Phrase-Words and Phrase-Derivatives

THE TRUE CHARACTER of a linguistic phenomenon sometimes fails to be clearly recognized, for no deeper reason than this, that no one has taken the trouble to describe it and propound a good name for it. An apt designation, if it be clear and self-explaining, suggests at once a category in which many seemingly unrelated facts find uinity. 'While we were breakfasting' is English. 'He broke his hip by falldowning' is not. Why? because the combination 'break fast,' as is shown by the pronunciation and by the fact that it is under the domain of a single accent, has become what may fitly be called a 'phrase-word,' while 'fall down' has not become a phrase-word. Derivatives of phrase-words may be styled 'phrase-derivatives.' Phrase-words and phrase-derivatives are common in English and Sanskrit and Pali. These designations may suggest to Anglicists and Indianists and others the interesting task of collecting the facts and studying them. A few examples may be given. English.-Lady Macbeth's 'Letting I-dare-not wait upon Iwould.' Boswell 's 'A plain matter-of-fact man.' From a phrase-adjective, good-for-nothing, comes the abstract goodfornothing-ness. So straightforward-ness. From the phrase-word et-cetera has been formed the adjective eteeter-al: as in 'the etceteral term of an equation.' And from pro rata (in proportion) has been made the verb to prorate (assess proportionally). The phrase so-and-so is as truly a word as is its precise Sanskrit equivalent asdu. Hence it is entirely licit to give it a genitive inflection and say 'so-and-so's oxen.' Differing from this in degree rather than in kind are the examples given in the 'funny column' of the newspaper. Thus: 'Is that puppy yours or your little brother's?' 'It's both-ofus 's. ' St. Mark, narrating the betrayal of Jesus, says: 'And one of them that stood by drew a sword, and smote a servant of the high priest, and cut off his ear.' A modern lad renders it: 'He cut off the servant of the high priest's ear.' For other examples

Determiner phrase · Endocentric and exocentric · Linguistics · Natural language processing · Noun phrase · Phrase · Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science · Lexicography and Language Studies · Linguistics and language evolution · Linguistics, Language Diversity, and Identity · Philosophy