LINGUIST List 3.721

Wed 23 Sep 1992

Disc: Reanalyses (Part 2)

Editor for this issue: <>

Directory

1. Herb Stahlke, Reanalyses
2. AHARRIS - Alan Harris, RE: 3.714 Reanalyses
3. , Re: 3.714 Reanalyses
4. Monica Macaulay, reanalyses
5. mark, Reanalyses
6. , iMput
7. Michael Kac, Re: 3.714 Reanalyses
8. Jill Brody, reanalyses

Looking back on my own children's language, I recall two forms that
surprised my when they uttered them and even more when I heard them
from their playmates.

Child #1 (teary-eyed): "He/She beamed me!"

	Meaning: He/She threw a (ball, other missile) at me and hit
		 me.

	My guess: analogy to "to bean," meaning to hit in the head
		 with thrown missile, but influenced by Star Trek.


Child #2 (indignant): "But I did it on accident!"

	My guess: replacing "by accident" by analogy to "on purpose"

Herb Stahlke
Ball State University

Message 2: RE: 3.714 Reanalyses

Under the category of "reanalyses I have always been ashamed of" and "can you
top this?" I wonder how many of us avid readers thought until such and such
an age that:
1) ['pen:lop] was one name for a certain lady in Greek myth and that
[p:'nel:piy] was another name?
2) or that 'superfluous' was pronounced ['soop;r-'floow:s?

Finally, I am from Dayton Ohio [deyt:n:hay:] amd thought until age 12 that
'date 'n' nut cake' was 'nut cake' which had originated in [deyt:n]!

======================================================================
Alan C. Harris, Ph. D. telno: off:
Professor, Communication/Linguistics 818-885-2853/2874
Speech Communication Department hm:
California State University, Northridge 818-780-8872
SPCH CSUN fax: 818-885-2663
Northridge, CA 91330
 Internet: AHARRISVAX.CSUN.EDU

Message 3: Re: 3.714 Reanalyses

>I have a hard time swallowing "elemental B", by the way. By the time
>a child had any notion what "elemental" meant, such that it
>distinguished one kind of B from another, he or she would also have
>discovered that that stretch of the "abc jingle" was more letters of
>the alphabet.

I suspected someone might pick up on this.

I was not trying to say that at the time I misheard the jingle I knew what
"elemental" was, or even thought that the phrase was "_elemental_ B". I
*did* hear a word for "LMNO" and I *did* think it was some type of modifier
to "B" (P), to distinguish it from the regular B. I had no idea what that
adjective was or what it meant. Geez, we had a "double U" in the alphabet,
why not an "elamenl B"? Actually, trying now to dredge up 40 year-old
memories, I'm not sure whether I thought it was "ellamenl" (which was why I
chose "elemental") or "elaminnow."

Sorry about the confusion.

Sherman Wilcox
Dept. of Linguistics
University of New Mexico

Okay, I can't resist jumping on the reanalysis bandwagon. Someone
mentioned "tenure tract" -- surely others of you have, like me, had
relatives express surprise that the tenure decision is usually made
in the 6th or 7th year of one's career, instead of the tenth ("ten-
year," of course).

Monica Macaulay

I heard this in a meeting today, and I've heard it many times
before: /p.r'en.8.si:/ for the singular of "parentheses" ( =
schwa, 8 = theta).

 Mark A. Mandel
 Dragon Systems, Inc. : speech recognition : +1 617 965-5200
 320 Nevada St. : Newton, Mass. 02160, USA

I have no problem imagining that `imput' could be the correct
spelling. After all, English is full of words like `import'
`implant', with the preposition IN, and `imbalance', `impossible'
for the negative IN. I suspect that the former group is moderately
transparent to thoughtful native speakers - therefore why not
`imput'? I tried it for weeks on the computer, but my program
can't or won't do assimilations on the command line.

One of my favorite reanalyses, by the way, is the ad for a
Datsun in the pet section of our local paper.

 Margaret

Message 7: Re: 3.714 Reanalyses

God, this could go on forever! The posting by Willem De Reuse about his
father's attempts to make sense as a child of liturgical Latin reminded
me of two cases in English -- apocryphal in that I can't say I heard them
or said them myself, but with a ring of authenticity: Lead us not into
Penn Station but deliver us from evil; and Surely Good Mrs. Murphy will
follow me all the days of my life.

And one true example of a reanalyzed form whose source is now completely
lowst (I mean low ... lost!) namely *spitting image* from *spit and image*,
*spit* being a now obsolete word meaning 'one who resembles another' (as in
'He's the spit of his father'.) Confession time: I learned this from reading
William Safire. Please don't hold it against me.

Michael Kac

I've been holding back but can no longer resist, since reanalyses fly through
my house, mostly from my 8-year-old twins. Recently, we have movies being
"read at" PG. Also, as sometime Spanish speakers who are currently in the
mode of forgetting, they have reanalyzed "gracias a dios" as "thank you and
good-bye."
Jill Brody gajilllsuvm