Blog Post #5 - Practicing Etymology and Morphology

1)WORD: Whimsical 

ETYMOLOGY:  first seen in 1645, coming from the word whimsy which in fact originated in 1595.

WORD FORMATION: this is a borrowed word .

MORPHEMES: Whim-      -sical 

                          (root)         (suffix) 

                      free/lexical    bound/derivational 

2) WORD: Oozing 

ETYMOLOGY: first seen before 1000, coming from the old French word wase;Middle English word wose.

WORD FORMATION:  this is a borrowed word.

MORPHEMES: Ooz-           -ing
                          (stem)         (suffix)
                        free/lexical    bound/inflectional

3)WORD: Abosfuckinglutely    

ETYMOLOGY: first seen in the first episode of Sex & the City; a combination of "absolutely" and "fuck yeah".

WORD FORMATION: this word is a  Pseudo-infixation. 

MORPHEMES: Abso-         Fucking-        -Lutely 
                         (root)           (stem)              (suffix)
                     free/lexical     free/lexical       bound/inflectional  

4) WORD: Unreliable

ETYMOLOGY: first seen in 1830, coming from the word reliable.

WORD FORMATION: this is a borrowed word.

MORPHEMES: Un-                     reli                     -able
                        (prefix)           (partial stem)             (suffix)
              bound/derivational    bound/lexical      bound/derivational

5)WORD: Irresistible

ETYMOLOGY:  first seen in the 1580's, coming from the word resist. 

WORD FORMATION: this is a  borrowed word.

MORPHEMES: Ir-                         resist-                  -able
                        (prefix)                   (stem)                  (suffix) 
                  bound/derivational      free/lexical         bound/derivational 
 

 

Blog Post #4- Web 2.0, Social Networking, and Technology

1. In my opinion, the rise of social networking does indeed affect the use of language. Some prime examples are the use of "smiley-faces" which indicate how a person is feeling at a given moment by just using symbols such as :'( would mean crying ;-) would mean winking/flirting. Another example would be found in text messaging, text messaging is a language in its own, to communicate that you'll be right back one would simply write the acronym "BRB". A final example would be using everyday words to mean something completely different, for example while some people associate blood with the liquid that flows through your body a group of teenagers might associate it with a gang.
2. I would say yes, because many things that are found on the Internet and in other forms of technology are written in English. Aside from that reason, most of the vernacular used on the Internet and other social networking are mainly English based.

Blog Post #3-Be a Linguistic Detective!

1. The case of the Changing Prefix

      Balance - Imbalance ; Compatible - Incompatible ; Complete - Incomplete ; Decent - Indecent ; Glorious - Inglorious ; Gratitude - Ingratitude ; Legal - Illegal ; Literate - Illiterate ; Mature - Immature ; Perfect - Imperfect ; Possible - Impossible ; Rational - Irrational ; Responsible - Irresponsible ; Sane - Insane ; Tolerant - Intolerant ; Variable - Invariable.

Some of the prefixes are different because the of both the pronunciation as well as the meaning the prefix gives the word. Although the prefixes in- im- ir- and il- have the same negative meaning, they can either mean not or without giving the original word a completely different meaning.

2. The Case of the Shifting Plural Suffix

          A. baT - voiceless alveolar stops
             booK - voiceless velar stops
             couGH - voiceless labiodental fricative
             shiP - voiceless bilabial stops
          B. caB - voiced bilabial stops
               caVE - voiced labiodental fricative
               laD - voiced alveolar stops
               raG - voiced velar stops
              thiNG - voiced velar nasal
          C. bUs - central vowel  / ə /
               bUsh - central vowel  / ə /
               chUrch - central vowel  / ə /
                jUdge - central vowel  / ə /
                mAze -  central vowel  / ə /
        a. In words like Bat, Book, Cough and Ship the pronunciation of the words have one specific thing in common, which is the fact the the words are voiceless. Making the plural -s sound like / s / .
        b. In words like Cab, Cave, Lad, Rag and thing the pronunciation of the words are all voiced. Making the plural -s sound like / z /.
        c. In words like Bus, Bush, Church, Judge and Maze consist of central vowels, meaning there is no emphasis on the vowel, making the plural -s sound like an / ez /.