6 Cartons of Anaphora

A wife asks her husband, "Could you please go shopping for me and buy one carton of milk, and if they have avocados, get 6."

A short time later the husband comes back with 6 cartons of milk.

The wife asks him, "Why did you buy 6 cartons of milk?"

He replies, "They had avocados."

What makes the above joke humorous is actually called zero anaphora or gapping.

The Summer Institute of Linguistics defines anaphora as the "coreference of one expression with its antecedent. The antecedent provides the information necessary for the expression’s interpretation. This is often understood as an expression 'referring' back to the antecedent."

For example, in the sentence, "John rode his bike to town so he wouldn't have to worry about finding a parking spot", "he" is an anaphoric expression that refers back to the subject "John".

Zero anaphora is defined by SIL as "the use of a gap, in a phrase or clause, that has an anaphoric function similar to a pro-form*. It is often described as “referring back” to an expression that supplies the information necessary for interpreting the gap."

*A pro-form is a word, substituting for other words, phrases, clauses, or sentences, whose meaning is recoverable from the linguistic or extralinguistic context.

Now, look at the first line of the joke again:

A wife asks her husband, "Could you please go shopping for me and buy one carton of milk, and if they have avocados, get 6 [gap]."

The gap leaves open the possibility of referring back to either noun phrase, "avocados" or "one carton of milk". However, it makes more sense to start the anaphora resolution process by looking at the nearest antecedent first.

Now go return those five cartons of milk and bring me my six avocados, silly man.

Avocado image via.

In a Symbol

Futility Closet is one of my regular reads and I especially enjoy the "In a Word" posts. Last week one of the featured words was pilcrow and it was accompanied by an image of the named symbol (¶) along with the definition.

pilcrow
n. the paragraph sign

I couldn't resist playing with the name of the post, the word, and the image.
Thus, In a Symbol, literally.

Author Q&A with Donald Freidman

You're My Dawg, Dog: A Lexicon of Dog Terms for People is the new book by Donald Friedman with illustrations by J.C. Suarès. It is a wonderful and entertaining book for dog lovers and word lovers alike with over 140 canine-based terms, metaphors, idioms and proverbs, and numerous charming illustrations.


I recently had the opportunity to pose some questions to the author. Following are my questions and Mr. Friedman's answers. 

Donald Friedman

Q. Cognitive linguist George Lakoff believes that metaphor is essential to human thinking. How powerful do you think metaphor is in everyday life? Do you view it as simply a literary device or do you believe it plays a larger role in the way humans conceptualize the world around them?

A. I don’t know what’s essential to human thinking but suspect it’s something more than metaphor—maybe fish oil, or potassium—but whatever it is, it seems to be lacking in a huge number of people, and virtually all our leaders.  That said, I do think that metaphor reflects something profound in the nature of human creativity, and in the nature of art forms themselves. 

Considering the second first, I think that all the forms secretly aspire to be another.  Art, even the most abstract, and certainly traditional painting and sculpture is all about narrative.  Words, on the other hand, give us images.  I was reflecting on this two nights ago at the ballet, in which I saw both classical and contemporary choreographers use the dancers movements to carve stories out of the air.  (For more on this kind of stuff, see my book The Writer’s Brush, Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture by Writers.) I also have fantasized about designing a course using ekphrastic methods—say having students listen to music and then paint what they heard, look at a painting or piece of sculpture and write a story or poem inspired by it, take a story or abstract idea and render it in some other material—not so much to produce something new, although that would be great, but as a means of entry into the other form.

Back to human thinking.  What I found when I was doing The Writer’s Brush was that these 260-odd great writers who also drew and painted, were frequently also musicians and held down creative day jobs, many as lawyers and doctors.  In short they were real polymaths.  A number of them admitted to being synesthetes—to having sense confusion, or sense linkages.  They would smell a flower and hear a clarinet, attach colors to numbers and letters and notes.  Among the extreme cases was the great Austrian writer Grillparzer who would sit down at the piano and play an etching put before him.  Some neuroscientists have suggested that synesthesia is the essence of and essential to creativity.  And, given that it is the intermingling of senses that makes a good metaphor, there’s probably something to it.

All of this provides a lot of elaboration on the theme without answering your question directly.  So let me add that, yes, I do see metaphor  as a sort of schema by which we organize the world, particularly in the way it helps us to see abstract governing principles, and to perceive emotions by grounding them in the particular—even if the metaphor is bad and the analog weak or wrong.  After all, we are imprisoned in our selves, see through a glass darkly, and all we perceive merely shadows on a cave wall.  Metaphors help set our minds free.

Q. I wrote my master’s essay on the patterns and productivity of a subset of noun-noun compounds that I labeled “animal for human” metaphoric compounds. Your book contains a great example, dish dog. Your definition for dish dog even goes on to demonstrate the productiveness of this type of compound word by suggesting three similar constructions: grill dog, ball dog and bag dog. Can you think of a novel, canine- based “animal for human” metaphoric compound that would be useful in today’s technologically advanced world?

A. I can’t think of animal for human metaphoric compounds off the top of my head and really don’t have the time to come up with any (at least any good ones) at the moment.  Your emphasis on their also being useful in this technological world of ours resonates.  I think that we have in many ways dehumanized ourselves and as we head down the road of becoming more and more cyborgs, live in a jacked-in, digitized context, I believe we are discomfited at heart and long for real-world references.  (Have you heard about kids texting that they want to meet IRL, as in real life?)  That’s what genius Jobs was after, I think, when he named his cutting edge tech company Apple and insisted the logo had to be concrete enough to show a bite taken out of it. It’s why a meta-search engine calls itself Dog Pile.  It’s why massive storage servers in remote places are called The Cloud.  We are reassured by references to dogs and apples and clouds as we spend more and more time in an unfathomably abstract environment.

Q. In addition to word and phrase metaphors, your book contains numerous idioms and proverbs that also rely on metaphoric interpretations. Idioms and proverbs are wonderful tools for teaching basic truths in an easy-to-remember format. Because animals are considered to be the basis of more metaphors than any other nonhuman source, can you think of some non-canine, animal-based idioms or proverbs that have fallen out of use but are applicable today?

A. Probably, but no better than you.

Q. Have you thought about writing lexicons for lovers of other types of pets in the future, for example: cats, birds, goldfish, or horses? If so, which animal do you think is most productive in terms of providing a basis for metaphors?  

A. I haven’t, but if I can’t come up with other procrastinating devices, I might.

Q. Lastly, and on a lighter note, who are Herb and Sally and what type of business is Amalgamated Schmaltz, i.e., how did you come up with the generic names used in your definitions?

A. Amalgamated Schmaltz is a portmanteau.  My late father, an investment banker with a great cynical streak, always used “Amalgamated Horse Manure” when he needed a hypothetical company to drive home an object lesson in investing.  Chicken schmaltz is rendered chicken fat, often with fried onions in it, which you can feel congeal your blood vessels as you eat it.  It was used by my immigrant grandparents and their generation as a substitute for butter. My father once remarked that he thought it killed more Jews than Hitler.  I’m a novelist so creating characters is what I do.

###

To learn more about how the book came into being there is an informative self-interview by/with the author at the You're My Dawg, Dog website. The site also has a page for readers to submit dog terms that are not in the book with the chance to win a You're My Dawg, Dog poster.

You can read my review of You're My Dawg, Dog here. 

For the Love of Language and Math - Expanded

[(N + H)ow + (T + W)hat](I know).

How would you expand this expression?

If you think like famous mathematician Norman Anning, you would read it as:

Now I know how I know that I know what I know.

Norman Herbert Anning (August 28, 1883 – May 1, 1963) was a mathematician, assistant Professor, Professor Emeritus, and instructor in mathematics at the University of Michigan from 1920 through his retirement in 1953.

Anning contributed the above “non-commutative soliloquy of an introspective epistemologist” for a 1948 issue of  Scripta Mathematica.

Scripta Mathematica was a quarterly journal published by Yeshiva University devoted to the philosophy, history, and expository treatment of mathematics. It was published from 1933 through 1973.

commutative
adj.1. Relating to, involving, or characterized by substitution, interchange, or exchange. 2. Independent of order. Used of a logical or mathematical operation that combines objects or sets of objects two at a time. If a × b = b × a, the operation indicated by × is commutative.

soliloquy
 n. 1. a. A dramatic or literary form of discourse in which a character talks to himself or herself or reveals his or her thoughts without addressing a listener. b. A specific speech or piece of writing in this form of discourse. 2. The act of speaking to oneself.

introspective
adj. 1. Given to examining own sensory and perceptual experiences.

epistemologist
n. 1. A specialist in epistemology.

epistemology
n. The branch of philosophy that studies the nature of knowledge, its presuppositions and foundations, and its extent and validity.

Definitions via thefreedictionary.com

Thanks to Futility Closet for bringing this soliloquy to my attention.

This is Not a Bunch of Bunk

Earlier this month, Wayne State University's Word Warriors released its fourth annual list of "eminently useful words that should be brought back to enrich our language." Included in their list of "top 10 words worth reviving" is the word buncombe.

Buncombe: Rubbish; nonsense; empty or misleading talk. What a relief to have the election over -- that great festival of buncombe that so distracted the nation for months.

The phrase "that's a bunch of bunk" was so common in my youth that I never really gave much thought to where it cam from. When it popped up on the Word Warriors' list, I decided to find out. Here is what I learned about the etymology:

buncombe (n.) see bunk (n.2). bunkum (n.) variant of Buncombe. bunk (n.2) "nonsense," 1900, short for bunkum, phonetic spelling of Buncombe, a county in North Carolina. The usual story (by 1841) of its origin is this: At the close of the protracted Missouri statehood debates, supposedly on Feb. 25, 1820, N.C. Representative Felix Walker (1753-1828) began what promised to be a "long, dull, irrelevant speech," and he resisted calls to cut it short by saying he was bound to say something that could appear in the newspapers in the home district and prove he was on the job. "I shall not be speaking to the House," he confessed, "but to Buncombe." Bunkum has been American English slang for "nonsense" since 1841 (from 1838 as generic for "a U.S. Representative's home district"). MR. WALKER, of North Carolina, rose then to address the Committee on the question [of Missouri statehood]; but the question was called for so clamorously and so perseveringly that Mr. W. could proceed no farther than to move that the committee rise. [Annals of Congress, House of Representatives, 16th Congress, 1st Session, p. 1539]

I wish the Warriors would have included a bit about the etymology in their definition; it is as fascinating as the word is useful.

To see the other 9 words that should be revived as well as a list of weekly words, please go to: wordwarriors.wayne.edu.


Etymology via Online Etymology Dictionary

Typography Terms

I was trying to figure out how to adjust the kerning in an an MS Word document when I came across this wonderfully appropriate newer term that is related to kerning.

Keming
In 2008, photographer David Friedman coined the term "keming" on his blog, defining it as improper use of kerning. Keming is a visual reference to bad kerning which causes the letter pair "rn" to appear as "m".

Definition via Wikipedia
Comic via XKCD Forum

False Cognates

False cognates are pairs of words in the same or different languages that are similar in form and meaning but have different roots. That is, they appear to be, or are sometimes considered, cognates, when in fact they are not.

pepper (n.) Old English pipor, from an early West Germanic borrowing of Latin piper "pepper," from Greek piperi, probably (via Persian) from Middle Indic pippari, from Sanskrit pippali "long pepper." The Latin word is the source of German Pfeffer, Italian pepe, French poivre, Old Church Slavonic pipru, Lithuanian pipiras, Old Irish piobhar, Welsh pybyr, etc. Application to fruits of the capsicum family (unrelated, originally native of tropical America) is 16c. pepper (v.) "to sprinkle as with pepper," 1610s, from pepper (n.). Old English had gepipera. Meaning "to pelt with shot, etc." is from 1640s. Related: Peppered; peppering.

Definition via Online Etymology Dictionary 
Comic via Wondermark

Pairs Well With Hexads

pair
v. paired, pair·ing, pairs v.tr. 1. To arrange in sets of two; couple. 2. To join in a pair; mate. 3. To provide a partner for.
v. pair - bring two objects, ideas, or people together

Unless the definition of the verb pair has changed recently, shouldn't the copy on this bag of lettuce read "Hexads well with ... "

I do believe I can make out at least six different ingredient suggestions on the bag and they are listed with an and not an or.

hex·ad
 n. A group or series of six

Definitions via freedictionary.com
Image from a Facebook photo

A Wonderfully Illustrated Definition

pre·cur·sor 
n. 1. One that precedes and indicates, suggests, or announces someone or something to come: Colonial opposition to unfair taxation by the British was a precursor of the Revolution.
2. One that precedes another; a forerunner or predecessor: The new principal's precursor was an eminent educator.
3. A biochemical substance, such as an intermediate compound in a chain of enzymatic reactions, from which a more stable or definitive product is formed: a precursor of insulin.
[Middle English precursoure, from Old French precurseur, from Latin praecursor, from praecursus, past participle of praecurrere, to run before : prae-, pre- + currere, to run; see kers- in Indo-European roots.]
Via thefreedictionary.com

Thanks for the laugh, Wrong Hands.

Notable Words - Yurtmeister

Spotted in The Week magazine, December 14, 2012.

yurt (yûrt)
n. A circular, domed, portable tent used by nomadic peoples of central Asia. [Russian yurta, of Turkic origin.]

Meister means master in German (as in master craftsman or as an honorific title, such as Meister Eckhart). It is akin to maestro. Meister has been borrowed into English slang, where it is used in compound nouns. Such compounds denote a person's expertise in a specified art, skill, or profession. A person referred to as blank meister is one that has extensive theoretical knowledge and practical skills in their profession, business concerns and training. Typically the blank is filled in with a word that describes the particular skill set the person in question is an expert in, (for example, a puzzle meister would be someone aptly skilled at completing puzzles). These neologisms sometimes have a sarcastic intent (for example, "stubblemeister" for someone with a short, neat beard (heard on BBC TV or "criermeister" for someone who often cries (American slang).

According to The Week, Jackson Hole Mountain Resort has yurts available as an alternative to traditional lodging. These yurts come with yurtmeisters who plan menus, cook and clean.

Great idea ... except for those who like to be meisters of their own herrschaftsgebiet.

Definitions via thefreedictionary.com

Grapheme Games

INCONSISTENT is an anagram of N IS, N IS NOT, ETC.

If A=1, B=2, C=3, etc., then ARM + BEND = ELBOW and KING + CHAIR = THRONE.
STONE AGE = STAGE ONE




graph·eme 
n.
1. A letter of an alphabet.
2. All of the letters and letter combinations that represent a phoneme, as f, ph, and gh for the phoneme /f/.

grapheme 
n.
(Linguistics) Linguistics one of a set of orthographic symbols (letters or combinations of letters) in a given language that serve to distinguish one word from another and usually correspond to or represent phonemes, e.g. the f in fun, the ph in phantom, and the gh in laugh [from Greek graphēma a letter]

Definitions via thefreedictionary.com
Games via Futility Closet
Image

Bread Brands and Phonetics

Today at the grocery store I came across a brand of bread of which I had never before seen or heard.

My first thought upon seeing the bread was, "who, on God's green earth, would name their bread after sleazy woman?"

bim·bo 
n. pl. bim·bos
1. Slang A woman regarded as vacuous or as having an exaggerated interest in her sexual appeal.
2. Slang A vacuous person: "a male bimbo ... who even has to be tutored ... in the clichés that comprise the basic interview" (George F. Will).
bimbo
n. pl. -bos, -boes
1. an attractive but empty-headed young woman
2. a fellow; person esp a foolish one
The Free Dictionary

It wasn't until I turned the loaf over that I realized the brand's first vowel is meant to be pronounced as /i:/ and not /I/.

When I did a bit of research, I was surprised to see that Bimbo Bakeries USA owns brands that include: Arnold, Boboli, Entenmann's, Sara Lee, Thomas' and more.

How had I never heard of Bimbo Bakeries if they own all of these brands that I purchase on a regular basis?

Their website's history link provides the answer; it wasn't until the 2000s that they began acquiring other companies that owned the brands with which I am familiar in Michigan.

In all fairness, the word bimbo does have a different definition and pronunciation in Italy where the parent company originated.

bimbo
n. Italy,
"Bimbo" is a common nice word, used as a diminutive of (male) child. Child = Bambino = Bimbo.

For US marketing purposes, however, I would think the company would use a different name for their bakery products.

Hard Luck Word Choice

As part of a vodka promotion, these coozies were given out at one of our local watering holes last week.

Something about the rhyming slogan is all over the floor for me.

If a vodka is so wonderfully flavored, I would think that people would want to "swill it" not "spill it".

swill:
v.tr. 1. To drink greedily or grossly.
v.intr. To drink or eat greedily or to excess.

Okay, maybe it is bartender lingo for pouring (i.e., "spill some of that vodka into my glass, please."), but I like the sound of "swill" better anyhow; its manner isn't stopped up.

Roadside Linguistics - Sign Semantics

A couple of months ago I noticed a new sign on the side of the road in a small town which I frequently visit.

Having no idea what the sign meant or what a "Jake Brake is, I asked my son to look it up on his phone. Thus began a brief lesson about genericide.

Apparently "Jake Brake" is a trademarked name for a type of engine brake (another term that was new to me) that is the Kleenex of tissues. Engine breaks are known for their loud, machine-gun-like sound.

Here are some excerpts from Truck Drivers News:

The term “Jake brake” comes from a Jacobs Engine brake, or engine retarder. It works when exhaust valves in the cylinder head open, releasing the compressed air that is trapped by the head and slows the truck down.

A “Jake brake” is used along with gearing down the truck to keep from overheating the service brakes that are used to stop the truck.

When the exhaust system on a truck is in proper working fashion, you barely can even hear the engine brake. But, thanks to “Jake brake cowboys” most communities have added no “Jake brake” use laws.

Images credits: Jake Brake, Engine Brake

Random Linguistics Definitions Beginning with the Letter "Z"

zeugma Traditionally of cases of coordination in which one element would not form a construction on its own. E.g. one cannot say They said that so what; there fore there is a zeugma in They said that [[they were coming] and [so what]]. Often extended to include syllepsis.

zoonym A word for a kind of animal. e.g. fox.

Zuni A genetically unclassified language of New Mexico in the USA.

Definitions from: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics, Second edition, 2007
Image credits: "Z" signal flag from Wikipedia

Random Linguistics Definitions Beginning with the Letter "Y"

'yes-no question' One which has a simple positive or negative answer. CF. closed interrogative, polar interrogative.

yod The sound[j] written as y e.g. in English yet [jɛt]. Hence yodization (also 'yoticization' etc.) is a sound change or other process resulting in [j].

Yurok California language related to Algonquian within Algic.

Definitions from: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics, Second edition, 2007
Image credits: sharelike.me

(Not So) Random Linguistics Definitions Beginning with the Letter "X"

There are not too many words or concepts in the study of linguistics that begin with the letter "X"; thus I am unable to present a brief list to go along with the current series of definitions. Without a doubt, the most important to theoretical linguistics is "X-Bar Theory".

The above x-bar structure images are from the Linguistics Department at Bucknell University. There are also online lecture notes about syntactic structure at this Bucknell link. These notes provide a brief but clear description of heads, specifiers, complements and adjuncts.

For a more detailed look at syntax and X-Bar Theory, I highly recommend "The syntax of natural language: An online introduction using the Trees program" by Beatrice Santorini and Anthony Kroch of the University of Pennsylvania.

Random Linguistics Definitions Beginning with the Letter "W"

'wanna-contraction' The reduction in American English of forms like want to or going to in I want to (wanna) do it or I'm going to (gonna) do it.

wh-form Any of a class of words in English that typically begin with wh-: e.g. who, which, why. Also of phrases that begin with such words: e.g. which book, what people.

Thence extended, by linguists whose native language is English, to forms that play similar syntactic roles in other languages.

'whimperative' Coined in the 1970s for a sentence that has the form of an interrogative but the force of an order or instruction: e.g. Why don't you shut up?, meaning 'Shut up!'.

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

Random Linguistics Definitions Beginning with the Letter "V"

verbal dueling In sociolinguistics, a term which refers to the competitive use of language, within a game-like structure, with rules that are known and used by the participants. It is a genre of verbal play - a ritual dialogue in which each speaker attempts to outdo an opponent by producing an utterance of increased verbal ingenuity. It has been noted, for example, in the ritual exchanges between warriors in classical epic texts as well as in the trading of insults between present-day street gangs.

vocal organs The collective term for all the anatomical features involved in the production of speech sounds, including the lungs, trachea, oesophagus, larynx, pharynx, mouth and nose.

Definitions from: A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics, Sixth edition, 2008
Image credits: Clipart Etc.

Random Linguistics Definitions Beginning with the Letter "U"

Umgangssprache German for 'colloquial language'.

'unfilled pause' An interval of silence in speech: i.e. a pause not 'filled' by a hesitation form.

uvular Articulated with the back of the tongue against or approximated to the fleshy appendage (or uvula) at the back of the soft palate. E.g. the 'r' in French is variously a uvular trill or, more usually, a uvular fricative.

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