Word Formation - An Ill-Formed Word in Newsweek

There is an article in the October 26th issue of Newsweek about a tablet computer that is supposedly in the works at Apple. The article titled "The Hype is Right" contains a hyphenated compound word that I have to believe was created by the article's writer, Daniel Lyons, because a google search returns no results. While I am all for using affixes and compounding to form new words, the newly formed word as it appears in the sentence below (excerpted from the article) makes little sense semantically.

"Just as with the company's iPhone a few years ago, blogs have been buzzing about the still-unveiled iTablet for months, featuring pictures of what the iTablet might look like, arguments over the features that the iTablet will have, leaks from partners that Apple has supposedly approached to develop content for the iTablet—you get the idea."

My guess is that the writer was attempting to put a new twist on the phrase "yet to be unveiled" based on the following adverbial definition of the word "yet" found on merriam-webster.com and the fact that "yet" and "still" are synonyms.

yet 2 a (1) : up to now : so far hasn't —often used to imply the negative of a following infinitive.

However, without the infinitive "to be", it is not semantically clear that the verb "unveiled" should be interpreted in the negative in the compound "still-unveiled".

Confusing if you ask me. What do you think?

Newsweek Magazine's Weird Word Choice

The September 21st issue of Newsweek magazine includes an article titled "Born to be Big". Following is the opening sentence of the article:

"It's easy enough to find culprits in the nation's epidemic of obesity, starting with tubs of buttered popcorn at the multiplex and McDonald's 1,220-calorie deluxe breakfasts, and moving on to the couch potato-fication of America."

I am wondering if any particular word in this sentence bothers readers as much as it bothers me.

Do you see which word I am referring to?

Not yet.

Well.....

The word that really gets to me is "couch potato-fication".

A morphological analysis of the formation of the word "couch potato-fication" suggests that the suffix "-ify" (in the form of "-fy") was added to the compound noun "couch potato" resulting in the verb "couch potato-fy" meaning, "to make or cause one to be a couch potato." Then the suffix "-ation" was added to the verb "couch potato-fy" resulting in the noun "couch potato-fication" meaning, "the state or quality of making or causing one to be a couch potato."

While "-fy" is an accepted variant of the suffix "-ify", according to encyclopedia.com the suffix normally takes the form "-ify". Additionally, the combination of the suffixes "-ify" and "-ation" form what is considered a separate suffix "-ification". The suffix "-ification" is highly productive as can be seen by the following unexhausted list of words.

amplification
beatification
certification
clarification
classification
codification
deification
demystification
disqualification
diversification
edification
falsification
fortification
glorification
gratification
identification
justification
mystification
notification
ossification
personification
purification
qualification
quantification
ramification
ratification
rectification
reunification
sanctification
simplification
solidification
specification
stratification
unification
verification

Had the Newsweek article used the suffix in its known form, I probably would not have even thought twice about the neologism. However, without the initial /I/ or short-i sound found in the suffix, Newsweek's use stuck out like a phonetically sore thumb.

Granted the "-ification" suffix usually follows a consonant, it doesn't always, as exhibited by the word "deification". So based upon the linguistic template of "deification" and the known phonological pattern of the suffix, I think that "couch potato-ification" would have been a better choice for this neologism.

By the way, another thought that entered my mind when first reading this word was, "did they mean to say "couch potato-fixation", as in our nation has a fixation on the ability to be couch potatoes? As a matter of fact, when googling the suffix "-fication" without its initial letter "i" as Newsweek used it, Google responded with, "Did you mean: -fixation".

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The article is also available on the Newsweek website and, interestingly, does not include the hyphen between potato and fication. Whether the word is written as "couch potato-fication" or "couch potatofication" it still sounds odd to me.

What is a Word Nanny?

The Supreme Court's decision to uphold the Federal Communications Commission's right to fine television networks for, "the unplanned, fleeting use of a curse word on live television," has been a hot topic in the news this past week. Many news outlets have pointed out the fact that the real issue here is whether or not the FCC policy violates the 1st Amendment. What I want to point out is the compound word used by the Chicago Tribune to describe the FCC's behavior - word nanny.

Following is an excerpt from an article titled "Word Nannies" that appeared on May 2nd's chicagotribune.com:

"A change at the five-member FCC is a more likely resolution. The agency is set for a major overhaul with three new commissioners coming on board. We urge them to avoid being word nannies."

What a great word; and from what I can tell it has not been used prior to this article. A Google search for "word nanny" returns numerous hits about the word "nanny;" a Google search for "word nannies" returns the original Chicago Tribune article, references to the article from other news outlets, and forum discussions about The Supreme Court's decision.

So...what is a word nanny?

If a nanny is a woman whose job is looking after young children, then by extension a word nanny is a woman whose job is looking after the words that young children hear.

When it comes to word forms, we all know that "nanny" is the feminine and "manny" is the masculine, but because FCC commissioners can be male or female, the Chicago Tribune's use of the term "word nanny" is neuter.

Obama Accused of Promoting the Genericide of one Compound Word (Blackberry) while Inspiring a new Compound Word (Blackberry President)

Posted Friday, January 23, 2009 5:41 PM on Newsweek.com
Thanks to Obama, BlackBerry Becomes the Next Kleenex

The above headline is comparing Blackberry to Kleenex in the sense that Blackberry is a generic name for the product category of PDA's just like Kleenex is a generic name for the product category of tissues. This process is appropriately called genericide.

I'm not sure that I agree with the writer of the headline because I don't think that Blackberry is in the same league as Kleenex, Band-Aid, Xerox, and the like when it comes to the genericization of product names, though it could be in the near future.

At any rate, I found it interesting that this headline appeared just a week before the current Newseek magazine cover (note the top left corner).



The noun-noun compound word Blackberry President could well be on its way to becoming one of the most-used new words of the year; in fact, there is even a website called blackberrypresident.com. Furthermore, a google search of the word Blackberry President turns up too many results to list including the following cartoon.

NCAA Football: Armchair Quarterbacks and Sidewalk Alumni

As we are in the midst of NCAA football season, I can't think of a better time to bring up the compound word sidewalk alumni. Though sidewalk alumni is not listed in traditional dictionaries yet, it is semantically similar to, and brings to mind the compound word armchair quarterback, which is listed in dictionaries. Sidewalk alumni and armchair quarterback are semantically similar in that they are both considered derogatory terms for sports fans.

Sidewalk alumni: Fans of college sports teams that are not alumni of the college.

Armchair quarterback: Viewers of sports who criticize plays and think they could play better.

Exocentric Compound Word of the Day

Sofa Spud: an alliterative version of couch potato.
Seen in the Fall 2008 issue of Birmingham Magazine.

Along with Zippers, Kleenex and Speedo Fall Prey to Genericide

The June 30th Newsweek had an article about Speedo's LZR suit. If you have not heard about it yet, it is the suit that is helping swimmers break a multitude of records. The article notes that Speedo is the number 1 swim brand in the world and reinforces this statistic by quoting analyst Marshal Cohen, "Speedo is the Kleenex of swimwear." I really got a kick out of seeing this quote as it fit right in with my previous post about brand name genericide (genericide being the process by which a trademarked or brand name becomes a generic name for the product category). While Kleenex was not on the list in my original post, a reader commented that it should have been and I fully agree. And certainly Speedo should be added to the list as the generic name for competitive swimwear and tank suits (which I grew up calling banana hammocks, ha ha).

Green Collars and Linguistic Templates

One of the areas I have focused on in my studies of linguistics is compound words, so when I recently came across the compound word green collar worker I was very excited. I find it interesting to see how new words make it into the lexicon and how people are able to interpret them.

Some of my previous work on compound words has relied on Professor Mary Ellen Ryder's idea of using "linguistic templates" for interpreting novel compound words. Ryder predicts that a listener, upon encountering a new compound, will look to his or her stock of established compounds and the semantic schemas developed from them to interpret the compound, these are what she call "linguistic templates." The particular template a listener chooses to use in interpreting a new compound is what she calls the "analogy base." For example, given a novel compound such as whitemail, a listener would look to existing compounds and end up using blackmail as an analogy base.

So when it comes to the compound word green collar worker, people will, most likely, immediately think of the compounds white collar and blue collar workers to interpret the word. Little did I know that there are also gold, pink and grey collar workers as well.

The collar workers are defined as follows:
Green Collar - A worker who is employed in one of the environmental or agricultural sectors of the economy.
Gold Collar - Low-income, workers who invest in conspicuous luxury.
Pink Collar - A person who has a job that is traditionally considered a womens' job because the work does not require as much professional training and does not have the same pay or prestige as jobs that are traditionally considered mens' jobs.
Grey Collar - Workers that have jobs that include elements of both blue and white collar jobs, or workers in jobs that are entirely different from both white and blue collar jobs. Also, occasionally used to describe a person who works past the normal age of retirement

A final note on Ryder's "linguistic templates," I believe they also provide a basis for generating new compounds and likely contributed to the formation of each of the compound words discussed above.