This should be so simple but I cannot figure out what is wrong at all. I have simplified my controller and visual force page to simple test fields and methds but I still cannot get my getters or setters to execute. My actionMethod is called but these setters and getters which should execute before never do. I am not getting any exception or error messages in my logs

<apex:page controller="dummyController" docType="html-5.0">
    <apex:pageBlock >
    <apex:form id="form">
	<apex:input value="{!word}"/>    
        <apex:commandButton action="{!initLineItems}" value="Update"/> 
    </apex:form>
     </apex:pageBlock>
</apex:page>

 

public class dummyController {
       
    public String word {get;set;}
    

    
    public void setWord(String s){
       System.debug('in the set for word');
        word = s;
    }
    public String getWord(){
        System.debug('in the get for word');
        return word;
    }
     public PageReference initLineItems(){
        System.debug('ACTION METHOD CALLED');
         return null;
    }

}