Word Discussion

    The following compound words are candidates for inclusion in Basic English. The test is: all can be used as two words, in fact, MS-Word does not recognize many as compounds. The question is, do they have a legitimacy using Ogden's definition of the basic words? Legitimacy in any usage causes the word to be included. MS does not recognize the compound usage of bad+man. "Bad man" implies an evil person, whereas "badman" implies a generic criminal. "Roy Rogers chased the badman across the prairie." Therefore the compound form is legitimate. Are the definitions close enough to warrant inclusion in a Basic English spell check? Do the words even exist -- they are taken from OOo wordlist - which has a bunch of alternate spellings and other things that make one think the authors were excessive in use of the "save word" button.
    These words have been left in the OOo wordlist until resolved. The idea is that the spell check should be expansive rather than restrictive. We don't want to hamper the expression of an author where the Basic learner can understand the usage. Yet, we do not want to jeopardize Ogden's system. The compound must be self explanatory by the definitions of the Basic words.
    Compound Words for letters B and C.

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zookeeper

Denil writes:
> Good morning,
>
> I believe that you could safely add zookeeper to your list of easily
> understood compound words.
======
Hi Denil,

Yes, more so today than in Ogden's time or even in my youth.
1.  KEEPER - one who holds or preserved.
2.  ZOO - was considered colloquial, a spoken contraction for Zoological,
particularly Zoological Garden.  Now accepted.
3.  As a compound word, none of my dictionaries show the two combined,
-- granted they were all acquired some time ago, so I went online and --
missed at XREFER, but found it at Merriam Webster Online.  With that
blessing, we can now consider this a valid compound word of recent acceptance.

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The following Basic words are examples that may be deassembled to a root and the root made into derivatives -- learning => learn => learned, learner, learns.
beautiful, driving, employer [next], feeling, fixed, hanging, hearing , learning, likely, living, manager, married, meeting, reading , teaching, wages [social], waiting, writing.
The following proper nouns may be used in lower case : Basic, English, Social.

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Last updated May 7, 2002.
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