I had to take a linguistics class for my degree. Never having really delved into that side of language, I didn't know what to expect; I'd been immersed in Grammarville for so long. One of the first things I learned in this class, interestingly enough, was that if a point is successfully communicated, however gramatically incorrect it may be, the the purpose of language is pretty much served. And yet, I cannot read ANYTHING without at least a mental red pen going over every tense choice, each punctuation mark. I do not claim my writing is perfect...but I hope I at least sound somewhat coherent. Unless it's happy hour.
Another fascinating language phenomenon is the formation of new words. I guess it stands to reason that as the world evolves, so should the words we need to describe it. But some of these new formations just make me laugh.
Like 'emoticon'.
It certainly says exactly what it is, right up front. Emote + icon. Can't get much more clear than that.
But...if you add a number to it, doesn't it totally sound like a Star Trek planet? Can't you hear Picard ordering someone to beam down to Emoticon 5?
Maybe it's just me.
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3 comments:
We invented the word "Chaskanogo". This is when we;ve been driving to the Renesance Festival in Minnesota, but get off the stop before we should in Chaska and get back on teh HWY. Thus Chaskanogo means to get off the main road for lessthen a mile and get right back on.
Nice! Too often friends and I have conjured up very event-specific words, and the memory of them has passed as quickly as the moment. I MUST remember to write these things down!
Yay for blogging!
I'm the same way... I can never remember words that were made up on the spot for specific purposes. Unless they begin with "klepto". <--(Before your autocorrect feature kicks in: yes, I put that period outside the quotation marks on purpose. I don't like that rule so I break it sometimes.)
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