groinal

[Laurence Horn]

At 3:21 PM +0000 12/2/10, ronbutters at aol.com wrote:
>The -al morpheme is productive. If we can have nasal and and bucal
>and rectal and corporal and vaginal and anal, why not groinal? (and
>penile is pronounced the same way almost). We just can't use the
>ending with non-semi-tehcnical words like knee or mouth-- even hoigh
>this leaves a lexicosemantic gap (Charlie's chestal is weird to my
>ears).

I've heard "chestal" (e.g. on SportsCenter), but it always strikes me
as jocular in a way the others don't; "groinal" is sort of
in-between.  I agree that the "technical" flavor is a factor, whence
these judgments. And I predict an (overdetermined) absence of
"ballal".

LH

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