Clipping Cartoons (It's Much More Fun Than Clipping Coupons)

Clipping, back-formation, and affixing, that is.

Clipping is a word creation process that takes a historically, multi-syllabic word and removes one or more syllables to form a smaller word. Some examples are: ad from advertisement, gas from gasoline, phone from telephone, and flu from influenza.

Because clipping does not change the lexical category or semantic interpretation of a word, the above cartoon actually illustrates a word creation process called back-formation.

Back-formation is similar to clipping but it can change the lexical category and/or semantic interpretation of a word. Examples include: couth from uncouth, and the verb burgle from the noun burglar.

Affixing is the process of creating words by adding prefixes, suffixes or infixes.

Image credits here.

Random Linguistics Definitions Beginning with the Letter "M"

mand An utterance by which a speaker tries to get an addressee to do something: thus a command, demand, request, etc.

Mande Family of languages in West Africa, centred on the west of Guinea and adjoining parts of Mali, Ivory Coast, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. Bambara, Maninka, and Dyula are closely related members spoken in the north of this area.

modal voice Normal vibration of the vocal chords in the production of speech, as opposed e.g. to falsetto.

Definitions from: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics, Second edition, 2007
Image credits: here

A Meme Walked Into a Bar, and then another and another...

One of the currently-popular memes adored by language fans involves a spin on "a man walked into a bar" jokes. Of course, I could not resist adding my linguistically-inspired contributions to the meme.

1. A phoneme walks into a /bɑ:r/ because it sounds like fun.
2. A sememe walks into a bar and it is a meaningful occasion.
3. A sememe walks into a bar. The bartender knows what it means.
4. A sign walks into a bar, representing a patron. The bartender knows its context.
5. An endocentric compound walks into a barroom, sits on a barstool, orders a well drink and starts a barroom brawl.
6. An exocentric compound walks into a barfly.
7. A dvanda compound walks into a bar-restaurant.
8. A morpheme walks into bars.
9. A reduplication walks into a barbar.
10. A cranberry morpheme walks into a tav.
11. A back clip walks into a pub.
12. Two suffixes walk into a drinkery.
13. A simile walks into something like a bar.
14. A second guess walks into a bar wondering if it would have been better to go to a different bar.
15. A complementizer walks into a bar because it likes the structure.

Thank you to mentallyincompetent for providing the perfect image to go with this post.

I believe this meme got its start with the McSweeney's post by Erik K. Auld titled SEVEN BAR JOKES INVOLVING GRAMMAR AND PUNCTUATION.

1. A comma splice walks into a bar, it has a drink and then leaves.
2. A dangling modifier walks into a bar. After finishing a drink, the bartender asks it to leave.
3. A question mark walks into a bar?
4. Two quotation marks “walk into” a bar.
5. A gerund and an infinitive walk into a bar, drinking to drink.
6. The bar was walked into by the passive voice.
7. Three intransitive verbs walk into a bar. They sit. They drink. They leave.

And then The Stroppy Editor contributed his take on the meme with a post titled Jokes are barred.

-A subject and a verb disagrees about which bar to walk into.
-An Oxford comma hops, skips, and jumps into a bar.
-A pleonasm enters into a bar.
-The subjunctive would walk into a bar, were it in the mood.
-A hyphen, drunk after leaving the bar, mistakenly walks-into a phrasal verb.
-A colon and a semicolon walk into a bar: the colon has a gutful; the semicolon orders a half.
-A syllepsis walks out on its wife and into a bar.
-A gang of commas walk into a bar and order everything on the menu.
-A prescriptivist walks into a tavern, because of course ‘bar’ means the counter at which drink is served rather than the establishment itself. He wonders why nobody else is there.
-A meaning walks into a bar and orders a double.
-A portmanteau walks into a barmaid.

Next, I read about the fad on a post titled Into a Bar over at Fritinancy, who mentioned there is also a Google group with ongoing discussions and contributions to the meme.

This is so much fun; however, if not for my internet savvy, hip children, I never would have even known what a meme is.

meme:

1. An element of a culture or behavior that may be passed from one individual to another by nongenetic means, esp. imitation.
2. An image, video, etc. that is passed electronically from one Internet user to another.

- Google definitions

Book Review Briefs: Understanding Language Through Humor

"Understanding Language Through Humor" by Stanley Dubinsky and Chris Holcomb
ʌ ʌ (2 carets up)

This is the perfect book for anyone who wants to learn more about the inner workings of language while being entertained at the same time. I would recommend it for high school age readers and up. The book is capable of being purely a pleasure read (an educational pleasure as an added bonus) as well as a study companion for students in language-themed courses. I will certainly use this book as a resource the next time I teach an introductory linguistics class.

Here is a summary from Cambridge University Press:

Students often struggle to understand linguistic concepts through examples of language data provided in class or in texts. Presented with ambiguous information, students frequently respond that they don't 'get it'. The solution is to find an example of humour that relies on the targeted ambiguity. Once they laugh at the joke, they have tacitly understood the concept, and then it is only a matter of explaining why they found it funny. Utilizing cartoons and jokes illustrating linguistic concepts, this book makes it easy to understand these concepts, while keeping the reader's attention and interest. Organized like a course textbook in linguistics, it covers all the major topics in a typical linguistics survey course, including communication systems, phonetics and phonology, morphemes, words, phrases, sentences, language use, discourses, child language acquisition and language variation, while avoiding technical terminology.

Here is a joke from the book that is used to illustrate deictic confusion:

A guy phones the local hospital and yells, "You've gotta help! My wife is in labor!" The nurse says, "Calm down. Is this her first child?" He replies, "No! This is her husband!"

And here is the table of contents:

1. Introduction
2. Talking to Garfield: human and animal communication
3. Did I hear that right? The sounds of language
4. Twisted words: word structure and meaning
5. Fitting words together: phrase structure and meaning
6. Meaning one thing and saying another: indirect speech and conversational principles
7. Fitting the pieces together: the structure of discourse
8. 'Kids say the darndest things': children acquiring language
9. Variety is the spice of life: language variation
10. Cross-cultural gaffes: language and culture
11. The language police: prescriptivism and standardization
12. So long, and thanks for all the fish.

Don't let the portion of the book description that says it avoids "technical terminology" lead you to believe the book is simplistic; it is not. I think it would have been more accurate to say "overly technical terminology". The book is smart and accessible at the same time.

Book Review Briefs: Do You Make These Mistakes in English? The Story of Sherwin Cody's Famous Language School

"Do You Make These Mistakes in English? The Story of Sherwin Cody's Famous Language School" by Edwin L. Battistella
ʌv (1 caret up, 1 caret down)

A book for individuals who are curious about English language education and marketing, and how these two topics overlapped in the early 1900s.

As I have always been fascinated by the advertising industry and pretty much anything having to do with language, I was very excited to read this book. After reading it, I am sorry to report that it was a bit of a letdown.

There were many interesting facts about Cody's life and his approach to teaching, and it was fun to see some of the exercises from his course. Overall, however, I found the writing to be quite dry and repetitive in places. The book was not so much an entertaining look at history as a recitation of historical information.

Here is a description of the book from Oxford University Press:

In the early 1900s, the language of America was becoming colloquial English-the language of the businessman, manager, and professional. Since college and high school education were far from universal, many people turned to correspondence education-that era's distance learning-to learn the art of speaking and writing. By the 1920s and 1930s, thousands of Americans were sending coupons from newspapers and magazines to order Sherwin Cody's 100% Self-correcting Course in the English Language, a patented mail-order course in English that was taken by over 150,000 people.

Cody's ubiquitous signature advertisement, which ran for over forty years, promised a scientifically-tested invention that improved speaking and writing in just 15 minutes a day. Cody's ad explained that people are judged by their English, and he offered self-improvement and self-confidence through the mail.

In this book, linguist Edwin Battistella tells the story of Sherwin Cody and his famous English course, situating both the man and the course in early twentieth century cultural history. The author shows how Cody became a businessman-a writer, grammatical entrepreneur, and mass-marketer whose ads proclaimed "Good Money in Good English" and asked "Is Good English Worth 25 Cents to You?" His course, perhaps the most widely-advertised English education program in history, provides a unique window onto popular views of language and culture and their connection to American notions of success and failure. But Battistella shows Sherwin Cody was also part of a larger shift in attitudes. Using Cody's course as a reference point, he also looks at the self-improvement ethic reflected in such courses and products as the Harvard Classics, The Book of Etiquette, the Book-of-the-Month Club, the U.S. School of Music, and the Charles Atlas and Dale Carnegie courses to illustrate how culture became popular and how self-reliance evolved into self-improvement.

Don't shy away from reading the book if the description piques your interest; just be prepared for its lusterless nature.

Illustrating the Production and Comprehension of Language

Two of my favorite language-related illustrations.

From the book Shapes for sounds by Timothy Donaldson, via brain pickings.

From an article in The Economist, illustration by W. Vasconcelos.

I think the illustrations complement each other quite nicely. My compliments to the artists.

complement

n.

1.

a. Something that completes, makes up a whole, or brings to perfection.
b. The quantity or number needed to make up a whole: shelves with a full complement of books.
c. Either of two parts that complete the whole or mutually complete each other.

compliment

n.

1. An expression of praise, admiration, or congratulation.

Book Review Briefs: The Fingertips of Duncan Dorfman

"The Fingertips of Duncan Dorfman" by Meg Wolitzer

ʌ ʌ (2 carets up)

What a wonderful book for young readers. Whether interested in language or not, this is an enjoyable book and I'll bet anyone who reads it will discover a new found enthusiasm for vocabulary, parts of speech, and morphology.

If the cover image didn't give it away, the book is about the game of Scrabble, more specifically, a Youth Scrabble Tournament and what brings three preteens from different states to the tournament.

Here is a summary from Penguin.com:

At first glance, Duncan Dorfman, April Blunt, and Nate Saviano don't seem to have much in common. Duncan is trying to look after his single mom and adjust to life in a new town while managing his newfound Scrabble superpower—he can feel words and pictures beneath his fingers and tell what they are without looking. April is pining for a mystery boy she met years ago and striving to be seen as more than a nerd in her family of jocks. And homeschooled Nate is struggling to meet his father's high expectations for success.

When these three unique kids are brought together at the national Youth Scrabble Tournament, each with a very different drive to win, their paths cross and stories intertwine . . . and the journey is made extraordinary with a perfect touch of magic. Readers will fly through the pages, anxious to discover who will take home the grand prize, but there's much more at stake than winning and losing.

Anagrams are a frequent topic in the book, as evidenced by these excerpts:

"Words are like clay, Dorfman," he went on. "They can be shaped and messed with not only by your hands, but also by your head."

"PROSE is an anagram of ROPES. Oh, and SPORE is too. And POSER."

Here is an excerpt that includes the topics of vocabulary, parts of speech and morphology:

Duncan thought about the word AA, for instance, which he had looked up in the Scrabble dictionary and found out that it meant "rough, cindery lava." If he hadn't known it was a noun, he might have tried to add ING onto the end of it, thinking it was a verb.

Makes me wish I was a kid again so I could read books and play Scrabble all day long.

Random Linguistics Definitions Beginning with the Letter "L"

langage A French term introduced by Ferdinand de Saussure to refer to the human biological faculty of speech. It is distinguished in his approach from langue, the language system of a speech community.

listeme A term occasionally used in psycholinguistics for the notion of a word or other expression as a member of a list of linguistic entities stored in the brain.

ludic A term sometimes used in linguistics to refer to language whose primary function is to be part of play, as in the nonsense, repetitive rhythms and rhymes heard in children's games all over the world. Ludicity also affects adults, who may play with language by adopting silly tones of voice or by twisting words into unorthodox shapes to create a humorous effect.

Definitions from: A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics, Sixth edition, 2008
Image credits: Flickr

Comma: the MacGyver of Punctuation - ComMacGyver

The comma is not truly the only punctuation tool you will ever need, but it sure does do a lot.

The Purdue Online Writing Guide lists the following uses in its Quick Guide to Commas:

1. Use commas to separate independent clauses when they are joined by any of these seven coordinating conjunctions: and, but, for, or, nor, so, yet.

2. Use commas after introductory a) clauses, b) phrases, or c) words that come before the main clause.

3. Use a pair of commas in the middle of a sentence to set off clauses, phrases, and words that are not essential to the meaning of the sentence. Use one comma before to indicate the beginning of the pause and one at the end to indicate the end of the pause.

4. Do not use commas to set off essential elements of the sentence, such as clauses beginning with that (relative clauses). That clauses after nouns are always essential. That clauses following a verb expressing mental action are always essential.

5. Use commas to separate three or more words, phrases, or clauses written in a series.

6. Use commas to separate two or more coordinate adjectives that describe the same noun. Be sure never to add an extra comma between the final adjective and the noun itself or to use commas with non-coordinate adjectives.

7. Use a comma near the end of a sentence to separate contrasted coordinate elements or to indicate a distinct pause or shift.

8. Use commas to set off phrases at the end of the sentence that refer back to the beginning or middle of the sentence. Such phrases are free modifiers that can be placed anywhere in the sentence without causing confusion.

9. Use commas to set off all geographical names, items in dates (except the month and day), addresses (except the street number and name), and titles in names.

10. Use a comma to shift between the main discourse and a quotation.

11. Use commas wherever necessary to prevent possible confusion or misreading.

Help save the comma; take the "Eats, Shoots & Leaves" Comma IQ Test.

Here are some commas to get you started -

Image credits here and here.

Speaking of Trademarks, Maybe Chik-fil-A Should Start Serving a Kale-fil-A

Would you have a hard time distinguishing the source of a fast food chicken sandwich if a t-shirt company trademarked a phrase used on their t-shirts that promotes sustainable food?

In other words, if you saw this:

Would you think this:

Or this:

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office defines a trademark as "a word, name, symbol, or device that is used in trade with goods to indicate the source of the goods and to distinguish them from the goods of others."

Chik-fil-A released the following comments about the legal matter via PR Newswire.

ATLANTA, Dec. 5, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- In 2006, we became aware of a Vermont company using the phrase "Eat More Kale" on T-shirts, which are sold on their website, www.eatmorekale.com. We have co-existed under these circumstances since 2006.

However, in August of 2011, the Vermont company submitted its application to trademark the slogan "Eat More Kale" for use and protection nationally. Because of this new development, we are required to protect "Eat Mor Chikin®," our own brand and trademark.

We support the entrepreneurial spirit of small business, and, in fact, our business model is founded on providing opportunity for small business owners. Every one of our 1,603 restaurants is owned and operated by a local business person who lives in and gives back to their community. Unfortunately, when protecting our trademark, the law does not allow us to differentiate between a large company or a small enterprise.

Our award-winning advertising campaign has been in place for the past 16 years, and we must legally protect and defend our "Eat Mor Chikin®" trademarks in order to maintain rights to the slogan. It is not uncommon for us – or for any corporation – to defend our trademark rights.

What do you think? Please share comments.

Image credits: sandwich, kale, billboard

Word Wars - Dave Hester v. Trey Songz

I want to bring attention to a portion of December 1st's post titled Words: Winning, Losing, Fighting and Banned in 2011. Some of you may have missed it because it was "below the fold". Here it is -

Fighting

YUUUP

Dave Hester of the television show "Storage Wars" and rapper Trey Songz are fighting over the right to use the word YUUUP as a "signature sound". Via an article in the New York Post,

Hester, however, argues that Songz’ version “resembles an animal-like or non-human squeal which begins with a distinct ‘yeeee’ sound before finishing with a squeal-like ‘uuuup’ sound.”

That’s “distinct and different from Hester’s more monosyllabic sounding guttural auction bidding phrase...which is meant to convey the meaning of ‘yes,’ ” court papers say.

What do you think?

COMMENT - They don't sound the same at all to me. I don't hear the /p/ at the end of the Trey Songz version. Also, notice all the different spellings of the sound (not surprising but how do you trademark a sound based on spelling). I think they will need the services of a forensic linguist and the trademark will have to be based upon a phonetic transcription.

###

The reason I reposted the above portion of the post is that I really want to hear what readers think. Do you think the sounds are similar? Do you think a sound like this should be trademarkable? What do you think about the various spellings? Is this a matter of trademarking a word, a series of letters, a sound, or some combination of the three?

I have begun work on an MSc in forensic linguistics and the subject of the trademarkability of sounds is one I am considering for a paper. Please share any and all thoughts you may have on the subject by clicking on the comment button.

Hot Coffee and Book Reviews with George Lakoff

Last week I saw the movie “Hot Coffee” and was pleasantly surprised that George Lakoff made a couple of appearances. It was a very entertaining, informative and thought-provoking documentary with plenty of discussion about the role language plays in the legal system and in political advertising campaigns. It rates ʌ ʌ in my book (2 carets up).

Here is a summary from IMDb:

Most people think they know the "McDonald's coffee case," but what they don't know is that corporations have spent millions distorting the case to promote tort reform. HOT COFFEE reveals how big business, aided by the media, brewed a dangerous concoction of manipulation and lies to protect corporate interests. By following four people whose lives were devastated by the attacks on our courts, the film challenges the assumptions Americans hold about "jackpot justice."

For those unfamiliar with George Lakoff, he is a well-known Professor of Cognitive Science and Linguistics at the University of California at Berkeley. He has taught there since 1972 and previously taught at Harvard (1965-69) and the University of Michigan (1969-1972). In linguistics, he is most associated with his work on metaphor and human thinking.

Two of Lakoff's academic books that I have read and highly recommend (2 carets up each) are: "Metaphors We Live By" written with Mark Johnson and "Women, Fire and Dangerous Things".

Here are the summaries from George Lakoff's website:

METAPHORS WE LIVE BY (1984)
People use metaphors every time they speak. Some of those metaphors are literary – devices for making thoughts more vivid or entertaining. But most are much more basic than that – they’re “metaphors we live by”, metaphors we use without even realizing we’re using them. In this book, George Lakoff and Mark Johnson suggest that these basic metaphors not only affect the way we communicate ideas, but actually structure our perceptions and understandings from the beginning. Bringing together the perspectives of linguistics and philosophy, Lakoff and Johnson offer an intriguing and surprising guide to some of the most common metaphors and what they can tell us about the human mind.

WOMEN, FIRE, AND DANGEROUS THINGS (1990)
Focusing on studies of how humans categorize objects and ideas, this classic cognitive science book examines the new understanding of human thought which proposes that human reason is imaginative, metaphorical, and intrinsically linked with the human body.

Random Linguistics Definitions Beginning with the Letter "K"

kinaesthesis The sensation of movements in one's own body. Hence a major element in practical phonetics, in sensinge.g. how a consonant is articulated.

kinesics The study of meaningful gestures and other body movements in communication. Originally of a treatment modelled on American linguistics in the 1950s, with e.g. kinemes as the smallest gestural units.

kymograph An early instrument, used in phonetics until the 1960s, which mechanically recorded e.g. muscular movements or changes of air pressure by traces on smoked paper.

Definitions from: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics, Second edition, 2007
Image credits: Clipart Etc

An Example of Siri's French-Influenced, English Dialect

Words: Winning, Losing, Fighting and Banned in 2011

Winning
Dictionary.com's Word of the Year
tergiversate /tɚʤIvɚseɪt/
To change repeatedly one’s attitude or opinions with respect to a cause, subject, etc.; equivocate.
Runners-up -
zugzwang
A situation in chess in which a player is limited to moves that cost pieces or have a damaging positional effect.
oppugnancy
Opposing; antagonistic; contrary.
internecine
Of or pertaining to conflict or struggle within a group.
quietus
A finishing stroke; anything that effectually ends or settles.
occupy
To be a resident or tenant of; dwell in.
winning
Charming; engaging; pleasing.
spring
To come or appear suddenly, as if at a bound.
jobs
A post of employment; full-time or part-time position.
austerity
Severity of manner, life, etc.; sternness.
bifurcating
To divide or fork into two branches.
iconoclasm
The action or spirit of a destroyer of images, especially those set up for religious veneration.
schismatic
Of, pertaining to, or of the nature of division or disunion, especially into mutually opposed parties; guilty of division or disunion.
topple
To overthrow, as from a position of authority.
uprising
An insurrection or revolt.

Losing

SplashData's 25 Worst Passwords of 2011

1. password
2. 123456
3.12345678
4. qwerty
5. abc123
6. monkey
7. 1234567
8. letmein
9. trustno1
10. dragon
11. baseball
12. 111111
13. iloveyou
14. master
15. sunshine
16. ashley
17. bailey
18. passwOrd
19. shadow
20. 123123
21. 654321
22. superman
23. qazwsx
24. michael
25. football

COMMENT - What is up with Ashley, Bailey and Michael? Okay, I get Michael; it has consistently ranked in the Social Security Administration's Top 3 most popular names for boys. Ashley, however, is currently ranked as only the 27th most popular name for girls (though she has spent some time in the top 10). Bailey??? The highest rank Bailey received in the last ten years was 69 for a female and 202 for a male. Could it be because Bailey is a somewhat popular pet name? According to PetBabyNames.com, Bailey ranks 7th for female dogs and 16th for male dogs.

Fighting

YUUUP

Dave Hester of the television show "Storage Wars" and rapper Trey Songz are fighting over the right to use the word YUUUP as a "signature sound". Via an article in the New York Post,

Hester, however, argues that Songz’ version “resembles an animal-like or non-human squeal which begins with a distinct ‘yeeee’ sound before finishing with a squeal-like ‘uuuup’ sound.”

That’s “distinct and different from Hester’s more monosyllabic sounding guttural auction bidding phrase...which is meant to convey the meaning of ‘yes,’ ” court papers say.

COMMENT - They don't sound the same at all to me. I don't hear the /p/ at the end of the Trey Songz version. Also, notice all the different spellings of the sound (not surprising but how do you trademark a sound based on spelling). I think they will need the services of a forensic linguist and the trademark will have to be based upon a phonetic transcription.

Banned
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has banned 1,600 words that they consider "pornographic or offensive to Islam". Here are several of the words from the list and a link to a more comprehensive list via the Huffington Post.
athlete's foot

condom

deposit

gay

glazed donut

jugs

Kmart

no sex

oiu

pecker

slant

The ABCs of Onomatopoeia

onomatopoeia

1: the naming of a thing or action by a vocal imitation of the sound associated with it (as buzz, hiss)
2: the use of words whose sound suggests the sense

Late Latin, from Greek onomatopoiia, from onomat-, onoma name + poiein to make — more at poet
First Known Use: circa 1577

Image via tomgauld.com