Michigan League of Academic Games

Linguishtik Corner
By Rod Beard

I wrote before about 'sentence' players and 'word' players in Linguishtik. Sentence players focus more on the sentence pattern and the clauses and phrases that have to be a part of the sentence. Word players concentrate more on the word and make demands such as required letters and number of letters. Both are interesting styles of play, but each has its place. The best players have elements of both in their repertoire.

One of my favorite strategies was to call just enough clauses and phrases to potentially confuse my opponents, then use some of the last demands to dictate the number of letters in the word or forbid a letter that I thought my opponents would use. In addition, I would try to use some of the J's, Z's and X's in my word so that I could form my word before my opponents. I didn't really study word lists, but I knew how to form a sentence with any clause or phrase. So I was somewhere between a 'word' player and a 'sentence' player.

My best advice to a player at any level is to study the rule book and pay attention to your opponents. Are there certain sentence patterns or parts of speech that they don't use? Find out what they like to do and do other things. Most players typically call Noun or Verb as the Player Two demand. When it's your turn, try calling things like Preposition or Adverb to change things up. Most players can't think of a preposition with an X (betwixt) or an adverb with an X (next).

Even the most experienced and toughest players have weaknesses -- the trick is just figuring out what they don't know how to do (or do well). Most good players have particular things that they will do almost every match. Find out what they like to do at a Saturday tournament, for example, so that you can be prepared by the time the state and national tournaments roll around. Take mental notes about what types of sentences your opponents like to use, but then make them use a word that they may not know.

Another way to make the game more complicated is to prevent your opponents from using wild cubes. Demand Green Wild or Black Wild and limit the number of other letters that they can use. That way, they'll have to use the letters that are on the cubes and you might have a better chance of figuring out what word they're using. Or, you can make them use the obscure word you're using.

Last Month's Linguishtik Corner