Tuesday, April 25, 2006
‘Yours, Mine and Ours’
Is this the first movie title ever comprised entirely of possessive pronouns? (plus one coordinating conjunction)
(insert additional observation here about the serial comma)
Overheard: Infixation of a Compound Relative Pronoun
Professor overheard by Kent Hendricks:
“I paused for just a minute to let what-I-was-ever saying sink in…”
This is the most interesting form of infixation I have ever observed. This sentence refutes almost everything that was written about English morphology in the 1980s; I’m not sure about the 90s because most morphology from the 90s is over my head.
‘On Language’ 4/19 - ‘Gawkers’ cause traffic jams and etymology puzzles
Crash course: We often look down upon those who `gawk’
‘On Language‘
Chicago Tribune
April 19, 2006
By Nathan Bierma
temp.link/perm.preview
We are despicable people. We are the people who slow down when passing through the scene of an accident, trying to get a good look at the wreck. I do it. You do it. We all do it.
Traffic reporters have a word for us. We’re “gawkers.”
A gawker is an uninvited spectator. And that’s putting it nicely. Merriam-Webster defines the verb “gawk” as “to gape or stare stupidly.” A Google search for the term “traffic accident gawker” turns up a personal ad on a Web site in Louisville that includes “traffic accident gawkers” in the category of “things that turn me off,” between “religious freaks” and “smelly people.”
But though “gawker” may seem like a loaded term, it isn’t just slang or a put-down; it’s used as a neutral description of passing motorists in news and government reports.
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