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can you say that something is 'treelike', 'untreelike', 'treeish'? Or is this totally incorrect use of the language?
Yes, the suffixes -like and -ish and the prefix un- are rather productive in English. Though untreeish sounds funny to me, treeish, treelike, and untreelike sound OK.
Last edited by zmjezhd; 03/27/06 01:02 PM.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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stranger
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so is it just th sound of the word? I suppose, with the famous 'longest' (which isnt technically the longest) word in the english language is just a horrible cacophany of prefixes and suffixes, that sounded good to somebody at the time, but noone has used since anti-dis-establish-ment-arian-ism  ha thank you all 
It's staring you in the face.
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Quote:
so is it just th sound of the word?
I suppose, with the famous 'longest' (which isnt technically the longest) word in the english language is just a horrible cacophany of prefixes and suffixes, that sounded good to somebody at the time, but noone has used since
anti-dis-establish-ment-arian-ism ha
thank you all
Actually, the word and its kin crop up quite regularly in articles regarding the political status of the Church of England.
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just a horrible cacophany of prefixes and suffixesThe affixes are pretty productive and their being placed together doesn't really violate any of the rules of English phonotactics. It's just a longer word than one usually comes across. [Fixed typo.]
Last edited by zmjezhd; 03/28/06 02:43 PM.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Quote:
phontactics.
I'll Try to Remember that.
TEd
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you got the Jones, TEd...
formerly known as etaoin...
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Quote:
Quote:
phontactics.
I'll Try to Remember that.
actually®, the link, albeit Wiki, gives phonOtactics. so which is it to be (before I run off and use it as a wwftd)?
-joe (w.m.) friday
edit: oh what a tangled web...
The book closes with a paper on phonotactics and phonaesthesia.
The meaningfulness of words makes them self-evidently symbolic and differentiates them from meaningless consonants and vowels, phonesthesia notwithstanding.
Last edited by tsuwm; 03/28/06 02:45 PM.
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It's phonotactics. I've corrected the original posting. Thanks.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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stranger
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Quote:
Actually, the word and its kin crop up quite regularly in articles regarding the political status of the Church of England.
I mustn't read enough of those then. :P
I apologise for my overly decorative metaphor re antidisest..., it appears to have created the impression i ahve a problem with the word: I was just being flippant
... but on the topic, is not 'antidis' a double negative, or do the prefixes/affixes have subtler meanings?
It's staring you in the face.
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Have you looked it up, SD? 
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