Re: [Algorithms] Algorithm for determining 'word difficulty'

[Conor S. <bor...@ya...>]

For difficulty, I would say put in a load of very "common" language texts, then some more technical and advanced texts (even some philology) and then use a differential histogram between the two to pick out more difficult words. Language in the brain is a contextual hierarchy... the brain pattern matches based on the right context. As such more difficult words are generally those with a more difficult context.

Cheers,
Conor 
  



________________________________
From: Jeff Russell <je...@8m...>
To: Game Development Algorithms <gda...@li...>
Sent: Sat, 19 June, 2010 1:26:45 AM
Subject: Re: [Algorithms] Algorithm for determining 'word difficulty'

My thought was the same as yours as far as the frequency of use entering into it. If you can't find any good data on that, it might not be hard to generate it if you have a good deal of text on hand. Run a number of novels or something through some simple app that tracks word frequencies, and you might have the start to a database at least.

Jeff


On Fri, Jun 18, 2010 at 12:18 PM, John Ratcliff <jra...@gm...> wrote:

>
>I have an interesting little project I'm working on and I thought I would solicit the list to see if anyone else has some ideas.
>
>I'm creating an educational word game that focuses on spelling and vocabulary; it is designed to run on mobile devices (Ipad, Iphone, Droid, etc.).  This is just a fun little side project I'm doing so my son can learn more hands on programming.  My daughter is doing the artwork so we are making it a little family project.
>
>I first wrote this game for an Apple II in 1983 so it's kind of fun to be making a new version for today's devices.  Back then, I didn't have enough memory to store a really large word list.  Today I have the ability to store the entire English dictionary.  And, not just the words, but also every component associated with each word (synonyms, etymology, definitions, etc.)
>
>The algorithm I am looking for is how to automatically come up with a 'difficulty' metric for each word in the English language.
>
>My thoughts are that I could consider the following:
>
>(1) Length of the word, though to be honest very short words can be difficult too if they are obscure.
>>
>
>(2) Number of definitions.
>(3) Field of study of the word (biology, physics, etc.) The open source English dictionary I have access to provides this data.
>(4) Whether the word is a verb, noun, etc.
>(5) Cross reference each word against a thesaurus and consider the difficulty/obscurity based on how many synonyms and antonyms there are total.
>
>One thing that would help immensely if if I had access to a word list of the 'most common' words in the English language.  Hopefully I can find such a list and this would provide me an excellent first guess at whether or not a word is obscure or not.
>
>When you play the game you get to choose the difficulty level you want to play at really could have two metrics.  Difficulty to spell, or difficulty in terms of knowing recognizing the word.  (The game itself more or less works like wheel or fortune or hangman, you are just trying to guess a single word rather than a phrase).
>
>Any thoughts on an algorithm which could more or less automatically score the entire English language by 'difficultly to spell' and 'difficulty to recognize'?  Assuming you have as input all of the data in a standard dictionary and thesaurus?
>
>Thanks,
>
>John
>
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-- 
Jeff Russell
Engineer, 8monkey Labs
www.8monkeylabs.com