Everybody has a way of speaking called an idiolect (idio = “one’s own” + lect = a variety of language), and every family has an ecolect. My family certainly had its own ways of speaking. If you eavesdrop on one of my mom’s conversations, you’ll hear her recall conversations by saying, “Then I says toContinueContinue reading “In My Family’s Words”
Tag Archives: words
Language Lives
I will possibly expound upon the ideas set forth in this cursory article at a later time, but for now, I just have a few somewhat related ideas that I want to discuss in a short space; these ideas are about language, and how we use it. When I was in high school, the EnglishContinueContinue reading “Language Lives”
Scientific Homonyms
Sometimes the same word can have two (or more) meanings. As I think about this today (a Sunday), the word “spirit” comes to mind. I actually started thinking about that word, spirit, since last Sunday, when this atheist attended church. My thoughts have not been focused on the subject, but it has been dancing inContinueContinue reading “Scientific Homonyms”
Portmanteau
If you were like me and read Lewis Carroll’s Through The Looking Glass as a child, you learned at least two new words: “slithy” and “mimsy.” “Slithy” means lithe and slimy, we’re told, and “mimsy” means flimsy and miserable. Come to think of it, when Humpty Dumpty was talking about “slithy” and “mimsy,” I wasContinueContinue reading “Portmanteau”
Words & False Recollection
Sometimes, I see images or quotes posted on the Internet, and I fear that people will take them to be the truth just because they’re catchy. Words can’t be forgotten? Yes, they can, and usually they are. This is common knowledge in psychology, so I won’t bother citing any sources except for a single example.ContinueContinue reading “Words & False Recollection”
Hope: A Poem
I searched and I searched, but I did not find. I tried and I tried, I swear that I tried. I almost gave up hope. O, I tried to stop caring. But my hopes would not stop, and I keep holding on. I am incredibly weak, but something holds strong in my soul, in myContinueContinue reading “Hope: A Poem”
Metaphors, Polysemy, & Onomatopoeia
Browsing a local store, I overheard the bagger, a teenage boy, complaining about his English course assignment. He took another customer’s bags to her car as I was checking out. “What was he talking about?” I inquired of the cashier. The cashier informed me that he was talking about a book assignment, but when IContinueContinue reading “Metaphors, Polysemy, & Onomatopoeia”
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