hoaxity [was: IE? Indo-European/Internet Explorer]

[Laurence Horn]

At 2:37 PM -0500 4/3/02, Thomas Paikeday wrote:
>Since there's no snow to shovel here today, I'd like to support the
>nomination, at least for "hoaxity."
>
>A more natural derviative may have been "hoaxness," but I believe anyone
>who uses English expertly (or with "native-speaker" ability) should be
>able to change the rules to suit their own needs. This is what Chomsky
>did in using "grammaticalness" instead of the -ity word. As he has
>explained: "I purposely chose a neologism in the hope that it would be
>understood that the term was to be regarded as a technical term, with
>exactly the meaning that was given to it, and not assimilated to some
>term of ordinary discourse with a sense and connotations not to the
>point in this context" (_The Native Speaker Is Dead,_ Toronto & New
>York, 1985, p. 14).

Written by some anonymous author or other...   ;-)

>I appreciate the above argument could cut both ways. The nomination
>could be opposed saying "hoaxity" is a pedestrian nonce word/formation,
>not a "coinage" as generally understood.

Nothing wrong with us pedestrians.  We're aiming to reduce the
nation's dependency on foreign oil, after all...

larry, who's actually fonder of "etymythology", if he's forced to
choose among offspring