Linguistics Cartoon Favorites - Happy New Year (Pragmatically Speaking)

Linguistics Cartoon Favorites - Semantics and Skiing

Linguistic Cartoon Favorites - Merry Christmas Word Play

Linguistics Cartoon Favorites - Merry Christmas

Linguistics Christmas Humor

What do you call Santa's helpers?

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Subordinate Clauses.

Linguistics Cartoon Favorites - Diagramming Sentences

Why no one diagrams sentences anymore.

Where Was the Girl? - Sentence Ambiguity Diagrammed

Harry ordered a drink for the girl at the bar.

The girl at the bar is the one Harry ordered the drink for.

Harry ordered a drink, at the bar, for the girl (the girl sitting at a table? the girl in the bathroom? the girl across the street?).

Syntax really can be fun.

The Glenlivit Syntax Tree

Instead of the traditional Christmas tree for the holidays, it looks to me like Glenlivit is giving away syntax trees in their new ad campaign.

While it is not an accurate syntax tree, can you see why this ad immediately brought to mind syntax trees?

Apostrophe Errors Part 2 - Ladie's Room

The sign for the women's restroom at one of our local taverns is a plaque that reads "women", unfortunately, a holiday wreath is covering the regular sign so the sign pictured below has been placed on the door temporarily. I have stopped having a beer with my burger during the holidays.

For more on restroom apostrophe errors click here.

Linguistics Cartoon Favorites - Dependent Clauses

A Portmanteau-Titled Word Book

As a word lover, I have always enjoyed reading books about words and I have just heard about a new word book that I plan on purchasing based solely on the one-word name of the book. The name of the book is an outstanding portmanteau word that was created by the author. I love the word for two reasons: it is the perfect portmanteau to describe what the book is about and it is just plain fun to say.

Anonyponymous

Anonyponymous, as its subtitle reveals, is about, "the forgotten people behind everyday words." The author, John Bemelmans Marciano, has written about eponymous words including cardigan, crapper, and frisbee and about the people for whom these words were named.

In talking about John Montagu, the fourth Earl of Sandwich, Marciano states the following:

"He is a man who is almost anonymous despite the eponymous use of his name in everyday language."

For the record, here are the definitions that lend themselves to the success of the portmanteau word: (from http://www.thefreedictionary.com)

e·pon·y·mous
adj. Of, relating to, or constituting an eponym.

ep·o·nym
n. A word or name derived from the name of a person.

a·non·y·mous
adj. Having an unknown or unacknowledged name

It really is a fun word to say. Give it a try...anonyponymous

More Movement with Subordination

In a previous post that explained the difference between subordinating and coordinating conjunctions, I mentioned that there are different types of dependent clauses that are attached to independent clauses with subordinating conjunctions; I also mentioned that these clauses deserved their own post. So here it is -

The types of dependent clauses include: nominal, adverbial and adjectival clauses.
(Blogger didn't like the program I created this chart in so I had to copy it as a screen print)

Semantically, nominal clauses answer the question "what?", and adverbial clauses answer the questions "how, when, where or why?". Adjectival clauses also answer the question "what?", but they require the movement of the preceding noun phrase along with the subordinating conjunction to answer the question.

As with determining whether a conjunction is subordinating or coordinating, the method of determining whether a dependent clause is nominal, adverbial or adjectival involves movement. Try moving the subordinating conjunction and the dependent clause to the front of the independent clause. Depending on how the clause moves, you will be able to determine the clause type. When I say "how the clause moves", I mean, does it require any additional words to form a grammatical sentence.

Adverbial clauses are the easiest to move in a sentence because they require no extra words to help them move.

Before movement: I haven't been back to Ipanema since I was a kid.

After movement: Since I was a kid, I haven't been back to Ipanema.

Nominal clauses require the addition of a "'to be' what" phrase (is what or are what).

Before movement: We were told that we couldn't cross the street without looking both ways.

After movement: That we couldn't cross the street without looking both ways is what we were told.

Adjectival clauses require the addition of a "'to be' what" phrase and require the noun phrase that precedes the subordinating conjunction to move with the subordinating conjunction and the dependent clause.

Before movement: I remember the ocean that smelled so salty.
After movement: The ocean that smelled so salty is what I remember.

Now, for the fun of it, let's take another look at the first sentence in this post:

In a previous post that explained the difference between subordinating and coordinating conjunctions, I mentioned that there are different types of dependent clauses that are attached to independent clauses with subordinating conjunctions (that there are different types of dependent clauses...is what I mentioned. NOMINAL) (different types of dependent clauses that are attached to independent clauses...is what there are. ADJECTIVAL).

Gnos a Gnis

Thank you to Language Log for bringing this awesome video to my attention.

A Volt of Color and a Wonderful Name

A good friend who works for GM sent me this article from a company newsletter that came out this week:

Consumers Choose ‘Viridian Joule’ as Winning Color Name for Volt Paint Contest. David Thomas, 40, of Sanford, Fla., has won Chevrolet’s national contest to name the Volt’s lead paint color and the opportunity to be the first consumer to test-drive a pre-production Volt. Nearly 3,000 people cast their votes at chevroletvoltage.com for Thomas’ “Viridian Joule.” Voting ended yesterday, and Chevrolet announced the winner in Los Angeles.“I looked at the photo of the Volt on the contest web site and thought it looked emerald in color, which led to jewel and then to an alternate yet appropriate play on that word – joule (a unit of electrical energy),” said Thomas.

To read the press release click here.

Following are definitions for the words that make up the color name and the car model from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/.

Volt: The International System unit of electric potential and electromotive force, equal to the difference of electric potential between two points on a conducting wire carrying a constant current of one ampere when the power dissipated between the points is one watt.

Viridian: A durable bluish-green pigment.
[From Latin viridis, green; see virid.]

Joule: 1. The International System unit of electrical, mechanical, and thermal energy.
2. a. A unit of electrical energy equal to the work done when a current of one ampere is passed through a resistance of one ohm for one second.
b. A unit of energy equal to the work done when a force of one newton acts through a distance of one meter.

and of course -

Jewel: A precious stone; a gem.

What an outstandingly appropriate homophone; I can see why Thomas’ "Viridian Joule" was chosen. Congratulations.

Linguistics Cartoon Favorites - Facebook's Functional Shift

Linguistics Humor - Pull Over Versus Pullover

A highway patrolman pulled alongside a speeding car on the freeway. Glancing at the car, he was astounded to see that the woman behind the wheel was knitting.

The trooper cranked down his window and yelled to the driver, "PULL OVER".

"NO", the woman yelled back, "SCARF".