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
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autological_word
Complete with paradox!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autological_word
Complete with paradox!
Wonderful! Reminds me of that joke "shouldn't monosyllabic be a smaller word?"
i'm not sure if i get it! do you have an example?
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.
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.
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.
Saw that one a few months ago and used it ever since to blow out my students' minds.
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.
Interesting list, I absolutely LOVE the internet :D
papyromancy - by folding paper, especially paper money
GREAT ;D
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.