Re: THEORY: lexical shift [was Re: Time machine]

>Quoting Christopher B Wright <faceloran@...>:
>
>> ObLanguage: There are (almost) no new words in any language. To get a
>> specialized vocabulary for time travel or space travel, what would a
>> language do?
[Using English for examples]

1 - It borrows words from the massive body of literature it will have
inevitably already written on similar topics, e.g. 'ansible', 'hyperspace',
'phaser'.

2 - It borrows analogous words from regular language and extends their
meaning, e.g. 'jump', 'wormhole', 'uplift'

3 - It borrows terms used in scientific (and pseudo-scientific) descriptions

4 - It borrows commercial terms, e.g. xerox(tm), picard(tm) maneuver

Brand *spanking* new words are more likely to come out of 1 and 4, although
science invents a few every now and then ('google' as mentioned, 'quark'
lifted out of FW).  Both science and everyday language are probably more
likely to create words out of new combinations of old morphemes.

    *Muke!
--
http://www.frath.net/

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