"We didn't have time to phone-call anybody." [NT]

[Dan Goncharoff]

I think the verb missing here is "to Skype".

DanG


On Sun, Nov 11, 2012 at 10:06 AM, Arnold Zwicky <zwicky at stanford.edu> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Arnold Zwicky <zwicky at STANFORD.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "We didn't have time to phone-call anybody." [NT]
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Nov 11, 2012, at 6:27 AM, Damien Hall <damien.hall at NEWCASTLE.AC.UK>
> wrote:
>
> > Joel asked:
> >
> > 'Is this a [what-do-you-call-it]?  Like "rotary phone" was needed when
> > keyed phones arrived.  What other "adjectives" besides "phone" are
> > now attached to "call"?  "cell-call"?  "page-call"?  "IMS-call"?  Etc.'
> >
> > That's a retronym, isn't it?
> >
> > A fairly common pre-modifier for 'call' is 'voice', to distinguish plain
> old telephone conversations from video ones.  There are no doubt others!
>
> i don't think that phone calls here are being contrasted with other types
> of *calls* -- but with e-mail(s), tweets, texting, etc., so "to phone call"
> is an alternative to "to email", "to tweet", "to text", etc., not to "to X
> call" for varous Xs.
>
> that is, "to phone call" is just a verbing of the N+N compound "phone
> call".
>
> arnold
>
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