"Word" words?

[Scot LaFaive]

> Any comments? Is there a katana sword, an ushanka hat, or borscht soup?

It seems to me that these are very common. Isn't that also like
appending "pasta" after various Italian pasta name types (e.g.
spaghetti pasta)? I would imagine language users do that because the
borrowed word isn't transparent like it is in the native language.

Scot

On Fri, Apr 25, 2008 at 8:50 AM, Guy Letourneau <guy1656 at opusnet.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Guy Letourneau <guy1656 at OPUSNET.COM>
> Subject:      "Word" words?
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Richard Lederer wrote of "word words," which are nouns spoken twice to
> indicate that what is meant is the thing in its most ordinary instance.
> For example "tea-tea" might be spoken to contrast from ice tea, or
> exceptionally exotic preparations.
>
> Some may remember an air freshener ad which named the product an "air
> conditioner" in which an exasperated housewife explains "it's not an air
> conditioner - air conditioner, it's an air CONDITIONER."
>
> Anyways, my wife was wondering about writers who append an English
> equivalent after a borrowed word. She said she had read of a woman who
> 'wore a kimono robe and an obi belt.' 'Robe' and 'belt' seemed redundant
> to her.
>
> Any comments? Is there a katana sword, an ushanka hat, or borscht soup?
>
> - GLL
>
>
> PS: And a joke for all:
>
> Knock knock.
>
> Who's there?
>
> Objective case.
>
> Objective case who?
>
> No, objective case *whom*.
>
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