[PW] Ye equals The?

[Dennis Lien]

At 09:07 AM 10/3/2007, you wrote:
>The category was "Charles Dickens" - so what mattered was the title as
>he published it.  And yes, when it comes to the Final Jeopardy round,
>they are very fussy.
>
>Pam
>  Tapes "Jeopardy" religiously, wondering when the next Ken Jennings will
>pop up
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: project-wombat-bounces at lists.project-wombat.org
>[mailto:project-wombat-bounces at lists.project-wombat.org] On Behalf Of
>Corinne Florin
>Sent: Tuesday, October 02, 2007 3:16 PM
>To: list at project-wombat.org
>Subject: Re: [PW] Ye equals The?
>
>
>I think the contestant was ruled incorrect because she had written "Ye
>Old Curiosity Shoppe", and from what I understand, titles as answers in
>Jeopardy! must be exact.
>
>--Corinne


If "Ye" were to be accepted in a "what is the title..." answer in place
of the "The" that really appears there, on the basis that it's essentially
the same thing, then one would have to accept as a "name of the author"
answer such variants as Chuck Dickens and Chaz Dickens, which rather
opens up a can of worms.

One would also presumably have to accept the title as rendered in
French, German, Latin, Esperanto, etc. (so long as the translation
was accurate) as also being essentially the same thing.

If the correct answer is defined as the title that appears on the
title page of the first edition of the book itself, I don't see
how or why "Ye" should be accepted.

(But I do recall my outrage as a kid watching a quiz show in the
1950s when the question was "what is the largest land animal
that ever lived," the contestant replied "a brontosaurus," and
the quizmaster ruled him/her wrong because the "correct" answer
was "a dinosaur.")


Dennis Lien / U of Minnesota Libraries // d-lien at umn.edu