LL-L: "Specialized terms" LOWLANDS-L, 22.OCT.1999 (01) [E]

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From: Sandy Fleming [sandy at fleimin.demon.co.uk]
Subject: "Kinship terms"

> From: Ian James Parsley [parsley at highbury.fsnet.co.uk]
> Subject: LL-L: "Kinship terms" LOWLANDS-L, 20.OCT.1999 (05) [E]
>
> All,
>
> I would add to this discussion only that I would only agree to a friend's
> children calling me "uncle" if I was very, very close to the friend
> (Proverbs 18:24 in fact says "a real friend is closer than a brother").
> "Real friends" are very rare - it is interesting on this point that in
> English we only have one common word for "friend" - in French,
> for example,
> I can think of three, all with slightly different meanings.

Ron,

Although from a different subject thread, this is a good example of what I
was trying to say about cultural necessity not always being reflected in
vocabulary. In English (let's say standard English English, for this
example) there are a few common words for friend, e.g. "friend" and "pal",
but they are used more or less interchangeably, even if with varying
connotation. In English, there's "acquaintance", but in spite of the common
use of phrases such as "casual friend", "close friend", "very old friends",
no word arises to mean "close friend" in spite of the availability of common
terms such as "pal" and possible borrowings such as "butty" and
"confidant(e)".

There are a few recurring situations in English conversion that show a lack
in the vocabulary, a good one being when someone answers a question "Yes"
only to be asked "Is that 'yes yes' or 'yes no'?" But no equivalent to the
French "si" arises in the language in spite of the English awareness of this
lack.

I imagine that in the specialised world of artificial insemination research
and practice there _are_ words invented by the specialists as always, for
those concepts which they need particularly to describe. Perhaps
"inseminator" and "inseminee"? Perhaps there are also less specialised terms
"impregnator" and "impregnee"?! Does this make them English words and answer
Ted's question, or not?  :)

Sandy
http://scotstext.org

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