Querry: Sentence structure for Word (Office:mac)

[StevenJayBourke]

Could you please tell me which standards of syntax Word (Office:mac)
employs for its English (UK) and English (US) grammar and spell check
function? Are the rules of syntax employed from the Chicago manual, or
where do the rules of sentence structure come from, etc.? Also where
do the spelling rules come from for English (UK) and English (US)? Is
it OED and Webster, or what? Many, many thanks for your kind help.

 

[JE McGimpsey]

Could you please tell me which standards of syntax Word (Office:mac)
employs for its English (UK) and English (US) grammar and spell check
function? Are the rules of syntax employed from the Chicago manual, or
where do the rules of sentence structure come from, etc.? Also where
do the spelling rules come from for English (UK) and English (US)? Is
it OED and Webster, or what? Many, many thanks for your kind help.

I've never seen anything directly from Microsoft, but you might find
these articles useful:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammar_checker

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spell_checker

Regardless of the ultimate veracity of the articles' details, I would
lay significant odds that the spelling and grammar checkers do not
directly use *any* non-Microsoft proprietary standard (such as the OED
or Websters). The licensing fees would be prohibitive.

 

[John McGhie]

Microsoft maintains its own word-lists for English. They started out as a
copy of the American Heritage dictionary, but have been enhanced and
expanded by Microsoft over time.

I believe the English (UK) dictionary had input from the Collins dictionary.

(And the Australian dictionary comes from the MacQuarie dictionary...)

The Grammar rules began, I believe, with Strunk and White. However, the
complexity of the grammar structure of English means that the Word Grammar
checker has nowhere near the complexity of Chicago (fortunately, or I would
never get anything written...)

If you go into the Word>Preferences>Spelling and Grammar settings, you can
set them up to suit yourself. If you choose the Formal style, and enable
everything, the result is quite close to Chicago, subject to the limitations
of the software.

The Grammar Checker has been steadily improving over time. I am a Technical
Writer. English is my profession. So for a long time, the Word Grammar
Checker was more of a nuisance than a help.

Now, I leave it running all the time, because these days it is better than I
am. I am not sure whether this is entirely due to improvements in the
Grammar Checker. It may be that my grammar is deteriorating like my
spelling...

Cheers

Could you please tell me which standards of syntax Word (Office:mac)
employs for its English (UK) and English (US) grammar and spell check
function? Are the rules of syntax employed from the Chicago manual, or
where do the rules of sentence structure come from, etc.? Also where
do the spelling rules come from for English (UK) and English (US)? Is
it OED and Webster, or what? Many, many thanks for your kind help.

--
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John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Nhulunbuy, Northern Territory, Australia
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]