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Joined: Apr 2010
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stranger
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stranger
Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 1 |
Would the Indian English "mistake" of "prepone" that has become an acceptable word now, qualify as a back-formation?
I would also like to know about the evolution of "full-fledged" versus "fully-fledged".
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
Did prepone come from Indian English? I certainly wouldn't consider it a mistake. It's a word coined to fill an otherwise unfilled need, like proactive. It's certainly not a mistake on the level of cherry or pea.
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Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290 |
It's not a back-formation. I agree with Faldo. It's just a newly coined word that uses bits and pieces that originally came from Latin. I wouldn't call cherry and pea mistakes either. The term in linguistics is reanalysis. The -s at the end of the singular of those words was reanalyzed as the plural marker, so the new no-s-ending singulars came into being.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210 |
it's not back-formed from postpone? interesting.
formerly known as etaoin...
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Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290 |
it's not back-formed from postpone?
I wouldn't call it back-formation, but maybe others would. I see on the other words board (protocols be damned!), Faldo has asked after prepone. I think of classic back-formation as something like babysit from babysitter or burgle from burglar. Here, the post of postpone is being replaced by another Latinate preposition-particle thingie, i.e., pre-.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 956
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 956 |
At least with pre-pone one has the opportunity to un-pone as well.
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
it's not back-formed from postpone? I see on the other words board ..., Faldo has asked after prepone. And it looks like I've gotten an answer. The estimable languagehat has proclaimed it to be from Indian English. It was seen earlier in American English but the source of the modern usage is Indian English. And if languagehat says it, I'm prepared (or even postpared) to believe it.
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Joined: Feb 2010
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addict
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addict
Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 655 |
This was such interesting reading that my apple rests beside me unpared.
"I don't know which is worse: ignorance or apathy. And, frankly, I don't care." - Anonymous
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Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 7
stranger
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stranger
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 7 |
Well then, if pea came from pease and cherry from cherise, can we expext a single rie from rice?
We already have a single die as part of a pair of dice.
"Eighter from Decatur,
the county seat of Wise."
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Joined: Nov 2005
Posts: 6
stranger
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stranger
Joined: Nov 2005
Posts: 6 |
One new useage I have noted recently is reference as a verb; instead of saying "refered to" people are saying "he referenced the article by soandso". I assume that is a back formation.
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