The Second Apocalypse

Miscellaneous Chatter => General Misc. => Topic started by: mrganondorf on October 08, 2014, 01:03:13 pm

Title: Neat language things
Post by: mrganondorf on October 08, 2014, 01:03:13 pm
A thread for all the kinds of cool stuff u can do with language?  Apart from simply awesome words?

What about a lipogram?  A writing that lacks a certain letter or group of letters

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lipogram

Also, "garden path" sentences.  Sentences that make you think you should parse them one way, but by the end you realize that you've been tricked, led down the garden path.  Like this "The old man the boat."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_path_sentence

Watchagot?


almost everything i write is a lipogram for z, but sadly, this bit no longer is
Title: Re: Neat language things
Post by: Wilshire on October 08, 2014, 02:23:47 pm
Quote from: mrganondorf on October 08, 2014, 01:03:13 pm
Also, "garden path" sentences.  Sentences that make you think you should parse them one way, but by the end you realize that you've been tricked, led down the garden path.  Like this "The old man the boat."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_path_sentence


That is awesome and makes my brain hurt.
Title: Re: Neat language things
Post by: locke on October 08, 2014, 03:06:18 pm
Spell bolour with a k?  Kolour?

All typ0s courtesy of Samsung.

Title: Re: Neat language things
Post by: Francis Buck on October 12, 2014, 05:46:18 am
Nabokov did a lot of fun little things with his writing (particularly in Lolita). Anagrams, stuff with multiple languages, double entendres, puns, garden path sentences, so on and so forth.
Title: Re: Neat language things
Post by: Meyna on October 12, 2014, 02:41:32 pm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autological_word

Complete with paradox!
Title: Re: Neat language things
Post by: mrganondorf on October 14, 2014, 05:23:50 pm
Quote from: Meyna on October 12, 2014, 02:41:32 pm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autological_word

Complete with paradox!

Wonderful!  Reminds me of that joke "shouldn't monosyllabic be a smaller word?"

Polysyndeton!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polysyndeton
Title: Re: Neat language things
Post by: mrganondorf on October 14, 2014, 05:26:18 pm
Also, fucking up grammar for rhetorical effect

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enallage
Title: Re: Neat language things
Post by: Wilshire on October 14, 2014, 05:32:16 pm
That seems like a device used as an excuse for making a mistake :P
Title: Re: Neat language things
Post by: mrganondorf on October 14, 2014, 08:59:37 pm
This proves you wrong, Wilshire!
Title: Re: Neat language things
Post by: mrganondorf on October 14, 2014, 09:00:37 pm
Also, just heard this on NPR, a delicious letter about words:

http://www.lettersofnote.com/2012/03/i-like-words.html
Title: Re: Neat language things
Post by: Meyna on October 15, 2014, 11:52:03 am
Quote from: mrganondorf on October 14, 2014, 05:23:50 pm
Quote from: Meyna on October 12, 2014, 02:41:32 pm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autological_word

Complete with paradox!

Wonderful!  Reminds me of that joke "shouldn't monosyllabic be a smaller word?"

:D

Here's an effect that describes the change in connotation of words that happens over time as language evolves; a principle that is very important to would-be movers of the thousandfold thought: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_prosody
Title: Re: Neat language things
Post by: mrganondorf on October 16, 2014, 01:45:37 pm
i'm not sure if i get it!  do you have an example?

speech disfluency!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speech_disfluency
Title: Re: Neat language things
Post by: Meyna on October 22, 2014, 12:51:58 pm
Quote from: mrajokli on October 16, 2014, 01:45:37 pm
i'm not sure if i get it!  do you have an example?

The examples used in the article are "set in" and "cause" which, by themselves, are neutral words and can be used to present anything positive or negative that is set in or caused. However, they generally are associated with negative things for some reason, e.g., rot setting in or an accident being caused.
Title: Re: Neat language things
Post by: Wilshire on October 31, 2014, 06:15:18 pm
Imagine a whole story written with garden path sentence.
Title: Re: Neat language things
Post by: Wilshire on November 03, 2014, 07:57:51 pm
Single word grammatically correct sentences:

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

(to help you parse: The buffalo from Buffalo who are buffaloed by buffalo from Buffalo, buffalo (verb) other buffalo from Buffalo.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo

Some good links at the bottom of that wiki page.
Title: Re: Neat language things
Post by: mrganondorf on November 04, 2014, 01:07:59 pm
Quote from: Meyna on October 22, 2014, 12:51:58 pm
Quote from: mrajokli on October 16, 2014, 01:45:37 pm
i'm not sure if i get it!  do you have an example?

The examples used in the article are "set in" and "cause" which, by themselves, are neutral words and can be used to present anything positive or negative that is set in or caused. However, they generally are associated with negative things for some reason, e.g., rot setting in or an accident being caused.

thank you!  clearer now! 

@ Wilshire - now that word is holy

Metaplasmus - deliberate misspelling for effect (and other things)

http://changingminds.org/techniques/language/figures_speech/metaplasmus.htm
Title: Re: Neat language things
Post by: Meyna on November 05, 2014, 12:31:27 pm
Quote from: Wilshire on November 03, 2014, 07:57:51 pm
Single word grammatically correct sentences:

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

(to help you parse: The buffalo from Buffalo who are buffaloed by buffalo from Buffalo, buffalo (verb) other buffalo from Buffalo.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo

Some good links at the bottom of that wiki page.

The semantic satiation link is especially apt: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_satiation
Title: Re: Neat language things
Post by: mrganondorf on November 05, 2014, 04:02:09 pm
THE LOGOS IS WITHOUT BEGINNING OR END!!!
Title: Re: Neat language things
Post by: mrganondorf on November 29, 2014, 04:09:42 am
Quote from: Wilshire on November 03, 2014, 07:57:51 pm
Single word grammatically correct sentences:

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

(to help you parse: The buffalo from Buffalo who are buffaloed by buffalo from Buffalo, buffalo (verb) other buffalo from Buffalo.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo

Some good links at the bottom of that wiki page.

a little similar to your awesome sentence: supreme court rules supreme court rules.

http://www.theonion.com/articles/supreme-court-rules-supreme-court-rules,998/
Title: Re: Neat language things
Post by: mrganondorf on December 09, 2014, 02:30:34 am
That thing where you replace a swear work with symbols, like "Why won't Bakker @#$%&! tweet something other than stupid definitions?!?" is called a GRAWLIX.

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/grawlix

http://grammar.about.com/od/fh/g/Grawlix.htm
Title: Re: Neat language things
Post by: mrganondorf on May 04, 2015, 06:26:09 pm
here's this cool thing called hendiadys!  it works like this, you take a sentence like "I love your beautiful face" and change it to "I love your beauty and your face."  replace the adjective with a noun and add a conjunction!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hendiadys
Title: Re: Neat language things
Post by: mrganondorf on May 12, 2015, 04:39:05 pm
http://distractify.com/avericlements/the-19-most-mind-blowing-sentences-in-the-english-language/
Title: Re: Neat language things
Post by: Alia on May 14, 2015, 03:03:53 pm
Saw that one a few months ago and used it ever since to blow out my students' minds.
Title: Re: Neat language things
Post by: mrganondorf on May 14, 2015, 03:52:41 pm
Quote from: Alia on May 14, 2015, 03:03:53 pm
Saw that one a few months ago and used it ever since to blow out my students' minds.

ain't it cool?!

i wanted to look up some more things like this, but stopped when my "weird sentence" got a google suggestion of "weird sentence generators."  there are way too many of these things out there ...

http://www.wordgenerator.net/random-sentence-generator.php
http://nonsense.x2d.org/
http://weird.zoril.co.uk/weird.php

but this one really did it for me, i found it vaguely threatening

https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/2155232/
Title: Re: Neat language things
Post by: mrganondorf on August 09, 2015, 08:55:36 pm
cool word i just saw: LECANOMANCY

this is divination via reading oil in water or reading the ripples when dropping a stone into water

looking at you Meppa (he's not looking back)
Title: Re: Neat language things
Post by: Francis Buck on August 09, 2015, 11:01:18 pm
There are actually a ton of weird "-mancies", ranging from cool to creepy to downright hilarious. Tyromancy, for example, is the art of divination through the observation of cheese.

Title: Re: Neat language things
Post by: mrganondorf on August 10, 2015, 07:12:16 pm
Quote from: Francis Buck on August 09, 2015, 11:01:18 pm
There are actually a ton of weird "-mancies", ranging from cool to creepy to downright hilarious. Tyromancy, for example, is the art of divination through the observation of cheese.



i hadn't thought of that!  looking it up, the list goes on forever!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methods_of_divination

alectormancy - divination by rooster
choriomancy - divination by pig bladders
eromancy - divination by water vessels exposed to air
hyomancy - divination by wild hogs (GO HAWGZ)
moromancy - divination by fools
phyllorhodomancy - divination by rose petals
radiesthesia - divination by pendulums
sikidy - divination by drawing 16 lines in sand

WOW
Title: Re: Neat language things
Post by: Davias on August 18, 2015, 04:27:50 pm
Interesting list, I absolutely LOVE the internet  :D
papyromancy - by folding paper, especially paper money
GREAT ;D
Title: Re: Neat language things
Post by: mrganondorf on August 30, 2015, 05:39:29 pm

Quote from: Davias on August 18, 2015, 04:27:50 pm
Interesting list, I absolutely LOVE the internet  :D
papyromancy - by folding paper, especially paper money
GREAT ;D

This should be in a movie where a sorcerer kills someone via orgami
Title: Re: Neat language things
Post by: mrganondorf on October 06, 2015, 09:06:23 pm
hey hey!  it's the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest!  the contest for especially bad writing!

http://www.bulwer-lytton.com/
Title: Re: Neat language things
Post by: Somnambulist on October 20, 2015, 05:05:22 pm
Not sure if this belongs here or not, but looks like Bakker gave us the fact that Somandutta (Soma)
(click to show/hide)

If that's already been pointed out, feel free to tell me to catch up and get a life.
Title: Re: Neat language things
Post by: Francis Buck on October 21, 2015, 11:45:59 pm
Very cool catch there, never seen that before. It's interesting because I know "soma" was the name of a plant (the drink made form the plant) in various religions/legends/myths (it's also called haoma) which was said to grant immortality. I wondered if there was some qirri connection there, but it's pretty tenuous whereas what you pointed out has to have been intentional.
Title: Re: Neat language things
Post by: mrganondorf on October 26, 2015, 10:49:54 pm
So back in the 16th/17th century, English started getting a larger influx of Latin words.  Some writers resisted this and proposed new English terms to take the place of the invading Latin term.  These Latin terms were called "Inkhorn Terms" because some writers complained that they were too long and took too much ink from the little inkpot (inkhorn).  What I like is the new 'pure' English terms that were meant to be just as good as the Latin ones.  Like:

Endsay for Conclusion
Inwit for Conscience
Saywhat for Definition
Gleeman for Musician
Yeartide for Anniversary

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inkhorn_term
Title: Re: Neat language things
Post by: Alia on October 27, 2015, 07:48:18 am
Virtually every language had a moment like this, when someone (usually some high council on language or a group of influential intellectuals) decided that there are simply too many borrowings from this or that language. But the one that really went through with it is probably Czech. In the 19th century Czech intellectuals in a sense recreated the language and also wanted to rid it of (perceived) Germanisms, so for example they have hudba for "music" and divadlo for "theatre".
And while most languages have similar names for chemical elements (most taken from Greek), like oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, etc., Polish has totally different names because of a group of scientists at the turn of 18th century decided that Greek-based names are foreign and Polish people need to have their own brand Polish names. Which for the next 200 years made chemistry lessons more difficult to generations of high school students, as Polish names of elements basically have nothing in common with their symbols.
Title: Re: Neat language things
Post by: mrganondorf on October 27, 2015, 09:06:16 am
Quote from: Alia on October 27, 2015, 07:48:18 am
Virtually every language had a moment like this, when someone (usually some high council on language or a group of influential intellectuals) decided that there are simply too many borrowings from this or that language. But the one that really went through with it is probably Czech. In the 19th century Czech intellectuals in a sense recreated the language and also wanted to rid it of (perceived) Germanisms, so for example they have hudba for "music" and divadlo for "theatre".
And while most languages have similar names for chemical elements (most taken from Greek), like oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, etc., Polish has totally different names because of a group of scientists at the turn of 18th century decided that Greek-based names are foreign and Polish people need to have their own brand Polish names. Which for the next 200 years made chemistry lessons more difficult to generations of high school students, as Polish names of elements basically have nothing in common with their symbols.

Poor students!  They are playing chemistry on hard mode!