clunking english

[rich p]

I've recently read 2 cycling reports using or abusing the language.

The first referred to Team Colombia as "the winningest team" Yuk!

The second was Lance A when asked if it was as much fun as he'd expected, answered, "it was funner"

A natural evolution of the language or a slippery slope?

 

[zimzum42]

Depends on if you're a believer in prescriptive or descriptive grammar....

 

[Maz]

Apparently, a new verb 'to bagonise' is to enter the English language (if it hasn't done so already). It refers to the separation anxiety that airline passengers feel when separated from their baggage and waiting for it to appear on the carousel at airports.

 

[Arch]

That Lance one sounds like the sort of thing I, or a lot of people I know, might say, as a joke. I think there's a difference between breaking the rules of a language for comic or dramatic effect, and getting it wrong habitually....

I'm looking for a word (in the style of The Meaning of Liff) to describe that portion of time taken up by the owner of a little suitcase on wheels stopping at the bottom of a flight of steps, pushing the handle down, and lifting the case by the other handle. As the Meaning of Liff featureed placenames, I'm thinking it could be 'a brompton' - and it could also apply to folding bikes...

 

[yello]

One of the things I love about creative language use is that it works! You can use (or even bend) grammar rules, or word associations, or whatever to create new words, never heard before but that are instantly understood. The Americans, for example, are great at making verbs from nouns (Bush senior's "leisuring" was much remarked upon at the time). I personally don't like 'loving your x' and such like but that's because of it's association with an advertising slogan.

Edit: Arch has just illustrated an example of exactly what I mean. You describe something in a new fashion and rely on the shared experience/knowledge to convey the meaning. In this case, relying on the shared knowledge of 'brompton'. Okay, it might fail for some but for those it works for, it's a fresh and strong image that resonates much more clearly in the mind than if you simply said 'bouncing' for instance. Poetry relies on such creativity.

 

[Aperitif]

a "pausidle" Arch - I know exactly what you mean having been obliged to use South West trains for a few weeks. Another word might be "kickawheelortwo"

Your first bit - about using language - is spot on. Some of the 'combiwords' like wot Maz 'as mentioned are clever. I'm always feeling their succinctivity. Damusing to say the least.

 

[Kirstie]

Not quite on topic but my favourite combiword is 'AlfredHitchcooking' - the act of stabbing food you've just got out of the freezer repeatedly with a knife as it defrosts in a hot pan.

 

[cchapman]

I first heard 'funnest' 10+ years ago by my primary school daughter and her friends. After year 12 doing English and English Lit. and her first year at uni doing Communication & Design I guess she knows the difference between fun and funny. Well I would hope so.

 

[swee'pea99]

I'm with you on 'the winningest team' - sounds like the kind of thing preppy American teen girls would come up with. There's something rather nauseatingly sweet and icky about it. 'Funner' is more acceptable, particularly since it clearly has been done deliberately and for effect. I can't see either catching on tho', which is a mercy.

 

[Arch]

There's a book out, I can't remember the name, all about the made up words families come up with...

<googles>

Here 'tis:

kitchen table lingo

 

[ChrisKH]

That Lance one sounds like the sort of thing I, or a lot of people I know, might say, as a joke. I think there's a difference between breaking the rules of a language for comic or dramatic effect, and getting it wrong habitually....

I'm looking for a word (in the style of The Meaning of Liff) to describe that portion of time taken up by the owner of a little suitcase on wheels stopping at the bottom of a flight of steps, pushing the handle down, and lifting the case by the other handle. As the Meaning of Liff featureed placenames, I'm thinking it could be 'a brompton' - and it could also apply to folding bikes...

Isn't that known as a Brompton Parsec? This is defined as the infinitely small unit of time (linked to the speed of light) it takes to fold a Brompton ( or collapse a suitcase, wheelchair, small kicking child, etc.) in pursuit of a train, plane, closing gate, door, etc. You are safe in the knowledge that time effectively stands still whilst you're doing it and thus you are not materially delayed in any way. Surrounding objects, machines and people remain inert and unmoving until the process is complete.

Or so it seems.

 

[swee'pea99]

There's a book out, I can't remember the name, all about the made up words families come up with...

<googles>

Here 'tis:

kitchen table lingo

I tried to contribute to that. They put out a query on what people call their remote control. Ours has always been 'the plinker' - I was amazed to discover that anyone calls it anything else, but plinker, it turned out, was pretty much unique to us.

 

[Arch]

You know those sponge cloths you get, for household cleaning, they come in different colours. We always had one by the kitchen sink for mopping up the draining board and wiping pans dry and such like, and one day in a hurry, Mum said "grab the yellow thing for me". Ever since, we've referred to those as 'yellow things', despite the fact that they are often blue or green. They go on shopping lists under that name and everything.

 

[Niall Estick]

I've recently read 2 cycling reports using or abusing the language.

The first referred to Team Colombia as "the winningest team" Yuk!

The second was Lance A when asked if it was as much fun as he'd expected, answered, "it was funner"

A natural evolution of the language or a slippery slope?

Sounds American to me. 'Winningest' is a common term in the Colonies.

 

[Over The Hill]

I blame Nick Park for starting it in the electric (or was it gas) heating adverts - that had gems like "turn-off-and-onable".

Sportsmen seem to be the worst as they somehow get jobs commentating on sports. All those Affleets doing Affletics.