1037: Compounds: One Word or Two? Oct 11, 2017

Is there a reason that 'bookcase' 'bookmark', 'bookshelf', and 'bookstore' are all written as one word, but other terms like 'book publisher' or 'book writer' are spelt standardly as two words, marked with a space?—not really. It might not seem important whether there is a space or not—after all, all spelling-conventions are arbitrary—and people do not speak with breaks between words anyway, so the separation of words would not change pronunciation. Nevertheless, these standards change the way that people think about language; orthography affects the way that people interpret a so-called standard variety of a language, so even though syntactically speaking 'book writer' is a compound word (and could be spelt as 'bookwriter' or 'book-writer' instead), it is perceived as two, while other ones, even occupational words relating to books, are written without a space standardly, like 'bookseller'. For more on the controversial issue of determining what makes a word, see Word Facts' 3-part series on the topic, click here.

1036: Rebracketing Oct 10, 2017

Back-formation has been brought up several times on this blog, but while that follows logical processes that people are accustomed to seeing in words with legitimate, productive suffixes, other words are sometimes broken down into different elements incorrectly without following any linguistic patterns necessarily. 'Rebracketing' for example, is a process in the field of historical linguistics, which concerns itself with the study of how languages evolve, in which a word that derived from a single origin is segmented into a set of different elements. One famous example is that of 'hamburger' which is sometimes falsely taken to be from 'ham' and 'burger' as a sort of compound. It could be that without thinking too much about the actual meats involved in the food the word is seen to follow the pattern of other types of burgers, like "turkey-burger" or "veggie-burger", but those two are also retronyms designed to clarify that something is not a hamburger. Indeed, 'burger' itself is only an abbreviated form of 'hamburger', but rebracketing does not need to follow much logic anyway, and this example would only be considered folk etymology.

1035: False Correlations: Diminutive -el Oct 9, 2017

One thing to be aware of when looking at patterns in various aspects of language is that even if two things look to be related, that does not mean that there is a valid correlation to be made. For instance, the words 'kernel' and 'satchel' both are historically diminutives with the '-el' ending. Nevertheless, due in part to the fact that English is somewhat of a hodgepodge of other languages, it happens that these two words come from completely different origins. Unlike other suffixes like '-en' [1] or '-et' that act as diminutive suffixes for multiple words that derive from the same language, the '-el' in 'kernel' comes from the Old English diminutive 'corn', 'cyrnel' while for 'satchel', the ending isn't really a suffix at all but instead comes from the Latin 'sacellus' from 'saccus' meaning 'bag', via the Old French 'sachel'. Interestingly enough, the verb 'sachet' is also a diminutive that ultimately comes from 'saccus', but here it takes the standard diminutive '-et' suffix in French.

1034: nugget Oct 8, 2017

One of the fun aspects of etymology is that while they often can be presented as a matter of fact for certain words, there is still room for deliberation. The word 'nugget', for instance, has an unclear origin. Though it is believed that the word came about in the mid-19th century either way, one theory states that the word came from a misinterpretation of the word 'ingot', which is is fairly reasonable on account of both words' association to gold. Another, perhaps more accepted theory is that it comes from a dialectal variation of the word 'nug' meaning "lump" from Southwestern American English. It is then possible that 'nugget' could follow the pattern of 'jacket' and 'pocket' and others with the diminutive '-et' suffix.

1033: -fucking- Oct 7, 2017

Though most of the affixes used in English have been used for centuries, new ones still can appear in speech. It is fairly rare that this happens in comparison to the number of new nouns or verbs created every year, but -fucking- is nevertheless relatively new as an infix. This happens in words like 'abso-fucking-lutely' or 'unbe-fucking-lievable' (or 'un-fucking-believable') for the purpose of emphasis on the original word. The infixes as well are not simply inserted randomly; the '-fucking-' will appear before the stressed syllable of a word; with certain cases, such as with 'unbelievable', the words can be stressed differently from individual to individual though. Words with the stress in the first syllable therefore cannot take this infix, such as 'wonderful' or 'beautiful'.

1032: Flexible Word Order Oct 6, 2017

Characterising a language as having a certain word-order is more of a generalisation in many ways than it is a standard or rule. In English, even though there is some flexibility such as in "what say you", being in object-verb-subject (OVS), people use impersonal pronouns like 'it' in "it is raining" that don't mean anything but fill in for a subject first which English-sepakers will prefer to have in most constructions; one could not say *"the sky is raining" but it equally as strange to hear "is raining" with no subject at all. In other languages however, not only is word-order not consistently fixed in the way it is in English, such as in inflected languages like Latin, but some languages allow for omission of certain elements such that there is not always, say, a subject included. In these cases, including a few examples in certain dialects of English, usually it is said that whatever is omitted is implied, but strictly speaking there is not always a subject or verb in every sentence. These standards are also even less important in verbal utterances, which relies much less on sentence-based construction that most written work. At least a few languages don't have word-order at all also, but this will be discussed in a post in the future.

1031: Influences on Estonian Oct 5, 2017

As stated before, when speakers of two languages come into contact for long enough, some parts of one language will likely influence the other. Sometimes this can be obvious, such as how much of English's vocabulary comes from romance languages due to the Norman conquest of England and other events, but there is still often plenty of room for debate. Estonian, for instance, has been heavily influenced by (Low) German and Russian due to about 700 years of contact with Germans starting in the 13th century with the Teutonic order before Estonia became part of the Russian Empire and later Soviet Union. Since Estonian is a Uralic language, not an Indo-European language, one might assume that the influence from those aforementioned languages would be quite apparent, but this is not always the case. Certain verb markings to indicate tense, aspect etc. in Estonian are mostly similar to other Finno-Ugric languages, but other times it may differ slightly, in which case it is not always clear whether the grammar was influenced by German or Russian individually, though more often than otherwise the effects are attributed to Low German. The subject does need to be studied more, so perhaps within the next few decades new information will shed light on this issue.

1030: Subject Oct 4, 2017

In English statments, the verb will almost always come after the subject, though this is not true of questions nor imperatives. Because English is not declined i.e. the form of the noun does not change depending upon how it functions syntactically, it does not especially matter whether the subject were to be considered an object or an agent of the verb by the speaker; nothing changes phonetically to the individual nouns in sentences like "the man saw the dog" and "the dog was seen by the man", so generally it doesn't matter. Nevertheless, even though the agent was "the man" in both sentences, in the one written in the passive voice, "the dog was seen by the man", 'the dog' is considered the subject, and indeed "by the man" can be omitted. If this seems like an arbitrary classification however, consider that in other languages, such as Latin, in which nouns are declined, even when the subject is not the agent, in passive constructions, the nominative case used for subjects would be employed. We even see this with English pronouns, such as in "she saw him" and "he was seen by her", as the pronouns change depending upon how they are used in the construction.

1029: Null Pronominal Objects Oct 3, 2017

It is nearly impossible to consider something a grammatical rule, for a single language or multiple, even if one were to speak incredibly generally. For instance, to indicate agreement with personal pronouns and antecedents, English relies on word order, and in some cases—though by no means always—gender, number, and case. It is for this reason that in the sentences taken from Nature, Nurture and Universal Grammar, it is clear to a native speaker of English that in “John said that he thinks he should wash himself” the 'himself' refers to John, whereas in “John said that he thinks Bill should wash himself”, the 'himself' refers to Bill. In English, the pronoun is necessary, though in other languages that role can be filled when the pronoun would be indicated by the verb. In those languages where the pronoun can be omitted, the absent pronoun is called the 'variable pronominal' or 'null pronominal', depending upon how easily it can be omitted given context. It was thought, due to only logical assumption, that a transitive verb would require an obligatory pronominal object (like 'him') or it would agree in person and number with the optional, variable objects. Nevertheless, in Imbarbura Quechua, a pronoun can be null while there is no indication from the verb as to the presence of a variable object. For example, these lines taken from Null Objects in Universal Grammar show the Quechua (line 1), the verbatim translation (line 2), and then the English as a native-speaker would use it (line 3).
Juan munan Juzi Ø rijsichun
Juan wants Jose   know
Juan wants Jose to know him.
Any rule pertaining to grammar in general can be debunked, so to speak, with even one example, and since languages vary so greatly, there is perhaps nothing that can be said to be always true of grammar, past and present.

1028: Strong Verbs (phonology) Oct 2, 2017

In English, there are far more strong verbs than there are strong nouns, all of which change to indicate tense, so it can be easy to assume that this is the only reason that strong verbs are used grammatically. Nevertheless, in addition to ablaut reduplication and reduplication for the purpose of emphasis, sometimes—though not so much in English—strong forms can feel fairly arbitrary and change for phonological reason. For instance, the German infinitive form for the word meaning 'to catch', 'fangen' becomes 'du fängen' in the second person singular informal. This process of modifying a German '-a-' into a '-ä-' is fairly common, as is '-e-' to '-i-' and '-u-' to '-ü-, even though they may remain in the same tense in the case of verbs.

This post was inspired by a fan-question; queries and comments are always welcomed.

1027: Re- (remote) Oct 1, 2017

Though often affixes are used to indicate certain meanings fairly regularly, for a few different reasons, certain ones can often have multiple meanings. Sometimes, as with the prefix 'a-', an affix can become a homograph; in this case, it came from different origins and only appears the same coincidentally. Other times, as with the prefix 're-' it is only due to chance that an affix can take on more than one meaning over time. Here, the prefix can function as an intensifier in words like 'remember' historically, but also can show distance in words like 'remote', or even indicate repetition in words like 'replay', though it should be noted that the latter group includes many newly-formed verbs. Still, it is because of this that 'remove' does not mean 'move again', but indicates movement to somewhere distance. As a side note 'emote' and 'remote' both relate to motion etymologically, but the former is more metaphorical.

1026: Chicano Vowel Shift Sep 30, 2017

When speakers of two or more languages, or speakers of two dialects, come into contact with each other enough, certain traits will eventually merge somewhat. Historically, Spanish has had a great deal of influence on English, but more modernly, Mexican Spanish spoken in and near the United States has led to vowel-changes in certain dialects of American English. In Chicano English spoken by Mexican Americans in places like the American Southwest and Chicago, as well as Californian, several shifts have occurred. The "cot–caught merger", which makes /a/ and /ɔ/ appear indistinguishable (present in the two words respectively) is complete, as well as the "salary–celery merger" which merges /æ/ and /ɛ/ before /l/, and also the /ɪ/ in 'sing' (/sɪŋ/) becomes /i/ like in 'see', which also happens in Californian English. Also, make long vowels become monophthongal, but this is a feature of Great Lakes accent as well, and has much less to do with Spanish. These are just a few of the many features that change due to exposure to to Spanish, though any dialect will change on its own given enough time, with or without external influence such as this.

1025: They Sep 29, 2017

The pronoun 'they' has a few different uses. In addition to the standard usage as a third-person plural pronoun, there is also the somewhat 'singular they' which stands in for the arguably more cumbersome "he or she" and any other declensions thereof in constructions like "if someone is hungry, he or she should eat" or "...they should eat". This is especially disliked by prescriptivists, but it is perfectly understandable, and has been present in English for a long time. Also, some people elect to be called 'they' individually, so this usage is also more inclusive. The pronoun, however, has taken on an even more hypothetical role than just being a substitute for "he or she", and people use it in hypothetical statements, or ones relating to the future, such as in this quote taken from the Twitter account of Solomon Georgio, "you think getting friend zoned is bad, imagine your creepy male friend thinking you owe them something" in which "them" stands in for a singular, but that singular has been specified as 'male'. If you have other examples of this or any other usage, feel free to include them in a comment.

1024: knuckle down Sep 28, 2017

Because language has to rely on multiple people understanding the same references, one of the best way to create new words and phrases is to draw from things many people know. This happens with kennings that draw from mythology, and sometimes jargon, which initially only has meaning for those with a specific occupation, makes its way into common lexicon. The phrase "knuckle down" meaning to apply oneself to a task draws from the game of marbles. In that game, which was once very popular, putting ones knuckles on the taw could help make a better shot.

1023: Wh- Questions Sep 27, 2017

English has several pronouns—'who', 'what', 'where', 'when', 'why' 'which' etc.—that all introduce the same sorts of clauses, and all begin with the same two letters when spelt. They go by some different names including "'wh-' questions", and introduce both questions, and relative clauses. Some people also classify 'how' as a 'wh-' question, because it has the same functions as all of the rest. And while 'how' does not start with the initial 'wh-' and is not pronounced with a /w/ like 'what' or 'which', 'who' is pronounced with an /h/ like 'how, even though it retains the spelling.

1022: Adjectives as Submodifiers Sep 25, 2017

Affixes are a valuable and often necessary way to indicate syntax in a word, but depending upon context and convention, they aren't always obligatory. Suffixes such as '-ly' or '-y' that can indicate that a noun or an adjective become an adjective or an adverb respectively are often dropped off from certain words, especially in certain dialects. For instance, the word 'real' is an adjective more often than it is an adverb, but in the sentence "that's real funny" it acts as a submodifier. There is no reason that any word must necessarily be one part of speech for another, so while it may not be as formal for certain occasions or certain written pieces, it is understandable to native speakers.

1021: x-mas Sep 25, 2017

People use plenty of abbreviations, initialisms, and acronyms, but almost always these will take the beginning letter or letters of a word, without changing them. 'Christmas' however is often, informally written as 'x-mas' which neither sounds much like nor is spelt as the beginning of the original word. Instead, the X represents the Greek letter chi, which in lower case looks like χ. This letter actually does act as the initial, but it comes from the Greek word 'χρῑστός' ('Khristos') meaning ‘Christ’. There are indeed a lot English words for Christian terms, often coming from the Septuagint.

1020: Mucosa Sep 24, 2017

There is somewhat of a stereotype that opera singers are larger than average. Though generalizations like these are often unfounded, David Drexler et al. from the University of Iowa found that a certain amount of fat on the vocal cords can help a singer sound better. A mucosa on the vocal chords softens the impact when they come together, but extra amounts can improve the quality of sound. It was also found that the mucosa can add more vibrational energy to air as it is exhaled, which also allows opera singers to perform better. There are many other factors that come into this as well, and it is not at all the case that all opera singers are overweight at all, but having extra fat in general could mean there is some extra fat on the mucosa. Also, sometimes when one has scarring on the throat, surgeons can inject more fat onto the larynx for this same reason.

1019: Physical Adaptations for Speech Sep 23, 2017

Though other species do have the ability to communicate in a number of different ways, none have as sophisticated a method as human speech. This is for a number of biological reasons, including the fact that humans have such large brains, but quite importantly as well, we have a nerve in the brain that allows for much more control over the tongue as compared to other animals, and also, about 60,000 years ago, the hyoid developed which can better support the larynx, used for creating sounds. This all together allows the wide range of sounds that can be recreated that humans use, but unfortunately due to the configuration of the glottis and other parts of the throat, humans are much more likely—up to ten times more likely than other primates—to choke. Whether or not you think that is a fair trade-off, you'll still be able to voice your opinions due to a series of biological adaptations within the last few hundred-thousand years.

1018: Reproducing Interrogatives Sep 22, 2017

Though somewhat controversial, it can be said with reasonable certainty that children acquire language from studying and reproducing what they hear around them. Partly this is a matter of memorization; being able to associate a collection of sounds with an idea is how words are used, but also children will follow patterns that they feel they understand, sometimes too much as seen by adults. The sentence "I holded it" rather than "I held it" is ungrammatical but is arguably more sensible than the alternative. It would perhaps appear reasonable to assume that it is common for children to follow every pattern they observe, such as placing a verb before the subject nominal phrase makes a question, like "the man is painting" versus "is the man painting?". Nevertheless, it has been shown that children do not make errors in following this blindly, as would happen with "the man who is painting is happy" becoming something like "is the man who painting is happy?". This idea was proposed by Chomsky as one of many explanations as to why grammar must be innate, but the issue with his point is that children are not producing sentences like that because, among other reasons, children would not be exposed to a ungrammatical interrogative such as that one. Unlike 'holded' which is one of a few exceptions to a very basic pattern, "is the man who painting is happy?" is not a lexical issue, but a systematic issue that is more complex, and would never be presented to children to mimic anyway.