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Don't you think that a modicum of verbification has added richness to our language?

Folks use language to communicate. In doing so, they tend to use and mold their language to that purpose. It's a fairly normal phenomenon. English, like other fairly analytic languages (link), can easily use a word of one lexical category (link) as a different one (e.g., verbing nouns, nouning verbs) without resorting to affixation as in more synthetic languages (link), such as Latin. The tendency of some to abhor this natural and common linguistic process is more likely a transference of the general disdaining of novelty in the vocabulary, coupled with a loathing on any hint of polysemy. (And welcome to the board. I took a look at your blog, but you may want to fix the link.)


Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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but, lest we forget:
Verbing weirds language. - Hobbes

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 Originally Posted By: tsuwm
but, lest we forget:
Verbing weirds language. - Hobbes


Was that Hobbes or Calvin said that?

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I think you're right, but it was Hobbes (as usual) that made the telling point:

 Code:
Calvin:  I like to verb words.
Hobbes:  What?
Calvin:  I take nouns and adjectives and use them as 
         verbs. Remember when 'access' was a thing? 
         Now, it's something you do. It got verbed. 
         Verbing weirds language.
Hobbes:  Maybe we can eventually make language a 
         complete impediment to understanding.
 -Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes

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 Originally Posted By: tsuwm

 Code:
Hobbes:  Maybe we can eventually make language a 
         complete impediment to understanding.
 -Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes


Hey, why not? We invented language so we could lie anyway.

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twosleepy #178147 07/12/08 10:05 AM
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If y'all like verbing nouns, y'all'll love nouning verbs.

Go ahead, read all the comments.

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