original words, their creators and their subsequent users

[Dennis R. Preston]

>Holding that words mean what they "originally" did will make you
>much worse than cross-eyed; it is just plain old wrong (as I hgope
>lexicographers will quickly tell you).


dInis



>Has anyone else gone cross-eyed over they problems faced with new words
>defined and explained by their originators and rapidly assimilated only to be
>reanalyzed by the multiple users of the words?  One would be inclined to see
>the reanalysis as folk etymology, but I wonder, since obviously (maybe as in
>blog, and certainly other computer examples come to mind) the reanalysis is
>popular, rapid, and often more transparent than the originator's definition.
>Is using the originator's explanation prescriptivist? Or do we have to stick
>by the historically rooted explanation?  All you lexicographers out there,
>what do/would you do?
>The cross-eyed (synchro/diachro) biolinguist,
>Lesa Dill
>
>>===== Original Message From American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>=====
>>I've thought it was just blah log= [bla ahg].
>>===== Original Message From Grant Barrett <gbarrett at monickels.com> =====
>>>On jeudi 22 février 2001 23:41, Jane Parker <jpparker at ISERV.NET> wrote:
>>>>This afternoon while listening to talk of the nation.  A bunch of
>>>>technophilliacs were discussing the impact of techknoloby etc.
>>>>Someone called in and was asking about the vast quantities of information
>>>>availible blah blah and refered to it as blog.  I think is was a
>contraction
>>>>of backlog.  None of the panel members could define the word. and so it
>>>>ended.  Anybody out there heard of blog?
>>>
>>>As someone who keeps two blogs himself, I will agree with Jane Parker's
>>observation
>>>that www.blogger.com is a good place to start and add a couple of things.
>>>
>>>The definition of blog is wide. One on end of the spectrum, it's a personal
>>diary.
>>>On the other, it's a list of "cool" links. In any case, most blogs have
>these
>>factors
>>>in common:
>>>
>>>1. Run by an individual rather than a company.
>>>2. Updates regularly, ideally daily in a kind of "log" format with dated
>>entries.
>>>3. Cool links provided.
>>>
>>>These days blogs are good generators and amplifiers of Internet memes, the
>>latest
>>>example I can think of being the "ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US" meme.
>>>
>>>The history of blogs is uncertain. Most people are willing to credit several
>>"what's
>>>new" pages that appeared pre-Yahoo (and even on Yahoo, back in the days when
>>*all*
>>>the new sites added to the net could be visited in an hour or so each day).
>>Bjorn
>>>Barger *did not* invent the blog.
>>>
>>>Some of the more popular blogs
>>>
>>>http://www.metafilter.com/    A group blog, run by an individual, but with
>>links
>>>posted by its members
>>>http://slashdot.org/                 Blog or not? Most people agree that it
>>is.
>>>http://www.memepool.com/     Group blog, again. With an emphasis on odd or
>>wacky
>>>links
>>>http://www.camworld.com/     One of the older blogs out there.
>Tech-oriented.
>>Lots
>>>of links to other blogs.
>>>
>>>--
>>>Grant Barrett
>>>New York loves you back.
>>>http://www.worldnewyork.org/

--
Dennis R. Preston
Department of Linguistics and Languages
Michigan State University
East Lansing MI 48824-1027 USA
preston at pilot.msu.edu
Office: (517)353-0740
Fax: (517)432-2736