Brian Betty wrote:
> On 3-11-99, you wrote: "This discution reminds me on some words that
> usually puzzels me a little when I'm reading English: aestetics and
> inhabitate, after they seams to me they have negating prefixes to the
> Spanish cognate: est=E9tica and habitar. Even more, in Spanish, the wo=
rd
> "inhabitable" means a place you can not live in."
>
> not to criticise a non-native speaker, but it's "aesthetics" and "inhab=
it."
> Inhabitate is a predictable error, but is considered painful to the ear
> (much like the common error ironical - which I have seen in the newspap=
er!
> is a most egregious error for ironic, adv. ironically. It's a parsing e=
rror).
Sorry!
BTW, feel free to correct me, it helps me to write better English.
> What does este'tica mean? The opposite of aesthetic? Is there an opposi=
te
> to aesthetic? The English term is used to refer to a style, mood, or
> feeling, usually in reference to some artistic endeavour. It's not a wo=
rd
> used in daily discourse, and its exact meaning is unclear to many peopl=
e.
> Like me.
Est=E9tica is the same as aesthetics, and used as an adjective means some=
thing that
is artistically beutyfull or like. Then, when I usually read "aesthetic"=
the
first impression is that the writer means just the opposite: as it was
a-esthetic. Well, actually I know that this is an incorrect ethimology f=
rom
=E6sthetics.
> On a different, note, I am a US citizen. I wasn't even aware of the
> difference between inflammable and flammable until now - how's that for
> ironical (heh heh). I also come from RI, where people say nucular for
> nuclear. Yes, they do. The whole damn state. I didn't even know I was
> making an error - Harvard'll sure cure you of speech 'impropers' real
> quick, though.
>
> The misparse that really gets my dander up, however, isn't ironical. It=
's
> pronunciate. Damn it! I *hate* when people say that. Pro-nounce.
> Pro-nounce. Pro-nun-ci-a-tion. Pro-nounce. Everyone, now. Say it togeth=
er.
pro-nounce
pro-nun-ci-a-tion, pro-nounce
pro-nounce
> If I were the Lord, I would permit people to speak as they wish - excep=
t
> for the use of ironical and pronunciate. That'd get you a painful
> lightening bolt every time. Zap!
>
> BB
>
> *********
> I'm a kinky, queer, bisexual genderfucker. And they say, "write what yo=
u
> know." -Cecilia Tan, 'Writing Sex,' OutWrite 1999
>
> You need to have a magpie mind. I think you need to like shiny things.
> -Samuel R. Delaney on what it takes to be a scifi writer, OutWrite 1999
>
> Only 296 shopping days left before the end of the world.
--
Carlos Eugenio Thompson Pinz=F3n
ITEC-Telecom, Colombia
cthompso@alpha.telecom-co.net
http://alpha.telecom-co.net/~cthompso/
Di mi beh em je lok mi ju je kom lon vu am je