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The latest iteration of the language, yes. Fifty or a hundred years from now, we'll see. I think (hope) that we'll see a backlash against merging and simplifica
by devindotcom 13y ago
The latest iteration of the language, yes. Fifty or a hundred years from now, we'll see. I think (hope) that we'll see a backlash against merging and simplification. Perhaps leetspeak will be the new Esperanto.
Since we're trading anectotes, I'll share mine here:
When taking words from another language, the process often falls under one of two types: loanwords, which are taken intact from their native language (e.g. doppelganger), and calques, which are literally translated as idiom (e.g. flea market).
What's the anecdote? Loanword is a calque of the German lehnwort, and calque is a French loanword.
- tomp 13y ago> What's the anecdote? I think What's the irony? would be more appropriate.
- Blahah 13y agoIrony is when you express an idea using words that normally have the opposite meaning. That's not what's happening here. This is autology - a word that describes itself.
- gjm11 13y agoI don't think "irony" is so bad here. The third meaning of "irony" in the OED is: A state of affairs or an event that seems deliberately contrary to what was or might be expected; an outcome cruelly, humorously, or strangely at odds with assumptions or expectations. I don't think that's so far out -- one might (if not thinking clearly) expect that if one of "calque" and "loanword" is a calque and one is a loanword, they should be "the right way round", so the fact that they aren't is ironic in an only-slightly-extended sense. But, speaking of autology: Call an adjective "autological" if it describes itself (examples: "recondite", "pentasyllabic"), and "heterological" if it doesn't (examples: "Greek", "monosyllabic"). Is "heterological" autological or heterological? (This little paradox is rather old, and in particular I didn't make it up. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grelling%E2%80%93Nelson_paradox. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grelling%E2%80%93Nelson_parado...)
- jessaustin 13y agoIt makes me wonder if they didn't make up the word "heterological" from whole cloth, just to dress up the actually ancient Liar Paradox. b^)
- aaronbrethorst 13y agoFor the record, he talks like this in person, too. Then again, so I do, but usually with slightly fewer syllables than Devin does. (also, @devin, doppelgänger, ;) )
- devindotcom 13y agoI didn't want to reach into my sack of special characters... that's one laziness in language I tend to let slide.
- bane 13y ago> I think (hope) that we'll see a backlash against merging and simplification. My guess is that this process makes "room" in the language for bringing in additional words and grammatical constructs. The language will be just as complicated as before, but will feature lots of new things, while old things get tidied up a bit.
- freehunter 13y agoAnd we'll call it... Python 3!
- Blahah 13y agoSince this is a language thread, worth pointing out that an anecdote is a story about an event, place or person. What you've shared is in entertaining fact, not an anecdote.
- StavrosK 13y agoIt was a calque of the Greek ανέκδοτο, which means "short, amusing story", or "joke".
- devindotcom 13y agoYes, this was the meaning I had in mind.
- hessenwolf 13y agoI am thinking mnemonic is the right word here.
- Blahah 13y agoa mnemonic is a device for memorizing information... I don't see how that fits this situation?
- mason55 13y ago> I think (hope) that we'll see a backlash against merging and simplification Why? This seems like it's just an attitude of "I know the 'correct' way and everyone else is wrong". If we can get the same message across in a simpler construct and with less information exchange why is that bad? No one complains that gzip is ruining the web by compressing page loading times.
- devindotcom 13y agoI don't think the changes to language these days are lossless compression, to extend your metaphor.