Re: [romconlang] -able

On Wed, Apr 16, 2008 at 7:23 AM, B Garcia <montrei13@...> wrote:
> Welll, since we're on gardening terms, in my dialect:
>
>
> Lot = the entire property sans house
>
> Yard = either the front, back, or side planted portions of the lot
I remember back in literature class a few years ago we went through an
extract from a novel, and my teacher highlighted to my class that
"yard" was supposed to invoke a more dreary place than "garden":
apparently while a garden is a verdant place actively taken care of,
"yard" simply refers to an untended garden, usually bare, and having
more concrete, bare soil or such signs of abandonment than "garden".

>
> Garden = the planted areas of the yard, either lawn, ornamentals, or edibles
>
> Bed = any part of the garden but generally specific for a type of
> planting (cutting bed, vegetable bed, perennial bed, etc.)
>
> Driveway = the paved (asphalt, cement, brick, dirt, or partially
> grassed area) that cars are parked on.
>
This reminds me of the polemic against English illogicality that
circulated a few years back. "Why do we park on the driveway and drive
on the parkway?", ran one of the lines.

> Walkway = the path leading to the house, either from the driveway to
> the steps or the steps to the sidewalk
>
> Sidewalk = the (usually) concrete pathway maintained by the city that
> parallels the road in front of the house.
>
<snip>
>
> Pavement = the word alone for me this refers to areas covered in
> cement. If I mean some other material I say x pavement, such as "brick
> pavement" or "stone pavement". I often call the sidewalk the pavement,
> or our cement driveway the pavement. It less often refers to asphalt.
>
A la British usage, Singapore uses pavement solely for the pedestrian
walkways by the sides of roads and not the roads themselves;
generalisation has made it refer also to concrete paths cutting
through parks. "Walk on the pavement" = "walk on the concrete path" !=
"walk on the road".

> Paver = a single cement, brick or stone unit combined with others to
> create a patio, terrace, walkway, sidewalk, or street/road.
>
That's new. I hadn't heard of this term before.

> Asphalt = any area covered in well, asphalt (or bitumen), derived from
> petroleum and mixed with gravel for stability. I reserve this term
> primarily to refer to road surfaces.
>
Here, asphalt is the material used in roads, and never refers
elliptically to the road itself.

>
> Anyway, that's my garden yard lexicon.
>