on the propriety of words

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#173001 - 01/30/08 07:22 AM on the propriety of words
Alex Williams Pooh-Bah Registered: 01/05/01 Posts: 1814 Loc: Spam Factory	Is there a word for that quality which a word or phrase may have that marks it to our ears as a proper noun? Depending on your frame of reference certain words are obviously names, such as David or James, and other names are understood to have non-proper homophones, such as Bob or Sally. Other names, depending on your cultural background, at first seem not to be names, such as many Native American names, but one acquires a familiary with them so that, for example, Sitting Bull or Dances With Wolves immediately sound like a proper names rather than descriptions of a reclining male of the subfamily Bovinae or a lupine cotillion. So, is there a name for the characteristic itself, that ring of nomenclature?
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#173002 - 01/30/08 08:15 AM Re: on the propriety of words [Re: Alex Williams]
BranShea Carpal Tunnel Registered: 06/23/06 Posts: 5248 Loc: Netherlands, the Hague	Quote: Is there a word for that quality which a word or phrase may have that marks it to our ears as a proper noun? Just because I would like to understand the question better: How could a phrase be marked to our ears as a proper noun? (A phrase containing nouns only, does it exist?)
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#173003 - 01/30/08 08:55 AM Re: on the propriety of words [Re: BranShea]
Alex Williams Pooh-Bah Registered: 01/05/01 Posts: 1814 Loc: Spam Factory	Originally Posted By: BranShea Quote: Is there a word for that quality which a word or phrase may have that marks it to our ears as a proper noun? Just because I would like to understand the question better: How could a phrase be marked to our ears as a proper noun? (A phrase containing nouns only, does it exist?) How could a phrase be marked to our ears as a proper noun? "Dances With Wolves" is a phrase. It is a name of a (fictional) person. The first time I heard the phrase, it did not strike me as a name at all, but rather something else. I grew accustomed to the sound of it, and when I hear the prhase now I do not experience the same lack of understanding. It sounds like a name. How it happened is I guess simply a process of acclimation. A phrase containing nouns only, does it exist? I make no such assertion, so I will decline to answer. But a phrase may serve as a proper noun (i.e. a name) per my examples above.
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#173004 - 01/30/08 09:14 AM Re: on the propriety of words [Re: Alex Williams]
BranShea Carpal Tunnel Registered: 06/23/06 Posts: 5248 Loc: Netherlands, the Hague	> I make no such assertion, so I will decline to answer.< You just did. Now I understand the question. Thank you. Just like Mark (proper noun) and mark (noun)and mark (verb). Edited by BranShea (01/30/08 09:19 AM)
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#173005 - 01/30/08 09:22 AM Re: on the propriety of words [Re: Alex Williams]
tsuwm Carpal Tunnel Registered: 04/03/00 Posts: 10463 Loc: this too shall pass	not to be ron (or flip) about it, but I suggest 'nouniness', of which OED3 suggests "Also (Linguistics): the state or condition of being noun-like.", and cites as follows: 1978 Language 54 356 There are still further distinctions to be made among English nominal constructions with regard to their degree of ‘nouniness’. so, Proper Nouniness -ron o.
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#173009 - 01/30/08 10:33 AM Re: on the propriety of words [Re: tsuwm]
Alex Williams Pooh-Bah Registered: 01/05/01 Posts: 1814 Loc: Spam Factory	Nouniness. God, that's awful. Now I'm sorry I asked.
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#173012 - 01/30/08 11:05 AM Re: on the propriety of words [Re: Alex Williams]
Jackie Carpal Tunnel Registered: 03/15/00 Posts: 11578 Loc: Louisville, Kentucky	lupine cotillion Ha! Well--though less accurate than tsuwm's find, I offer recognition as a key. Not always recognition of the name itself; often we go by context. (And sometimes we literally have no clue.) I decided to try looking up definitions, and this one seems to offer a hint: Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) proper noun –noun Grammar. a noun that is not normally preceded by an article or other limiting modifier, as any or some, and that is arbitrarily used to denote a particular person, place, or thing without regard to any descriptive meaning the word or phrase may have, as Lincoln, Beth, Pittsburgh. Also called proper name. link
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#173014 - 01/30/08 12:01 PM Re: on the propriety of words [Re: Alex Williams]
BranShea Carpal Tunnel Registered: 06/23/06 Posts: 5248 Loc: Netherlands, the Hague	Originally Posted By: Alex Williams Nouniness. God, that's awful. Now I'm sorry I asked. Oh, why be sorry? Nouniness sound like a lovely word to my ear. A toddler's lulleby: 'Ninna nanna nouniness, I'll give you lovely words to guess'... ninna nanna
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#173015 - 01/30/08 12:12 PM Re: on the propriety of words [Re: BranShea]
belMarduk Carpal Tunnel Registered: 09/28/00 Posts: 2888	>>>ninna nanna nouniness... Hey, that's cute - and it would work at making a kiddy remember nouns because of the sing-song.
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#173016 - 01/30/08 01:35 PM Re: on the propriety of words [Re: belMarduk]
tsuwm Carpal Tunnel Registered: 04/03/00 Posts: 10463 Loc: this too shall pass	you guys can make fun of nouniness for being banal, or childish; but I find it refreshing that linguists can occasionally come up with a functional word and not get all pedantic and unapproachable. I suppose that for some the word might smack too much of truthiness (which, by the way, dates back almost 200 years and was not really coined by Stephen Colbert). -joe (uncreditworthiness) friday*
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