CHAPTER 2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK In order to discuss and analyse the research, this chapter provides several essential theories needed about Scrabble, 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 bingo), move games (chess and checkers), and word games (anagrams). He enjoyed anagrams and crosswords a lot that he created a game with both feature and named it LEXIKO, the game was later called CRISS CROSS WORDS (National Scrabble Association, 2012). 8 9 Figure 2.1 Alfred Mosher Butts Originally, the game was played by forming words using letter tiles and placing them on a crossword-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). 10 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 COLECO Industries in 1986, which declared bankruptcy three years later (National Scrabble Association, 2012). 2.1.2 The Game Scrabble is a board game 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. 12 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 tile tracking 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. 14 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 challenge, 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.