LINGUIST List 3.140

Tue 11 Feb 1992

Disc: -ish, Def

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  • "R.Hudson", -ish
  • Dr M Sebba, Ish
  • , "Def"

    Message 1: -ish

     Date: Mon, 10 Feb 92 08:32:33 +0-ish
    From: "R.Hudson" <uclyrahucl.ac.uk>
    Subject: -ish


    Margaret Fleck notes that -ish can be added after a sentence, and expresses surprise since it isn't normally an independent word. Ok, it may not be independent in the way that, say, DOG is; but it combines quite freely with syntactically-formed phrases, especially time-phrases:

    half past seven-ish eight o'clock-ish

    nine-thirty-ish

    This in itself suggests that it may be a separate word, combined with a whole phrase - i.e. a clitic along the lines of 's, as in _the king of Spain's daughter_.

    It would be very interesting to see how any of our existing generative grammar theories could accommodate the restriction to a phrase which defines a time of day.

    Dick Hudson Dept of Phonetics and Linguistics, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT (071) 387 7050 ext 3152 home: (081) 340 1253

    Message 2: Ish

     Date: Tue, 11 Feb 92 13:24:38 GMIsh
    From: Dr M Sebba <eia023cent1.lancs.ac.uk>
    Subject: Ish


    In response to Margaret Fleck's note about Ish: it's widespread. My students do it. But I've no idea how well established it is, or what regions/classes/age groups it covers. Plenty of interesting research to be done here. I'll try to interest someone in doing a dissertation on it.

    Message 3: "Def"

     Date: Fri, 7 Feb 92 16:26:13 PDT"Def"
    From: <a-peggymmicrosoft.COM>
    Subject: "Def"


    I received three possible etymologies of "def" from Linguist readers (thanks!):

    (1) The Afrikaaner Hypothesis: "deftig" means 'smart' or 'chic' in Afrikaaner. Respondent was not sure of use in Nederlands.

    (2) The Death Hypothesis: possibly an alteration of the word "death", with final /th/ becoming /f/. The semantic connection: the phrase 'to death' is used to mean 'extremely', as in `They discussed it to death', `I love you to death', etc. We also say related things like 'to die for' meaning 'extremely good'.

    (3) The Definite Hypothesis: possibly a back-formation of "definitely" or "definitive", on the model of "fab" for fabulous.