Turducken & Churkendoose; WD-40

[Dennis R. Preston]

arnold,

I never thought of it, but since the "chicken" part of it was not
always highlighted for me, I think I reacted to the -en as plural. (
I know; I never hear "one turduck," which would have sealed this for
me.) But it makes me think of recent work on multiple processing; I
seem to be processing the content lexis (turkey, duck, and chicken)
at one level and the functional morphology (-en = plural) at another.
If the first had "bled" into the second, the plural processing would
probably have been blocked. As it was, since two levels were in play,
the "cognitive dissonance" I should have experienced didn't arise.

dInIs

>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>-----------------------
>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       "Arnold M. Zwicky" <zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU>
>Subject:      Re: Turducken & Churkendoose; WD-40
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>On Nov 15, 2007, at 5:23 AM, Charlie Doyle wrote:
>
>>  Discussions of--and references to--"turducken" suddenly seem to be
>>  all over the media and the internet and casual conversations!
>
>it's a thanksgiving thing.  it's come up at this time of year for
>several years now.
>
>(despite the wikipedia page's usage "turduckens", i feel some
>inclination towards treating "turducken" as having a zero plural.)
>
>arnold
>
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--
It should be the chief aim of a university professor to exhibit
himself [sic] in his own true character - that is, as an ignorant man
thinking, actively utilizing his small share of knowledge. Alfred
North Whitehead

Dennis R. Preston
University Distinguished Professor
Department of English
Morrill Hall 15-C
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824-1036 USA
Office: (517) 353-4736
Fax: (517) 353-3755

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