what the correct spelling of a word is. If there is not "spell check" in the form of redirects or see-unders, then the Wiktionary is useless for this.
Hoi, When a word is correctly spelled in several ways, every alternative is as good as the other and deserve its own article. It should therefore be abundantly clear that they are correct. As a consequence of the massive rename action many thousands of redirects have been created words like "Lightbulb" are now correct because there is a redirect ?? So the spelling of a sentence like: "A Lightbulb Is Typically Found In A Lamp." is apparantly correct?? I think not.
Redirects are not an appropriate tool for spell checks.
I agree. Although some very common misspellings probably should be listed, there should still be some standard for what is common. Perhaps a reference to a grammar text that shows common misspellings. A listed misspelling should perhaps explain the misunderstanding that underlies that error, and thus be instructive. There is no reason to have an endless list typos.
To the extent that we do list misspellings the page should show #a common misspelling of [[...]] A redirect of the misspellings is a form of dumbing down. It may very well be that the person won't even notice the "redirected from" message at the top of the page.
A dictionary can to an extent be used to find the correct spelling, and that is somewhere that the paper dictionary has an advantage. Having a browse function could help to some extent there. But this solution only works when the correct spelling is reasonably near to what you expect it to be. I recently went shopping for a music CD by Theresa Sokyrka, but couldn't find it because I had the first vowel of her surname wrong. A possible solution to finding the correct spelling of words could be something like the Soundex system used by the US Census Bureau.
Correct spelling is a bigger problem in English than in many other languages Ultimately it is a matter of consensus rather than the dictates of a language academy. Insisting on "correct" spelling can lead to the somewhat pejorative charge of being "prescriptivist" when one rejects an imaginative spelling or a new word. Such issues are matters of perpetual debate on the English Wiktionary.
My response to your question about the "Lightbulb" sentence is yes and no. It is a question of defining the difference between spelling and grammar. I would consider the sentence wrong, but I would hesitate in saying that the sentence is wrong becaus of the spelling.
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