The things you learn on NPR

[Alice Faber]

I rather suspect a failure to recognize the compositionality of
"forearm". So you have a non-native speaker of English being told that
he has a problem with his forearm, and not realizing that it's a
compound of "fore"+"arm" (or, for that matter, that "fore" recurs in
"forehead" and other words).

On 9/1/10 10:07 PM, Mark Mandel wrote:
> *This* one thinks it strange that any English-speaker who is not a medical
> professional "knows" that distinction and applies it in everyday speech.
> *My* arm comprises the upper arm and the forearm.
>
> m a m
>
> On Wed, Sep 1, 2010 at 9:50 PM, Dave Hause<dwhause at jobe.net>  wrote:
>
>> Not knowing squat from baseball, but this one strikes me as an unremarkable
>> quotation, unless one thinks it strange that a Dominican ball player would
>> know that the anatomic arm goes from the shoulder to the elbow, the forearm
>> from the elbow to the wrist.
>> Dave Hause, dwhause at jobe.net
>> Waynesville, MO
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Laurence Horn"<laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>>
>> Oops.  That was going to be "Joaquin Andújar" (if
>> the accent comes out) or "Joaquin Andujar" (if it
>> doesn't), not Andjar.  Besides the immortal
>> reference to "youneverknow" as his favorite word
>> in the English language, the Dominican-born
>> pitcher was almost equally eloquent on a number
>> of other occasions...
>>
>> ...
>> "It wasn't my arm (that was injured). It was my forearm."
>> Source: AP Wire (1988)
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org


--
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Alice Faber                                       faber at haskins.yale.edu
Haskins Laboratories                            tel: (203) 865-6163 x258
New Haven, CT 06511 USA                               fax (203) 865-8963

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org