LL-L "Lexicon" 2008.10.03 (04) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 03 October 2008 - Volume 04
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From: Brooks, Mark <mark.brooks at twc.state.tx.us>
Subject: LL-L "Lexicon" 2008.10.03 (02) [E]



Ron asked: "do English speakers think of cushions and pillows as
incomparable items?"



This English speaker thinks of cushions and pillows as separate things.
Ironically, I could call the thing one sits on and rests one's back against
on a couch a cushion.  But, the "loose" items on the same couch I would call
a pillow.  To me one sleeps with one's head on a pillow, but sits on or
bumps up against a cushion, even though I often use a "pillow" to prop up my
knees when I lay down (please, don't get me started on "lie" as opposed
"lay").



Yes, a petal differs from a leaf, to me at least.  To put it oversimply, the
petal on a flower has "color" while the "leaf" stays green.  I refer here to
the most common of instances.  Of course, we can find exceptions to that,
but generally the differences would follow that pattern.



Regards,

Mark Brooks



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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Lexicon

Thanks a lot, Mark. All this tallies pretty much with my "English
perception", most of which I acquired after childhood. In other words, this
is how I think in English. But it's quite different when I think in Low
Saxon or German.

Obviously, this thread combines "Lexicon" and "Semantics". Let's leave it
with "Lexicon" because to me "Semantics" is included in "Lexicon". This
thread also touches on "Etymology". Sometimes I just have to choose what
seems to be the umbrella category.

Mark, thanks for mention the "petal", "leaf" and "blade" complex again. My
mention of "blade" as a cognate of *blad* (*Blatt*) 'leaf', 'petal',
triggered some afterthoughts.

The example of the semantic range of English "blade" reminds me that also
without "foreign intervention" a language may well invent, or rather derive,
new non-compounded words. This seems to have happened in the case of German
*Klinge* from Middle German *klinge* 'blade (of a knife or sword)' which
appears to be derived from the root of the verb *klingen* 'to sound',
related to the noun *Klang* '(metallic) sound', related to English "clang".
So it is not the shape but the sound (of clashing, clanging blades) that
determined an apparently new word here. This is opposed to English "blade
(of a knife or sword)" which denotes the same but is visually determined,
referring to the long, flat pointed shape. Old English *blæd* has the same
semantic range as modern "blade", as has Old Norse *blað*. German *Halm*(cf. OE
*healm*) 'blade (of grass)' is not associated with a knife or sword blade,
nor is the Low Saxon equivalent *spyr* (*Spier*, cf. OE *spīr*), which may
be related to "spear" and "spire", thus suggesting a visually based
extension.

By the way, one of the Low Saxon words for 'blade (of a knife or sword)' is
*kling* (*Kling*) which I suspect of being a German loan. Perhaps older is
Low Saxon *lemmel* (*Lemmel*) for the same thing. I don't know about its
etymology. It seems like a diminutive form of **lem(b)* or **lam(b)*. Or
does it come from *lamella*?

Lastly, there is Old German and Old Low Franconian *skār* for 'blade (of a
knife or sword)', related to Old English *scéar*, Old Frisian *skēre*, Old
Norse *skæri*, Modern German *Schere* 'scissor(s)', 'shear', perhaps also to
Old English *scear*, Modern German *Schar* '(plow)share'. All of them are
related to a large complex of words conveying ideas of 'cut' (cf. Latin **
sek-r-*).

This thread seems to be mushrooming already ...

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
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