Friday, May 9, 2008
Lexical gaps
A lexical gap is a word that should exist, but doesn't My favorite example of a lexical gap is gruntled. What the heck does gruntled mean? Well, it's the logical opposite of disgruntled. Only gruntled doesn't actually exist; it's a lexical gap.
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Neologisms
What do these words have in common? Grinch, muggle, majestic, snorkack.
Answer: they're all neologisms first seen in literature ("majestic" was created by Shakespeare. Presumably he just used English morphology rules to change "majesty" into an adjective.). They also happen to be neologisms I mention in my thesis, but that's an aside.
Neologisms are a vital part of language. They allow languages to grow and change, and they enable us to express new ideas for which we don't have a word. In other words, neologisms rock. Some of my favorite neologisms are the Seussian: grinch, Yertle (yes, names can be neologisms), ooblek, wocket, sneetch, and Jabberwocky (okay, that one's from Carroll, not Seuss. But still, it's a cool word!). These are fun to read and say.
Answer: they're all neologisms first seen in literature ("majestic" was created by Shakespeare. Presumably he just used English morphology rules to change "majesty" into an adjective.). They also happen to be neologisms I mention in my thesis, but that's an aside.
Neologisms are a vital part of language. They allow languages to grow and change, and they enable us to express new ideas for which we don't have a word. In other words, neologisms rock. Some of my favorite neologisms are the Seussian: grinch, Yertle (yes, names can be neologisms), ooblek, wocket, sneetch, and Jabberwocky (okay, that one's from Carroll, not Seuss. But still, it's a cool word!). These are fun to read and say.
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