14. Calque
•A word or phrase in one
language whose
semantic components
(words or parts of words)
are translations from
another language
15. Calque
• The English phrase "blue blood"
is a calque of the Spanish
phrase sangre
azul (sangre means "blood"
and azul means "blue"), which at
one time apparently referred to
the visible veins of fair-skinned
people.
17. Calque
• The English phrase "piña
colada," which is a simple
borrowing of the Spanish
phrase rather than a
translation of the words
(which mean "strained
pineapple").
18. • Some languages borrow
freely; others do not
Sometimes languages borrow
the same word twice
(`doublets;), or borrow a word
they already have,
20. • English words for meat, `beef,
mutton, veal' are used only for
`animal meat as food', whereas in
French `boeuf, mouton, veau' are
the names of the live animal as
well as its meat.
25. • Mflops, gigaflop
• [flop = floating operations
per second ], cat-scan, pet-scan,
PANS (pretty amazing new stuff)
Sometimes acronyms are combined
with other material, as in the case of
giga-flop, where 'giga' is an
abbreviation of gigantic.
30. Blends
Lopomo: blend of low-
power mode, i.e., a setting for
electrical and other consumer
products that idle at a level that
consumes less power than
when being used in full-power
mode.
51. Blends
• Here's a blend of three
• words: turducken which is a blend
of tur(key)+duck+chicken,
literally and lexically--turducken is
made by stuffing a (boned)
chicken into a duck and then
stuffing the duck into a turkey.
58. Derivational Compounding
-ster: An old suffix meaning 'someone
who does something' (or 'something that
serves as something') has been around
in the language for some time, with
words like 'spinster' (one who spins),
'webster' (one who weaves), 'baxter'
[bak-ster] (one who bakes), etc. Some
of these have become proper names.
59. Derivational Compounding
• In the more modern usages, there is
sometimes an implication of negativity or
pejorativity: 'roadster,
gangster, shyster, mobster' etc. and now
some very modern usages (some
pejorative, some not): 'dumpster, pollster,
tipster, scamster, spamster, and shamster
, blogster, and last but not
least: napster. (I don't think 'lobster'
belongs here...)
61. Abbreviations
• a shortened or contracted form
of a word or phrase, used to
represent the whole, as Dr. for
Doctor, U.S. for United States,
lb. for pound.blem, to fed ex,
tv (telly), perm, Nazi, to nuke,
to lase (< laser).
67. Verb (or Noun) plus particle
• Germanic languages have many verb+
participle constructions, e.g. `go away, run
out/in/up/down' etc. Revived during 60's
and 70's: `turn on, tune out, drop out; flake
out; rip off, wig out;' more recently: `max
out, wimp out'; 'job out; to get a buy-in';
particle plus noun: upscale, downscale,
downsize, download/upload, uplink ...
69. Productivity
• : Some morpheme, e.g. -
ize acquires wide use as a
verbalizing device in English:
productivize, grammaticalize,
incentivize, potentialize, verbalize,
...'; -ify: clarify, certify, gentrify,
pacify, yuppify, etc. Another
possibility: the borrowed
70. Productivity
• suffix -nik which comes from Russian
via Yiddish, gives us noodnik,
beatnik, neatnik, nogoodnik,
stickupnik, sputnik, etc. Thus -
ster (see above) has had some
degree of productivity in the past, but
has now been re-energized, probably
because of 'napster.'
72. Taboo, Euphemism
Some items may acquire taboo, because of
vulgarity (4-letter words in English.), `magic'
(shamanism, religion, etc.) The Indo-
European word for `bear' is fraught with many
problems because in Slavic, e.g. the bear
was taboo; was referred to as `honey-eater'
[med'ved'] to avoid the taboo. In many
languages `dying, to die' can not be
discussed openly, must use euphemisms:
`pass on/away, go to h. reward, lose (s.o.)'
etc.
74. Loss
• Many words go out of fashion, or
the technology associated with
them is replaced with new
technology. Words become
archaic or obsolete. What is a
`snood', a 'swale', a `thane', a
`quidity'?
76. Eponym
is a word derived
from the proper
name of a person or
place.
77. Fourth Earl of Sandwich
• sandwich, for instance--
famously consumed (if not
invented) by John Montagu,
Fourth Earl of Sandwich, who
put his food between two
slices of bread so that he
could eat while he gambled.
83. Signor Paparazzo
• Paparazzi “ a freelance
photographer who
doggedly pursues
celebrities,” a little-known
word until the death of
Princess Diana in 1997
84. Amp and Ampere
• Ampere (from André Marie Ampère,
1775-1836)
•
The term for a unit of electric current was
named after the French mathematician
who's credited with the discovery of
electromagnetism.
85. Diesel
• (from Rudolf Diesel, 1858-1913)
•
After surviving the explosion of his first
internal combustion engine, German
engineer Rudolf Diesel went on to achieve
wealth and fame--until drowning when he
went overboard while crossing the English
Channel by steamer.
86. Draconian
• (from Draco, 7th century BC)
The first chief magistrate of ancient
Athens, Draco composed a memorably
harsh legal code, one that liberally applied
the death penalty.
87. Dunce
• (from John Duns Scotus, 1265-1308)
Though Scotus himself was a highly
regarded theologian and philosopher, his
quarreling followers brought the master's
name into disrepute. By the 16th
century, dunce had become a derogatory
term for a slow-witted or ignorant person.
88. Filbert
• (from Saint Philibert, 608-684)
This thick-shelled nut is named
after the Frankish saint whose
feast day is in mid-August, at
the height of the nutting
season.
89. Guppy
• (from R.J. Lechmere Guppy,
1836-1916)
This small freshwater fish bears
the name of the British-born
naturalist who discovered it while
he was living in Trinidad.
90. Leotard
• (from Jules Leotard, 1830-1870)
French aerialist Jules Leotard not
only had a tight-fitting garment named
after him but also had a popular song
written about him--"The Daring Young
Man on the Flying Trapeze."
91. Mausoleum
• (from Mausolus, ruler of the ancient Asian
country of Caria, 377–353 BC)
Over 100 feet high, the tomb of King
Mausolus survived into the 12th century
and was considered one of the Seven
Wonders of the Ancient World. Since then,
the wordmausoleum has come to be used
for any large, above-ground tomb.
92. Salisbury steak
•
(from James H. Salisbury, 1823–
1905)
•
American physician James
Salisbury invented this cafeteria
staple as part of his highly
questionable all-meat diet.
93. Sequoia
• (from Sequoyah, also known as George
Guess, 1770-1843)
A Cherokee silversmith, Sequoyah
devised a practical writing system for the
Cherokee language, thus enabling his
tribe to read and write. Shortly after his
death, the huge California cypress tree
was named in his honor.
94. Word Coinage in English
• Preferred Patterns for Academic English:
• Affixing:
– derivations: trans/mit, re/mit, e/mit, sub/mit
– (compare with inflections: wait/s, wait/ed, wait/ing)
• Compounding: politeness factor, sodium chloride
• Acronyms: FYI, NATO, BYO, rsvp, scuba
• Preferred Patterns for Interpersonal English:
• Semantic shift or metaphorical extension: bottomless, rip off
• Conversion: sing (noun)
• Compounding: girlfriend, fastfood
• Clippings (abbreviations): fax (facsimile)
• Historically Important but Less Common Today
• Borrowing: rendezvous, spaghetti
• Possible but Less Seldom Used
• Invention: blurglegee, Xenon
• Onomatopoeia: blahs
• Loan translation (calque): see through (transparent) living space (lebensraum)
• Blends: smog, brunch, motel
• Reduplication: no-no (noun)
• Back formations (false etymology): edit, burger, pea
• Eponyms (words based on names): sandwich, kleenex
95. • Words may be created outright to fit some
purpose.
• Kodak, nylon, Orlon, and Dacron.
• Xerox, Band-Aid, Kleenex, Jell-O, Brillo,
and Vaseline
• Asteroid, neutron,genome, krypton,
brontosaurus and vaccine
96. • Dot-com .com dot.com, and dot com
Bling, Bollywood, sudoku, Google
• Phobias
• Word + Phobia
• Ex: Akros “topmost” and phobia “fear” we
get acrophobia, “dread of heights.”
97. • Triskaidekaphobia: a profound fear of
number 13
• Logizomemechaphobia: “fear of reckoning
machine” from Greek logizomai “ to
reckon or compute” + mekhane “device” +
phobia
• Ellipsosyllabophobia: “fear of words with a
missing syllable” from Greek elleipsis “ a
falling short” + syllabẽ “ syllable” + phobia
98. • Pornophobia : “ fear of prostitute” from
Greek porne “ harlot” + phobia
