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?
What? There are always new words being added to every language
in active use.  These arise spontaneously, and constantly. In the
case of new technology, there are many ways to describe something:
morphologically (e.g. railroad); polysemy (e.g. computer); sheer
coining (e.g. googol);  borrowing, calquing, etc. etc.

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Thomas Wier          "...koruphàs hetéras hetére:isi prosápto:n /
Dept. of Linguistics  mú:tho:n mè: teléein atrapòn mían..."
University of Chicago "To join together diverse peaks of thought /
1010 E. 59th Street   and not complete one road that has no turn"
Chicago, IL 60637     Empedocles, _On Nature_, on speculative thinkers