'Bobonkt'

[Jonathan Lighter]

I tried to get further contextual info from the inquirer, but Yahoo kept bouncing my e-mail back to me as undeliverable.

  JL

"Arnold M. Zwicky" <zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "Arnold M. Zwicky"
Subject: Re: 'Bobonkt'
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On Jul 6, 2006, at 8:21 AM, i wrote:

>> ==============================
>>
>> Message 2: Meaning of 'Bobonkt'
>> Date: 02-Jul-2006
>> From: Carlota Smith
>> Subject: Meaning of 'Bobonkt'
>>
>> ... I went to get some bobonkt
>>
>> so it's apparently a mass noun.
>
>
> ...as in all such cases, you'd hope that the surrounding context
> (not given here) might give a bit of the clue.

the context might also make it clear whether "bobonkt" is in fact a
mass noun, or whether it's a verb form (a past participle with the
ending spellled -t). "some" here could be a NP object on its own,
meaning 'some X(s)', with the nature of X specified in earlier
context; the example could be parallel to something like:

I had several broken watches. I went to get some fixed.

arnold

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