CHAPTER 2

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

In order to discuss and analyse the research, this chapter provides several essential theories needed about , Zyzzyva, and Morphology.

2.1 SCRABBLE

This section will introduce more about Scrabble to give readers deeper view and insight. Furthermore, this section will be discussing the history of Scrabble, explaining the game details, and finally elaborating the rules of playing the game.

2.1.1 The History of Scrabble

Alfred Mosher Butts, an out-of-work architect from Poughkeepsie, New York, invented Scrabble during the Great Depression. Butts divided games into three categories: number games (dice and ), move games (chess and checkers), and word games (). He enjoyed anagrams and a lot that he created a game with both feature and named it , the game was later called CRISS

CROSS WORDS (National Scrabble Association, 2012).

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Figure 2.1

Originally, the game was played by forming words using letter tiles and placing them on a -concept board, the length of the word determined the score. After Burr studied the letter occurrence on the front page of the New York

Times, the point of each letter tile was valued based on the frequency of the letters appeared in that newspaper (Halpern & Wai, 2007).

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Figure 2.2 Criss Cross Words,an early version of Scrabble game

Butts’ invention has been rejected by several established game manufactures until he met James Brunot, a game-loving entrepreneur who liked the concept and the idea of the game. They both finally made some refinements on the rules and the name SCRABBLE was created.

At first, they were struggling on surviving in the game business. However, the Scrabble game was growing steadily to achieve the popularity among customers.

The game started to be sold around the country in the early 1950s after the president of MACY’s interested in the game and ordered some boards for his store. And then in 1952, they expanded the business through a well-known game manufacturer,

Selchow & Righter Company, to market and distribute the games in the United

States and Canada.

The Scrabble game started to appear in newspapers, televisions, and magazines across the country. People were demanding the Scrabble game that 11

Selchow & Righter that they needed to boost the production to fulfill the overwhelming demand. In 1972, the Brunot sold the trademark to Selchow & Righter and the company had the exclusive rights to all Scrabble brand products and entertainment services in the US and Canada. Before Scrabble was purchased by

Hasbro, Inc., Selchow & Righter sold it to Industries in 1986, which declared bankruptcy three years later (National Scrabble Association, 2012).

2.1.2 The Game

Scrabble is a that can be played by two to four people and the goal of the game is to get the highest score. The combined total score depends on the skill of the players. It may range from 400 points to more than 800 points.

The game has one playing board, 100 letter tiles, four tile racks, and one tile bag. The board has 225 squares and there are 100 tiles, of which each of the 26 letters of the alphabet is assigned point values according to the direct proportion to its frequency in words in the English language. For example, letter a and i are valued at 1 point because they show up frequently than letter z which worth 10 points and only shows up once (Halpern & Wai, 2007).

The Scrabble game is played from the center of the board outwards in a horizontal (left to right) or vertical (top to bottom) sequence. Players need to make a legitimate word using seven tiles on a rack and put the word on the squares with optimal value, for example, double word score. Players could also form new words by adding letters to an existing word. This method will be discussed further in section 2.1.3.

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Figure 2.3 Scrabble Board and Letter Distribution

Figure 2.3 illustrates that there are several squares in the Scrabble board with different colors which determine whether they are double letter score, triple letter score, double word score, and triple word score. There are 100 letter tiles including the two blank tiles. The letter distribution is as follow:

Letter A B C D E F G H I J K L M Distribution 9 2 2 4 12 2 3 2 9 1 1 4 2 Score 1 3 3 2 1 4 2 4 1 8 5 1 3 Letter N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Distribution 6 8 2 1 6 4 6 4 2 2 1 2 1 Score 1 1 3 10 1 1 1 1 4 4 8 4 10

Table 2.1 Letter Distribution and Score 13

Table 2.1 indicates the score of each alphabet and the distribution of the 98 tiles. The remaining two tiles are the blank tiles, which have no score value, but it can be used as any letter the players might need. When the blank tiles are played, the players must state the letter and it cannot be changed until the end of the game

(WESPA Rules Committee, 2010).

Scrabble players need to know legal words from the Official Scrabble

Player’s Dictionary (2005) in order to increase chances of winning, especially when with expert players who study lists of unusual words from the book (Fatsis, 2001).

The lists of the words presented in the official dictionary are arranged by the number of letters in the word and by letter combinations, instead of using alphabetical listing.

Scrabble association in Indonesia used the official word sources listed on

WESPA. The word lists that are usually used as sources are Collins Official

SCRABBLE Words 2011 (3 rd edition) and HarperCollins SCRABBLE Tournament

& Club Word List (2007 edition).

Besides the board, tiles and racks, the players might need to prepare other equipment before the game starts, such as, timer and the writing aids, including score sheets, separate lists and other acceptable material.

• Timer

In a Scrabble tournament, both of the players are given 25 minutes for each

player to complete all of their moves, there is no time limit associated with

each turn. Digital clock with two timers is used in the tournament. Both

timers start at “00:25:00” or “25:00” and countdown until they reach

“00:00:00” or “00:00”. If a player exceeds the 25 minutes time limit, 10

points will be deducted for each overtime minute. During the overtime, the

timer usually counts up and shows a negative sign in front of it.

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Figure 2.4 SamTimer, Scrabble Game Clock

As seen in Figure 2.4, the clock has two buttons, one on top of each timer,

which will start the countdown when the button is pressed. There is also a

middle button that stops both timers when it is pressed. The clock can only be

stopped when one of the players wants to handle a , settle a scoring

discrepancy, or consult with the committee when there is a dispute.

• Writing Aids

Scrabble players usually bring their own score sheets in a tournament. There

are a lot of printed Scrabble score sheet designs provided on many websites.

Some score sheets include tracking list, shown in Figure 2.5, which is used to

track the tiles that have been played, so the players will know whether they

have the chance to get the desired letters from the tile bag. The players could

also bring separate tile tracking lists if the score sheet doesn’t have a score-

tracking list. 15

Figure 2.5 The Sample of Score Sheet with Tracking List

In addition, several writing aids that are allowed in the game area include,

blank papers and score sheets, contestant scorecards, tile tracking lists,

challenge slips, blank designation slips, and result sheets (WESPA Rules

Committee, 2010).

2.1.3 The Rules

Scrabble association in Indonesia follows the rules written by World English-

Language Scrabble Players’ Association (WESPA). In a tournament, the players compete to get the highest score using their tiles and skills. One of the players becomes a scorekeeper who informs each player’s score after each turn.

The players need to prepare the equipment before the game starts, such as playing board with the tiles and rack, as well as pen and writing aids. The first player who starts the game should form a word and place one of the tiles on the center

16 square (marked with star sign). The word played in every turn throughout the game should be placed in horizontal or vertical line. Placing the tiles diagonally is not permitted.

A player gets an extra 50 points when playing all the seven tiles in a single turn. The points are added after there’s any double or triple word score. As mentioned earlier, players could form new words by using several variations.

According to WESPA Rules Committee (2010), it could be done by:

- Adding one or more tiles to the beginning or end, or to both beginning

and end, of a word placed on the board.

- Placing a new word at the right angle to an existing word placed on the

board. The new word must use one of the letters of the existing word.

- Placing a new word parallel to an existing word placed on the board in

order to form complete words with those adjoining tiles.

- The new word might also add a letter to an existing word.

- The new word is going to “bridge” two or more letters after the 4 th move

or later in the game.

Words played on the board may not be moved unless they are successfully challenged. When a word is challenged, the player should look up for its validity from several sources, such as dictionary, official word list, or applications. If the word is valid, the player who played the word will be given extra five points. On the other hand, if the word is not acceptable, the player should take back the tiles and he/she will lose the turn. 17

Exchanging tiles can cause a player to lose his turn. The player can replace some or all the tiles by facing the tiles down, drawing the same amount of tiles exchanged, then mixing the discarded tiles with the tiles in the bag. A player could also lose a turn when he/she decided to pass. However, the game ends if a player passes two times in a row.

At the end of the game, the score of each player is reduced by the sum of his unplayed tiles. If one of the players uses all of his tiles, the other player will gain the sum of the tiles unplayed by the first player. For example, the score of Player 1 is reduced by 8 points since he left the J and T tiles, which have a total score of 8 points.

On the other hand, 8 points will be added to Player 2, if he uses all of his tiles.

2.2 ZYZZYVA

Zyzzyva is a word study program that was invented by Michael Thelen in

2004. Thelen used the word “zyzzyva” because he wanted to use a unique word to name his program. He stated that in a Scrabble game “zyzzyva” is one of the most implausible words to be played. Zyzzyva was also the last word in alphabetical order before it was replaced by “zzz”. Therefore, Thelen decided to call Zyzzyva to be the last word in word study, and it became the slogan for the program until now

(Zyzzyva: The Last Word in Word Study).

The aim of the program is to help Scrabble players with the software features, which is anagramming words, searching lexicon options, word judge feature, quizzes and the Leitner Cardbox system for word study. After the program is installed, the users need to choose the lexicon(s) they are going to use and save in the database.

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There are 5 main features of Zyzzyva :

- Search

Search tool in Zyzzyva is used to look for some common and complicated queries from the lexicon installed in the database. There are several features which are utilized here : match, subanagram match, pattern match, length, in lexicon, include letters, and probability order.

- Quiz

Quiz feature in Zyzzyva help the Scrabble players develop their word knowledge and competitiveness. There are four Quiz type which are utilized : anagrams, anagrams with hooks, word list recall, and hooks.

- Word Judge

Word Judge feature allows the user to check the validity of the words based on the lexicon(s) installed in the program.

- Definition

This feature helps the users to understand the meaning of each words also all of the anagrams.

- Cardbox

Cardbox feature in Zyzzyva provides more structured study method for the

Scrabble players. This feature keeps the record of how often the users make the right or wrong answers, and then it repeats the questions on a scheduled interval. 19

2.3 MORPHOLOGY

Scrabble is a word game that requires the players, especially the competitive players, to have a word forming skill and knowledge. The words and their structure are studied in the English Morphology. Morphology is the area of grammar concerning about the structure of words and their relationships involving the morphemes (Carstairs-McCarthy, 2002).

Words, according to traditional grammar, are the basic units of analysis and classified based on their part of speech. The word itself is formed by a morpheme, the smallest part of a word that has grammatical function and meaning (Delahunty &

Garvey, 2010). For example, the words performs, performed, and performing can be analyzed into the morphemes perform plus (-s), (-ed), and (-ing) respectively.

A morpheme must be identifiable from other word to another and contribute in some way to the meaning of the whole word. The word perform is a free morpheme as it has its own word and does not have to be attached to another morpheme. On the other hand, bound morphemes, like (-s), (-ed), and (-ing) , cannot stand on their own and must be affixed (attached) to some other unit.

The bound morpheme has a root morpheme and affixes. Root morpheme is the basic form of a word where the other morphemes are attached (perform is the root morpheme of performed ). There are two types of affixes, which are prefixes and suffixes. Prefixes are placed before the root morpheme (the re- in rebuild ), meanwhile suffixes are placed after the root morpheme (the -er in builder ).

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Inflectional morphemes do not create separate words, they only modify words to indicate grammatical context, such as plurality ( apples as the plural form of apple ) or tenses ( performed as the past tense of perform ). On the other hand, derivational morphemes are added to root morphemes to create separate words. Derivational morpheme changes the class of a word, for example from build (verb) to builder

(noun) after the derivational suffix -er is added. The derivational morpheme also creates new meaning of a person or a thing that performs the action indicated by the verb (Delahunty & Garvey, 2010). Therefore, builder means “someone who builds”.

2.3.1 Inflectional Morphology

As mentioned earlier, inflectional morphemes are the altered form of a word indicating certain grammatical context. English inflectional morphology has eight regular morphemes, which are indicated in Table 2.2 below (without the blue rows).

Part of Speech Inflection Remarks Example - Singular the singer Nouns (-s) Plural the singer s Noun Phrases (-s) Genitive/Possessive the singer' s guitar - Basic form prove (-s) 3rd person singular present tense prove s Verbs (-ed) past tense play ed (-ing) progressive/present participle is play ing perfect participle/ has play ed / (-ed) passive was play ed - Positive slow Adjectives/ (-er) comparative slow er Adverbs (-est) superlative slow est

Table 2.2 The Eight English Inflectional Morphemes (Regular)

Table 2.2 shows that the regular plural form of a noun is indicated by the additional -s suffix. Irregular suffixes showing plurality includes -i, -ae, -a, and -en

(as in cacti, vertebrae, data, and oxen ). Some irregular singular nouns only change 21 the vowel of the root morpheme to form the plural nouns (like teeth, men and geese ).

In addition, there is also a class of nouns which are unchanged in the plural, such as sheep and deer .

A verb lexeme might have at most five inflective forms, where most verbs, have only four forms including the basic form since the past and perfect or passive participle are the same. Table 2.1 shows the three other forms of verb, which are plays, played, and playing. The example of an irregular verb, which has five inflectional forms, is go (basic), goes, went, gone, and going .

Adjectives and adverbs in English have three forms which are positive, comparative, and superlative. The regular pattern of suffixation is –er in comparative and –est in superlative. On the other, the irregular adjective might derive from historical unrelated form (suppletion) as in bad, worse, worst or good, better, best .

2.3.2 Derivational Morphology

Derivation is the process of creating morphologically related words by adding affixation that is not inflectional to the root morpheme. In most cases, derivation changes the word class of a word or lexeme, for example from verb

(perform ) to noun (performance ). There are a lot of derivation or conversion of words in English morphology:

a. Adverbs derived from adjectives: suffix -ly is added to some adjectives in

order create the adverbs, for example curious (adj) and curious ly (adv). On

the other hand, some adverbs are formed with the exact adjective words, as in

‘a fast car’ and the ‘car was driven fast ’.

22 b. Nouns derived from nouns: as mention earlier, not all derivational processes

change word class. Affixes are added to nouns in the derivational process:

- Small X: drop let , book let , cigar ette , dogg ie

- Female X: waitr ess , prince ss , hero ine

- Inhabitant of X: New York er , Texa n, Glasweg ian

- State of being an X: king ship , lady ship , mother hood , priest hood

- Devotee of or expert on: contortion ist , Marx ist , histor ian , magic ian c. Nouns derived from members of other word classes

- From adjective to noun: equal ity , good ness , professional ism .

- From verbs to noun: perform ance , commit ment , build ing , organiz ation ,

refus al , paint er . There are also some derived nouns from verbs that do

not have affixes, but they require some changes:

o In the position of the stress: permít  pérmit

o In final consonant: believe  belief or prove  proof

o In a vowel: sing  song or sit  seat d. Adjectives derived from adjectives: suffix –ish is used to indicate the

meaning of somewhat X, as in greenish and smallish. Prefixes un-, in-, il-, ir-,

and im- derive adjectives to create another adjectives with negative meaning,

for example un readable, in correct, illegible, ir responsible, and im possible . e. Adjectives derived from members of other word classes

- From verbs to adjectives: read able , repell ent , ignor ant , creat ive .

- From nouns to adjectives: meaning ful , hope less , nation al , boy ish . f. Verbs derived from verbs: prefixes are used in the derivational process to

create the meaning ‘again’ and to create a negative or reverse meaning of 23

verbs. For example, prefix re- in re build means to build again. The negative

prefixes are un-, de-, and dis-, as in un tangle, de compose, and dis believe .

g. Verbs derived from members of other word classes

- From nouns to verbs (affixes/adding vowel): de bug, patron ize , beaut ify ,

bath  bath e and breath  breath e.

- From adjectives to verbs: en slave, em power, tight en .

2.3.3 Word Repository (Word Knowledge and Word Understanding)

Scrabble is a word game that requires competitive players to have a lot word knowledge and anagramming skill. Word knowledge is defined as whether the

Scrabble players know the words listed in the Scrabble dictionary or lexicon. To increase their word knowledge, competitive Scrabble players might take a lot of time memorizing the words. They also need a lot of time practicing anagramming, which is defined as rearranging letters to form different words with the best value to be played on each move (Fatsis, 2001).

However, in 2007, Halpern & Wai made a study stated that expert Scrabble players have a low level of word understanding. The players admit that they might not know or understand the meaning of the words they memorized, they just need to know the word existence and the ability to find the right words when they needed them. The players feel that they only need to know the letter combinations that could form legal words to be played in a match.

Finally, Scrabble is not only a game of word knowledge, but also a game of mathematics and probabilities. Competitive players should be able to estimate the probability of having specific strong letters by tracking tiles. Tracking tiles also helps the players to know the remaining letters that haven’t been played. The mathematical process in Scrabble game involves calculating the letters in order to determine which

24 possible words yield the highest point value. The players also need to add the highest possible value of the words placed on different squares on the boar, for example, by placing the word on the triple word score square (Katz-Brown, 2006).