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#124065 03/04/04 08:36 AM
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we were discussing words as unwanted and illegitimate.

I think the analogy stands, jheem? Many words that we use happily are amalgams, extensions - bastardisatons even! I am unhappy to try to apply any general rule to the English Language and prefer to look at each case as it arises, making my judgement as much on aesthetic as on logical or linguistic grounds.


#124066 03/04/04 01:50 PM
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... making my judgement as much on aesthetic as on logical or linguistic grounds.

I don't have a problem with that. On logical grounds usually doesn't work. Why prefer bastardization? Logical bastardify and bastardification make more sense, as one makes a bastard. On linguistic grounds, both -ize and -ify are productive derivitive suffixes and so one should be able to use them with any verb one wants to. On aesthetic grounds, here one's on one's own. Bastardization sounds better than bastardification? Not for me. (All those alternating stops and fricatives or liquids.) So, it boils down to: I like this word better than that word. OK. So everybody's free to coin words ad libitum, and nobody gets to squawk.

There might be other reasons, too. I can get behind that. Since we don't have an algorithm for determining a word's acceptability, when you say pearlize is a bastard of a word. Prove it and cite your criteria. That's all I'm saying. It seems to me that most of the grounds used by most of the squawkers are historical and conservative: that word doesn't exist, never has, and I don't like it. Nosireebub!


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It seems to me that most of the grounds used by most of the squawkers are historical and conservative: that word doesn't exist, never has, and I don't like it.

We seem to be in total agreement, jheem - how boring!! Whether we like it or not, words are coined and the acid test is whether they pass into the language or not (and, to some extent, how long they remain in use, I s'pose)
Trouble is, folk salute some pretty weird flags that get run up the flagpole.


#124068 03/06/04 05:42 PM
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the acid test is whether they pass into the language or not

This is not the acid test, Rhub. It's not a "yes" or "no" situation.

Some words pass into the language and some do not. Still others pass into the language, and then pass out.


#124069 03/08/04 07:02 AM
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This is not the acid test, Rhub. It's not a "yes" or "no" situation.
I think the term "acid test" is quite appropriate here: There are weak and strong acids, dilute or concentrated, corroding slowly, or dissolving quickly



#124070 03/08/04 08:19 AM
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There are weak and strong acids, dilute or concentrated, corroding slowly, or dissolving quickly

I see your point. Some comments are more acidic than others.

I remember a radio station used to boast about so and so's "acidic commentary".

Those who create acid seem to get more respect than those who dissolve it. At least they get better ratings.




#124071 03/08/04 12:39 PM
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Some words pass into the language and some do not. Still others pass into the language, and then pass out.


- which is, more or les, what I mean. I guess I didn't exress my self as clearly as I might.


#124072 03/08/04 01:04 PM
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I guess I didn't express myself as clearly as I might.

No need to nibble, it's only a quibble.



#124073 03/08/04 01:12 PM
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- aas such it's perceptible - and I'm highly susceptible.


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