'mo = homo

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

On Mar 5, 2004, at 11:53 AM, Laurence Horn wrote:

> I had thought 'za and 'rents were relatively recent undergraduate
> slang, but when we were discussing these as exceptions to
> generalizations on clipping last fall, one of my undergraduate
> students suspected, and then confirmed, that it was part of his
> father's active usage since the latter's undergraduate days...

in my experience, 'rents is fairly recent.  but my experience of 'za
goes back to the late 50s, when my college roommate used it frequently.

jespersen says that clipping preserves the first, the last, or the
main-stressed syllable (that is, a syllable in one of the three most
perceptually salient positions).  i think he also says that it
especially favors a first or last syllable with stress.  i'm not sure
if he explicitly says that  suffixes with (secondary) stress, like
english -ate and -ize, don't count.

the actual restrictions and disfavorings are pretty complex, as larry
could undoubtedly explain to us in some detail.

arnold (zwicky at csli.stanford.edu)