Coordinating Conjunctions - Become a Fan

A handy mnemonic device.

The word mnemonic is derived from the Ancient Greek word μνημονικός mnemonikos ("of memory") and is related to Mnemosyne ("remembrance"), the name of the goddess of memory in Greek mythology. Both of these words refer back to μνημα mnema ("remembrance"). - Wikipedia

Alliterative Dream Themes

Peanut butter pie and postcards

Parts of Speech - Part II with Alex Trebek

A Final Jeopardy answer from early January:

Of the eight parts of speech, this is the only one that does not end in the same four letters as at least one of the others.

?

?
?

?

?

?

?
?

?

?

?

?

What is an adjective?

verb - adverb
noun - pronoun
conjunction - preposition - interjection

Parts of Speech with Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien

Here is a cartoon from the January 25th issue of Newsweek that provides a perfect example of how a word can be used as a different part of speech to a comedic effect.



Jay's back - Jay is back. (back is an adverb)
Conan's back - Conan's (possesive) back. (back as a noun)

Linguistics Cartoon Favorites - Syntax and Semantics

From Toothpaste for Dinner

Tip Toad Through the Tulips

When I first saw the top of this cork I couldn't help but sing "Tiptoe Through the Tulips". I guess this is because verbalizing the words results in the realization of "tip toad" as the homophonic past tense "tiptoed".

Once I looked again at the name of the wine, however, I realized that the "tip" on the cork is meant to be interpreted as a command.

Good thing I had a friend with whom to "tip the Toad Hollow" otherwise I might have become very tipsy.

Language and Brain Regions - Use the Right Side of Your Brain

There was an interesting article published last fall in e! Science News that reviewed a study about how the brain recognises idioms.

Researcher Dr Alice Proverbio summarized the findings as follows:

"Though the interpretation of language involves widespread activation bilaterally, the right hemisphere has a special role in the comprehension of idiomatic meaning."

For more details about the study and how results were determined, click here: e! Science News

(Check it out. Don't let the left side of your brain keep the right side from having fun.)

Pronouncing the Th-Sound

Whether it is the theta or the eth, here is a bit of humor for those students in an introductory phonetics class.


from: http://www.lgpcards.com/cards/card20.html

A Walk in the Words - Top Ten Posts of 2009

As long as we have been on the subject of lists this week, here is a list of the top ten posts from 2009 on A Walk in the Words.

1. The Semiotics of Logos - Obama and Pepsi are Lookalikes

2. The Evolution of Language - A Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

3. The Difference Between Lay and Lie

4. Therefor vs Therefore

5. Bad Advertising - Billboard Semiotics and Pragmatics Fail

6. Phrase Etymology - A Pair of Pants

7. Language Peeves - Loose vs Lose

8. Shall We Have Carry Out or Take Away Tonight?

9. Linguistics Cartoon Favorites - Paraprosdokian or Treat

10. Where Was the Girl? - Sentence Ambiguity Diagrammed

2009 Word of the Year Lists, Part II

Lake Superior State University has a different take on "Word of the Year" lists. Each year, students at LSSU review a list of words that has been nominated "for Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselessness" to form a "Banished Words List" for the future year.

Following are some of the entries from the 2010 Banished Words List:

SHOVEL-READY

CZAR

TWEET

STIMULUS

TOXIC ASSETS

BROMANCE

CHILLAXIN'

For the complete list go to: Lake Superior State University 2010 List of Banished Words

2009 Word of the Year Lists, Part I

In this past Friday's post about flexitarianism, I mentioned that the American Dialect Society named the word "flexitarian" the "most useful word of the year" in 2003. Well, the American Dialect Society has just released its list of candidates for Word of the Year for 2009. Included in the list under various categories are:

fail: A noun or interjection describing something
egregiously unsuccessful. Usually used as an
interjection: “FAIL!”

rogue: Someone who acts in an unexpected way.

twenty-ten: A pronunciation of the year 2010, as opposed
to saying “two thousand ten” or “two thousand and
ten.”

birther: A person who believes Barack Obama was not
born in the United States and, therefore, is
disqualified to be president.

and my favorite:


Dracula sneeze: Covering one’s mouth with the crook of
one’s elbow when sneezing, seen as similar to
popular portrayals of the vampire Dracula, in which
he hides the lower half of his face with a cape.



Complete list available at the American Dialect Society.


UPDATE:
Results are in; the 2009 Word of the Year is "tweet".
Also, the Word of the Decade is "google".

Flexible Portmanteau Word Formation - Flexitarian

I just read an article about a practice called "flexitarianism" in the January 11, 2010 issue of Newsweek. While the article was indeed quite interesting, the part I found most interesting was the word "flexitarian".

According to thedailygreen.com, the American Dialect Society named the word "flexitarian" the "most useful word of the year" in 2003. The word is defined as a vegetarian who occasionally eats meat.

The reason I found the word so interesting has to do with the way it was formed.

Considering that the word "vegetarian", according to the Online Etymology Dictionary, is an irregular formation from vegetable (n.) + -arian, as in agrarian, etc. , a first instinct might be to wonder why the word "flexitarian" wouldn't have just been "flexarian" or "flexibarian.

Consider the following list of words that have been formed with the "-arian" suffix:

abecedarian
apiarian
authoritarian
barbarian
celibatarian
disciplinarian
grammarian
libertarian
nuditarian
octogenarian
parlamentarian
riparian
totalitarian
utilitarian
veterinarian
vocabularian
vulgarian

From this list, each of the words that include the "t" + "arian" have roots + suffixes that would include the "t" with or without the additional "arian" suffix (ex. authority, liberty, nudity). The same cannot be said for "flexitarian"; there is no word "flexity".

So what gives?

When properly analyzed, "flexitarian" is not formed by taking a root morpheme and adding two suffixes like many of the words from the above list. "Flexitarian" is a portmanteau word. It is a blend of the words "flexible" and "vegetarian".

flexible - flexi

vegetarian - tarian

Recursive Prepositions

I lately lost a preposition;

It hid, I thought, beneath my chair,

And angrily I cried, "Perdition!

Up from out of in under there."

Correctness is my vade mecum,

And straggling phrases I abhor,

And yet I wondered, "What should he come

Up from out of in under there for?"

.

John Moore. 1961. You English words. A book about them. New York: Dell. 197.

Linguistics Quotation Favorites - Alfred Korzybski

Something to think about on the first Monday of this new year-

If words are not things, or maps are not the actual territory, then, obviously, the only possible link between the objective world and the linguistic world is found in structure, and structure alone.

- Alfred Korzybski

My New Year's Day Linguistics Fortune

Hmmm...could it be? I came across this fortune while doing some on-line research.