US20110248446A1

US20110248446A1 - Word tree built on consonant nodes

Info

Publication number: US20110248446A1
Application number: US12/759,031
Authority: US
Inventors: Tajinder Brar
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2010-04-13
Filing date: 2010-04-13
Publication date: 2011-10-13
Also published as: CA2731903A1

Abstract

A “word tree” is generated by players of this board game using “consonant” and “vowel” tiles. The distribution of available consonant tiles and the unlimited availability, in principle, of the vowel tiles (“a”, “e”, “i”, “o”, “u”) ensures that almost all words (more than 99%) existing in the English language can be built by a player. A “root word” is placed horizontally, by the first player in the mid-section of the board. The second and subsequent words are built off the consonant tiles already played on the board. It is akin to starting new branches off these “consonant” nodes. The generated tree is bound in a finite rectangular space. The objective of the game is to make “long” words either “new” ones or extensions of those already played. The element of chance in winning this game has been minimized. The game showcases and stimulates knowledge recognition, vocabulary building and articulation.

Description

1) A board game
2) Tests the extent of vocabulary/knowledge of a person
3) The element of chance is minimized in winning the game
4) The board is a rectangular matrix of 19×16 squares
5) The first word is laid out horizontally starting at position “K01”
6) Position “K01” is the middle square at the left edge of the board
7) Subsequent words are built off this starting word
8) The game is designed for 1 to 4 players
9) The objective is to make “long” words

INVENTOR'S CLAIM

Almost all words (allowed within the “Rules”) existing in the English language can be built by a player in this game. Showcases and stimulates knowledge recognition, vocabulary building and articulation.

Concepts

A “word tree” is generated by players using “consonant” and “vowel” tiles.
The first word played is the “root word” of the word tree built by the players as the game proceeds. It must start with a consonant tile. The second and subsequent words are built off the consonant tiles already played on the board. It is akin to starting new branches off these “consonant” nodes. The “base consonant” of a word is the consonant on which the word is built. The root word is arbitrarily designated as having the base consonant “k”. The idea is that at any point in the game, all the “words” that have been played can be traversed to via the base consonant nodes starting from the root of the tree. Each “inner consonant node” represents an already played word.
The generated tree is bound in the rectangular space of 304 squares. In principle, “large” words (up to “19” letters long) can be built, in the course of the game.
The game has a fixed number of consonant tiles (64, to be exact) and an unlimited number (in principle) of vowel (representing the vowels, “a”, “e”, “i”, “o” and “u”) tiles. The “Vowel Pool” holds these tiles. The consonant tile has a consonant written in “lower” case on one side and is blank on the other side. The vowel tile has different vowels written on the 2 sides in “lower” case. This way, the same tile can be used depending on “which” vowel is needed for building a word during game play. There are 90 vowel tiles.

Game Play

All players draw a tile (without seeing) from the bag of consonant tiles. The player with a consonant closest to the end of the alphabet plays first. If there is a tie, it is resolved by the tied players drawing, again from the bag. The player, declared first, retains his/her consonant tile. The other consonant tiles are returned to the bag. Each player, starting with the first and moving to the left (counter-clockwise), draws four tiles from the bag. The tiles are placed in the individual “rack” available to a player. Each player also holds 2 “Spell Check (SC)” chips.
The first player, using two or more of his/her five consonant tiles and any number of the vowel tiles, available in the Vowel Pool, makes the root word of the game. The root word must start with a consonant and consist of at least one more of the consonants available to the first player. The root word is placed horizontally (as shown in FIG. 1) starting at position “K01” on the game board. After placing the word, the player replenishes his/her rack such that he/she always holds four consonant tiles.
The second (and subsequent) player builds new words “off” the words already played on the board. New words, consisting of any number of vowels and using consonants from his/her rack, can be built by a player in the following three ways:

1) Build off an existing (on the board) consonant and use at least one consonant from the rack. The new word must have at least three letters. The number of letters (n) in the new word is used to determine the score for the play.
2) Suffix and/or prefix an existing (on the board) word by using at least one consonant from the rack. The extension must augment the existing (base) word by two or more letters. The number of letters that the base word has been extended by (k) and the number of letters (m) in the base word is used to determine the score for the play.
3) Make a new word at right angles to an existing (on the board) word using at least two consonants from the rack such that one of the consonants, placed at the beginning or ending of the existing word, results in a valid extension to the existing word. The number of letters (n) in the new word that has been placed at a right angle is used to determine the score for the play.

In the above 3 ways, if a new tile(s) gets placed adjacent to an existing tile on the board, the new formation(s) must be valid word(s). That is the cross-word style validity of the game should be maintained. No credit is obtained for such “incidental” words. After a valid play, a player replenishes his/her rack such that he/she holds four consonant tiles.
The sample game plays and scoring shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, illustrate all the above ways of playing.
A “dictionary” that all the players agree upon at the beginning of the game should be used as the official reference. All words made should be spelled correctly. A player has the option of requesting for a spell check before placing his/her word. An SC chip is traded-in to exercise this option. The spelling is checked in the dictionary by another player.
When a player places his/her word on the board, if another player doubts the spelling or existence of the placed word, he/she is allowed to prove its non-existence in the dictionary. If the placed word does not exist, the tiles are returned. The player has to trade-in a SC chip, to place another word on the board. In case, the player has used up both his/her SC chips, he/she looses her turn and gets “0” points.
Only words allowed by the RULES stated below constitute valid words. A word that has been made (and for which points have been scored) cannot be played again. The scoring mechanism listed below is used to record the score for a valid play.

End Game

After all consonant tiles are drawn from the bag; the game can end in the following 2 ways:

1) If a player uses up all his consonant tiles, he announces “Last round”. If there are any players who have not yet played this round, they get their last turns.
2) None of the players is able to play his/her turn in a given round.

In either of the 2 ways, each player subtracts 4 points for each unused consonant tile on his/her rack. An SC chip is worth 8 points. So, a player adds 16 points if he/she holds both the chips and 8 points if only one SC chip is held. The final tally of the players, determines the winner of the game.


Scoring Mechanism

Placing a new word
Score = n*(n − 2) , n > 2 where
n = number of letters in word
Some possible scores

N

	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11

Score	3	8	15	24	35	48	63	80	99

Building on an existing (base) word

Score = k*k + 2*m, k > 1 where

k = number of letters that the base word

has been extended by

m = number of letters in base word

Some possible scores

K\m >	3	4	5	6	7	8	9

2	10	12	14	16	18	20	22
3	15	17	19	21	23	25	27
4	22	24	26	28	30	32	34
5	31	33	35	37	39	41	43
6	42	44	46	48	50	52	54
7	55	57	59	61	63	65	67
8	70	72	74	76	78	80	82
9	87	89	91	93	95	97	99

RULES Regarding Allowed Words

All words that can be found in a standard dictionary of the English language are allowed with the exception of the following:
a) Words that are always capitalized
b) Words requiring a hyphen or an apostrophe
c) Abbreviations, prefixes or suffixes

Distribution of Consonant Tiles


b - 3	c - 3	d - 3	f - 3	g - 3	h - 3
j - 1	k - 2	l - 4	m - 3	n - 6	p - 3
q - 1	r - 6	s - 5	t - 6	v - 2	w - 2
x - 1	y - 2	z - 2

Vowel Tiles

In principle, there are an unlimited number of these. So, a large number (more than that will be needed in a given game) of all the 5 vowels is available. A set of 90 vowel tiles with different “vowels” printed on each side is available:
On one side of 24 tiles—e
On the other side of these tiles: a-8, i-8, o-6, u-2
On one side of 20 tiles—a
On the other side of these tiles: e-8, i-6, o-4, u-2
On one side of 20 tiles—i
On the other side of these tiles: a-6, e-8, o-4, u-2
On one side of 16 tiles—o
On the other side of these tiles: a-4, e-6, i-2, u-4
On one side of 10 tiles—u
On the other side of these tiles: a-2, e-2, i-4, o-2
Words that can be Built in the Course of a Game
Starting with a small word, larger words can be easily built by extension. Here is an example of a possible order of building:

1) author
2) authoritarian
3) antiauthoritarian
4) antiauthoritarianism (This is the maximum possible length of “19” letters placed vertically)

All words (falling within the Rules) can be built for credit, with the exception of the following due to physical and conceptual design constraints:

1) Words containing more than 19 letters
- For example: antiauthoritarianisms, microminiaturizations
2) Words having only vowels (a, e, i, o, u)
- For example: eau
3) Words having only one consonant
- For example: aloe, queue
4) Words containing more than the available number of a particular consonant tile (i.e. words made of more than 3 b's, 3 c's, 6 n's extra)
- For example: giggling

In spite of the above limitations, more than 99% of the words in the English language can be built!

WORD Tree Generated by Sample Game Play

Please refer to FIG. 4
Note: Starting from the root word (“velocity”) any word in the tree can be reached by following a string of words through their base consonants/words (shown in brackets). For example, “hearsay” can be reached through the base consonant path, “k-c-t-r”.
This generated word tree structure can be used in programming the game to produce the “best” possible game plays, using an informational data source of valid “words”.
The game provides a “basis” for holding competitions that can determine the most “articulate” person in the world.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

This board game is designed such that the player with the best vocabulary and/or general knowledge will win the game. The “consonant” and “vowel” tiles used in making words have no face value and gain no positional value when placed on the game board. This reduces the element of chance in winning the game. The formulae used in determining the score for a turn directly reflect the skill level of the player.

DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1: The top view of the game board at the start of a game (a “blank” game board)

FIG. 2: The view from above, showing the consonant and vowel tiles that have been placed on the game board after the completion of the Sample game plays

FIG. 3: A table describing each turn played in the sample game plays including the score obtained. Note all the 3 possible ways of playing are illustrated:

- Way 1: Building a new word using consonants from the rack
- Way 2: Extending an already played word (referred to as the “base” word)
- Way 3: Placing a new word at right angles to an already played word

FIG. 4: An illustration of the conceptual “word” tree generated by the sample game plays. The tree is shown inverted with the root word (“velocity”) on top at “depth 0”.

INVENTOR'S CLAIM

Concepts

A “word tree” is generated by players using consonant and vowel tiles.
The first word played is the “root word” of the word tree built by the players as the game proceeds. It must start with a consonant tile. The second and subsequent words are built off the consonant tiles already played on the board. It is akin to starting new branches off these “consonant” nodes. The “base consonant” of a word is the consonant on which the word is built. The root word is arbitrarily designated as having the base consonant “k”. The idea is that at any point in the game, all the “words” that have been played can be traversed to via the base consonant nodes starting from the root of the tree. Each “inner consonant node” represents an already played word.
The generated tree is bound in the rectangular space of 304 squares. In principle, “large” words (up to “19” letters long) can be built, in the course of the game.
The game has a fixed number of consonant tiles (64, to be exact) and an unlimited number (in principle) of vowel (representing the vowels, “a”, “e”, “i”, “o” and “u”) tiles. The “Vowel Pool” holds these tiles. The consonant tile has a consonant written in “lower” case on one side and is blank on the other side. The vowel tile has different vowels written on the 2 sides in “lower” case. This way, the same tile can be used depending on “which” vowel is needed for building a word during game play. There are 90 vowel tiles.

Game Play

End Game


Scoring Mechanism

Placing a new word
Score = n*(n − 2), n > 2 where
n = number of letters in word
Some possible scores

N

	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11

Score	3	8	15	24	35	48	63	80	99

Building on an existing (base) word

Score = k*k + 2*m, k > 1 where

k = number of letters that the base word

has been extended by

m = number of letters in base word

Some possible scores

RULES Regarding Allowed Words

Distribution of Consonant Tiles

Vowel Tiles

WORD Tree Generated by Sample Game Play

Claims

1. Board Layout: The game board is a rectangular matrix of 19 by 16 squares. The 19 horizontal rows are labeled on the left edge from top to bottom as A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, J, K, L, M, N, P, Q, R, S, T and Z. The 16 vertical columns are labeled on the top edge from left to right as 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16. The inscription “root>>” is printed horizontally starting on square at position, “K01”.

2. Distribution of consonant tiles: There are a total of 64 consonant tiles with the “consonant” printed in lower case on one side of a tile. The color of these tiles is non-white. The following is the distribution of the 21 consonant tiles:

3. Distribution of vowel tiles: There are a total of 90 vowel tiles with different “vowels” printed in lower case on the 2 sides of a tile. The color of these tiles is also non-white but is of a different color than that used for the consonant tiles mentioned in claim 2. The following is the distribution of the 5 vowel tiles:

On one side of 24 tiles—e

On other side of these tiles: a-8, i-8, o-6, u-2

On one side of 20 tiles—a

On other side of these tiles: e-8, i-6, o-4, u-2

On one side of 20 tiles—i

On other side of these tiles: a-6, e-8, o-4, u-2

On one side of 16 tiles—o

On other side of these tiles: a-4, e-6, i-2, u-4

On one side of 10 tiles—u

On other side of these tiles: a-2, e-2, i-4, o-2

4. Method of play: The root word starts with a consonant and uses at least one more consonant of the consonants available to the first player. Only 4 consonants are available (on the rack) for the second and subsequent plays. New words, consisting of any number of vowels and using consonants from his/her rack, can be built by a player in the following three ways:

a. Build off an existing (on the board) consonant and use at least one consonant from the rack. The new word must have at least three letters. The number of letters (n) in the new word is used to determine the score for the play.

b. Suffix and/or prefix an existing (on the board) word by using at least one consonant from the rack. The extension must augment the existing (base) word by two or more letters. The number of letters that the base word has been extended by (k) and the number of letters (m) in the base word is used to determine the score for the play.

c. Make a new word at right angles to an existing (on the board) word using at least two consonants from the rack such that one of the consonants, placed at the beginning or ending of the existing word, results in a valid extension to the existing word. The number of letters (n) in the new word that has been placed at a right angle is used to determine the score for the play.

5. Scoring Mechanism:

a) Placing a new word:

Score=n*(n−2), n>2 where

n=number of letters in word

b) Building on an existing (base) word:

Score=k*k+2*m, k>1 where

k=number of letters that the base word has been extended by

m=number of letters in base word