Re: Verb-classifiers and preverbs.

In a message dated 5/3/2008 01:17:57 AM Central Daylight Time,
conlang@AEROJOCKEY.COM writes:


> I believe the reason "ism" was able to break free is that English
> speakers tend to parse -ism words as compound words, since -ism is added
> to a noun and results in a noun.  They think of "ism" as a word roughly
> meaning "focus".  Compare the above to the following hypothetical
> sentence:  "I will not tolerate racefocus, sexfocus, agefocus, or any
> other focuses."  See?  It's "right" to parse it as a compound in one
> case, "wrong" in the other, but there's really not much qualitative
> difference between the two.
>
I agree with all of this except the use of "focus".  I don't think "focus"
comes anywhere near the meaning of "ism".

stevo   </HTML>