Wednesday, April 06, 2005
Reduplimacation
Linguists are simultaneously great and scary (in that sense, they're like a stranger giving you sweets). There is nothing in human speech they won't analyse, in painstaking detail, for
a) the quiet satisfaction of contributing to the noble march of human knowledge
and/or
b) shits and giggles.
Exhibit A: Reduplication in English Homeric Infixation, by Alan C. L. Yu (PDF, medium size, trends away from comprehensibility). Homeric infixation is a very complex, precise and highly technical linguistic term, meaning "when Homer Simpson puts the syllable ma into words like saxo-ma-phone".
Now, this is great, because I just spent the best part of half an hour thinking about how Homer Simpson talks, and how I talk, and how it is that it's nearly impossible to Homerically infixate either the word "Homeric" or (to a lesser extent) "infixation". Infixamacation is how the latter comes out, but it doesn't occur very naturally. "Homeric", I believe to be impossible in any meaningful sense. Anyway, that's why it's great.
It's scary, because of the subtle but forceful hint that YOU ARE A ROBOT AND THESE PEOPLE ARE LEARNING HOW TO REPROGRAM YOU.
That's all.
Via this, which is great, via here. See also the great multi-blog series of posts on Marge's vocalised frustration.
a) the quiet satisfaction of contributing to the noble march of human knowledge
and/or
b) shits and giggles.
Exhibit A: Reduplication in English Homeric Infixation, by Alan C. L. Yu (PDF, medium size, trends away from comprehensibility). Homeric infixation is a very complex, precise and highly technical linguistic term, meaning "when Homer Simpson puts the syllable ma into words like saxo-ma-phone".
Now, this is great, because I just spent the best part of half an hour thinking about how Homer Simpson talks, and how I talk, and how it is that it's nearly impossible to Homerically infixate either the word "Homeric" or (to a lesser extent) "infixation". Infixamacation is how the latter comes out, but it doesn't occur very naturally. "Homeric", I believe to be impossible in any meaningful sense. Anyway, that's why it's great.
It's scary, because of the subtle but forceful hint that YOU ARE A ROBOT AND THESE PEOPLE ARE LEARNING HOW TO REPROGRAM YOU.
That's all.
Via this, which is great, via here. See also the great multi-blog series of posts on Marge's vocalised frustration.
