Being “Productive” in Linguistics
When I was younger, the prefix “mini” became popular to use with an assortment of unrelated suffixes. We had “miniskirt,” of course, but I remember “mini brain,” “minicar” and “minidress,” even “miniassignment.” My linguistics prof said that “mini” was productive.
I just ran into another word or word fragment that shows signs of becoming productive: -splain.
We have the original, “explain,” but I’ve heard “mansplain” and “mansplaining” lots of times lately. Here’s a new one:
If oilsplaining isn’t already word already, it should be, because it’s the only way I feel like I can describe this essay’s purpose.
https://heated.world/p/mike-rowe-oilsplainer
The word is even in the title of the article.
Here’s picture of the person who wrote the article, Emily Atkin:
Productivity assumes the reader doesn’t need to get a formal definition of the new word (aka neologism) because the parts of the word are familiar.
I guess I like to be a wordsplainer.
PS—I ran into another example of productivity…
Subscribe to this blog's RSS feed
Grammar Comic
Okay, teachers, post this on your classroom wall! In fact, if you have trouble with this word, post it on your own wall!
The only things missing here are pointing out that the simple past of “to lie” is “lay,” and the simple past of “to lay” is “laid.” And the simple past of telling a falsehood is “lied.”
Vocabulary Lesson: Caesura
A caesura is when you have insert a pause in a poem to make the meter work. Every panel except the last two has a caesura between the first and second lines. You can get the feel by inserting “and” or another one-syllable word where the caesura goes.
Okay, reader challenge: Write a four-line verse (called a quatrain, by the way) with a caesura in it. Put it in the comments.
A Losing Battle, But It’s Not Over Yet
Notwithstanding, the grammar geek is correct—about the grammar. Linguistic change happens, so I can’t entirely agree about the decline of western civilization.
Not only is he correct, but I saw this the same day:
Maybe the geeks are winning!
A Word we usually Don’t Need
In bold:
The Abandoned Prison Complex on Isle St Joseph, French Guiana located 10km off the northeastern tip of the South American Continent, the Iles du Salut are a trio of idyllic islands which used to house a fearsome French penal colony from the mid 19th century until 1955.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2048706495253813/
(That link probably doesn’t work. I got the sentence from a post in the Facebook group Glory of the Abandoned.)
Since I started thinking about writing, I can’t recall a single sentence that contains “located,” in which deleting the word would change the meaning or make the sentence less understandable. Can you find or think of one? Share in the comments.
Here’s the picture that is located below the sentence:
