[Lexicog] Re: A folk-etymology

[Rudolph Troike]

David Tuggy wrote (snip):

Your "folk-etymology" is quite widespread (for all the para-N forms),
and is by no means an outsider-only perspective: very many native
speakers say they have always construed them that way, despite the ready
availability of the V + Obj = Subject(/Instr) pattern to sanction the
"official" analysis.

   -- This is why folk-etymology is a minor source of language change and
restructuring. Obsolete words get re-analyzed, so that 'guma' "man" in
Old English 'brydguma' was replaced with 'groom' in modern 'bridegroom'.
Structurally, the preposition 'to' with infinitives came to be "felt" to
be the "sign of the infinitive" when the earlier infinitive suffix '-an'
was lost. So changing perceptions [one thing that Chomsky emphasized for
us is that each person re-creates the language in his/her own head, and
forms personal hypotheses about meanings, so that each person has a different
and somewhat unique grammar], when shared among enough people, can lead to
general change in a language.

      My favorite folk-etymology was from a Linguistic Atlas fieldworker
in Georgia who, asking a farmer for the name of a particular kind of grass,
was told that it was called "Moody grass", and when the source of the name
was inquired after, was told that it was named for a neighboring farmer, a
certain Mr. Moody, who first imported it and grew it there. (The grass in
question was Bermuda grass -- a nice example of aphesis.)

     Rudy Troike





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