Calling all linguists!
I’ve been working on a personal project to help explain mysterious linguistic terms. Most we’ve heard but have unclear meanings. I was trying to make a set of 26 cards. One per letter of the alphabet. Problem is, I have a couple examples of “As” and need more examples of other letters. What I have so far:
Tongue Twister or Alliteration (Grey grub)
Anagram(Elvis lives)
Palindrome(Madam I’m Adam)
Oxymoron(Hot ice)
Reduplicative(Hoot Hoot)
Heteronyms(It’s the bass bass now)
Idiom(Kick The bucket)
Xeno(Alien)
Iwas trying to avoid the obvious like noun or verb. Might be impossible. Anybody have other ideas that fill out the rest of the alphabet or what I can call this project?
Comments
TC, this is fabulous. I am going to have a hard time focusing on my work today with wordplay dangling in front of me...
Okay, got one.
Litotes: A part of speech where the speaker, rather than state the obvious, denies the opposite. For example:
"Helena Christensen is not ugly."
"Bill Gates is no pauper."
Mark "L" off the list.
These are so awesome. I want to print them and give to my 3rd grader's teacher. Can we have printable versions?
Onomatopoeia
Personafication
Figure of Speech
/I'm no help.
Metonym: basically, this is an attribute of a thing, used to reference the thing itself. Guh, that's clear as mud. The oft-cited example of this when people refer to the royal family as "the crown."
Snowclone: this is a new "figure of speech," if it can even be called that. I will. Snowclones are like cliche's but swap out some of the original content. For example, "red is the new black", "x is the new y", and so on.
Finally, I don't see any "C's". Colloquials, I reckon, might fit that slot.
My favorite palindrome is: Emily's Sassy Lime.
Great ideas! Keep 'em coming. I should have thought of colloquials. My kinfolk jabber jaw that way.
That also makes me think of "Slang."
Will: What am I going to call this project?
Around the Word in 26 Ways?
An English Speaker's Guide to the English Language?
Dangling Dipthongs, I've Lotht My Partithiple!
:)
(I'll keep thinking...)
My favorite palindrome has always been: "A man, a plan, a canal, Panama."
How about neologism? That's when you mash up 2 words to make a new word. Ex. emoticon, slackademic, netiquette
Or catachresis: misuse of words. Ex. Don't have a cow over the traffic. Under this same category, there is also the mixed metaphor [the official term is abusio, but you have A already]. Ex. a horse of a different feather
I always loved Rich Hall\'s sniglets. Words that don\'t exist but should. "Down pause" the moment that the sound of rains pauses as you drive your car under a bridge. "Cinemuck" the goop that make your shoes stick to the floor of the theater.
Deprecated words that have been removed from the dictionary are fascinating.
drollic adj 1743 -1743
of or pertaining to puppet shows
phrontistery.info
Need a Z? How about zeugma: when you use one verb that takes 2 different objects that give the verb different meanings.
She lost her heart and her wallet to the shyster.
He bears the name and the responsibility.
There are other forms of zeugma; this specific one is called syllepsis.
Leave a Comment