The Shape of a Word Can Specify Its Meaning

Abstract

GROFF (1975) HAS CLAIMED that the shape of a high frequency word, defined by its pattern of ascending, descending, and small letters, would specify so few words uniquely that shape information would be useless to readers. The present paper counters Groffs argument by showing that word shape information, when combined with knowledge of the syntactic and semantic structure of the passage being read, more often than not specifies unique words among all of the alternative high frequency words of English. Groffs error was his failure to consider word shape in the context of semantic and syntactic information, which are also available to the reader. The effects of reading all upper case print are also reviewed to support the role of word shape information in normal reading.

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