Re: Keeping Track of Ambiguity in your Conlang?

 --- Roger Mills <romilly@...> wrote: > Wesley
Parish wrote:
> >> >> ( another pairing i've seen mentioned is
> 'dust'
> >> >> meaning to rid of dust and 'dust' meaning to
> sprinkle
> >> >> with dust, but at least these come from the
> same root )
> >> >
> >> >I do think this is used by everyone, although
> the first
> >> >meaning is probably the more common one.
> >>
> (Moi)
> >> In my life, at least, 'to dust (sprinkle
> with....)' is mainly restricted
> to
> >> the kitchen--
> >> "Dust the cutlets with flour......", Dust with
> powdered sugar"   I can't
> >> imagine dusting something with real
> dust-----though given my housekeeping
> >> habits it could happen....
> >
> >Heard of crop-dusting?  From aircraft?
>
> Ah yes, slipped my mind. Dusting with insecticide.
> But if your crops are simply looking untidy, Martha
> Stewart(TM) recommends
> attaching a really big feather-duster to the plane.
> :-)
>
> Actually this is a quite productive means of
> producing Engl. verbs from
> nouns (and probably the despair of foreign
> learners)--
> box (container), to box
> pocket, to...
> bottle, to...
> bag, to...
> as verbs these generally mean 'put s.t. into NOUN'
> (the noun must be marked
> semantically as "container"; so [recording]tape must
> be a container)
>
well, in london ( and much of england i believe ) the
primary meaning of 'bottle' is 'hit someone over the
head with a bottle'

as in

[?Au 'bo?Uu j3u] 'i'll bottle you' ( heard at 23:15
outside the pub )

similarly 'to glass'

bn

=====
bnathyuw | landan | arR
stamp the sunshine out | angelfish
your tears came like anaesthesia | phèdre

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