A Five-Year Topical Index, Schemes and Mind Maps of English

Download A Five-Year Topical Index and more Schemes and Mind Maps English in PDF only on Docsity! I 240 A FIVE-YEAR TOPICAL INDEX The following index has been de signed to help the reader easily lo­ cate specific example s of wordplay appearing in the fir st five volumes of Word Ways. It was decided at the outset that an alphabetical index would not do; the field of recreational linguistics is so new that term­ inology is far from standardized. Nearly everyone knows what an an­ agram or a palindrome is; fewer people can identify an isomorph or a pangram; almost no one can define a polygram or a switch word. In­ stead, a topical index has been designed; a taxonomy of wordplay has been set up so that the casual reader can rather quickly move to the relevant section of the index and search through a small collection of clo sely- related de scriptor s to find what he wants. No claim is made that this taxonomy is definitive; it is quite likely that no room ha s been included for important (but a s yet unsuspected) topics in recreational linguistics. Nevertheless, the person interest­ ed in understanding how different kinds of wordplay relate to each oth­ er should find novel connections and insights. The index has been made as self-explanatory as po s sible. The de­ scriptor s are intended to be suggestive rather than definitive; however t sample words with the specified property are often given in parenthe­ sis following the descriptor. All references are given in volume-page form; thu s, 5 - 23 refer s to the 23rd page in Volume 5 (in the February 1972 is sue). Note that relevant material may continue on for several pages. Reader s may be helped by an overview of the way in which the in­ dex has been put together. Broadly speaking, words can be classified in three different ways -- by sight, by sound, and by meaning. The emphasis in Word Ways during the first five years has been on words as collections of letters (sight); some attention has been paid to their meaning; relatively little consideration has been given to words as collections of sounds. The imbalance between sight and sound may, perhap s, reflect the fact, well-known to psychologi sts t that the brain receive s much more information through the eye than the ear. Aca­ demic linguistic studies place much greater emphasis on meaning than either sight or sound; on the other hand, word puzzles and games (from Carroll, Dudeney and Bombaugh onward) stress sight and sound. Word-puzzle s, however, focus on the individual word oddity j one of the major objectives of recreational linguistics has been to integrate the se scattered re suIts, to understand how diffe rent word properties relate to each other, and to di scover (a s a re suIt of thi s integration) new logological world to conquer. The fir st book on recreational lin­ guistic s to attempt a unified approach, Dmitri Borgmann's Language on Vacation insights, ta Word Ways of wordplay Althoug: natural and in Word Wa parts: Lanl tion) and E puzzle sand sonal name errors). '] to an elabol How cal can be disti 1 ) somt wher lette 2) next j word word 3) furtb word role 4) final: lecH, This suggeE a 2-by-2-bj would be en produce an 1) all IE 2) somE 3) grou] 4) alpha 5) word In general, the final lin In crypt, ciphers, in tution ciphe ample, all J mations giv' into groups be transpos: morphs (ha' l er easily 10­ :ive volume s eti c al index 'lJ that te r m- what an an­ omorph or a b. word. In­ ordplay has lOve to the ollection of s quite likely lnsuspected) JOn interest- to each oth­ ble. The de­ :ive; however, in parenthe­ volume-page the February for several 'hich the in­ be classified ning. The en on words paid to their words as iound may, lat the brain ear. Aca­ meaning ;l s and game s ght and sound. tty; one of :0 integrate properties lntegration) eational lin­ s Language 241 on Vacation, was published in 1965. This index builds on Borgmann's insights, taking advantage of experience gained during five years of Word Ways to attempt a more elaborate and sugge stive clas sification of wordplay. Although the sight- sound-meaning c1as sification appear s to be a natural and useful one, it does not easily embrace all of the articles in Word Ways. Therefore, the index has been divided into two major parts: Language Re search (using the sight-ound-meaning clas sifica­ tion) and Entertainments (special formats, such as fiction, poetry, puzzle s and games; special vocabularie s, such as place name s, per­ sonal names and lists of related words; book reviews and dictionary errors). The remainder of this introductory article will be devoted to an elaboration of the sight- sound-meaning das sification. How can words be clas sified by sight? At least four dimensions can be distinguished: 1) some properties of words focus upon all the letters in a word whereas other propertie s focus upon only part of a word -- the letter s in the remainder are irrelevant 2) next, one can distinguish between propertie s involving a single word and properties which can be exhibited only for a group of words (relations of different words to each other) 3) furthermore, one can draw a dichotomy between properties of words in which the alphabetic arrangement of letters plays no role, and properties of words in which this role is essential 4) finally, consider a change of the basic unit: sentences as col­ lections of words instead of words as collections of letters This suggests that word appearance properties should be displayed in a 2-by-2-by-2-by-2 table; however, many of the boxes in this table would be empty. Accordingly. various boxes have been combined to produce a ne sted structure: 1) all letters used (single words. alphabet-independent, letter units) 2) some letters used ( single words, alphabet-independent, letter un) 3) groups of words (alphabet-independent, letter units) 4) alphabet- dependent (letter units) 5) word units In general, each line exhibits a successively coarser classification; the final line includes eight boxes of the original table. In cryptography, two basic cipher systems are used - - permutation ciphers, in which the letters of a message are scrambled, and substi ­ tution ciphers, in which the letters of a message are replaced (for ex­ ample, all A I s with C' s, all B I s with M' s, etc.). The se two transfor­ mations give the logologist two different methods for classifying words into groups according to properties based on all letters: two words can be transpositions (have the same letters) , or two words can be iso­ morphs (have the same pattern). Isomorphic groups of particular in­ 244 ary between the se territorie s. One can look for words which have all their letters from the first half of the alphabet (or, indeed, any short­ er segment). It is somewhat easier to look for words containing a group of alphabetically adjacent letters scattered through them, either in random or proper alphabetic order. Letter- scoring leads to a var­ iety of qua si-mathematical exercise s, such as numerical tautonyms , difference words, poker words, and centrally balanced beam words. (Other example s in Dmitri Borgmann t s book are shift words and ACE words. ) There are only a few Word Ways example s illustrating the final aspect of the appearance of words: properties based on words as units instead of letters as units. This field of wordplay is so underdeveloped that it is unreasonable to impose a logical structure on it at this time. It seems fairly evident that one cannot classify by analogy with letters as units. The classification of words according to sound is much less elab­ orate than that for words according to sight. Earlier, the basic units we re letter s; now, they are syllable s or phoneme s. No one seems to have considered using phonemes as surrogates for letters, and re­ peating the various studie s outlined above -- phonetic palindromes, transposals, etc. One difficulty seems to be that the phonetic II alpha­ bet" is rather large (there are many subtle variations in vowel sounds) and ill-defined (one sound can grade continuously into another) . Furthermore, regional variations in pronunciation are far greater than regional variations in spelling. The relationship between letters and syllables has been occasionally explored in Word Ways - - long one- syllable and two- syllable words, as well a sword s with many syllables per letter. Homonyms (words sound­ ed the same but spelled differently) and heteronyms (words spelled the same but sounded differently) are inverse concepts which can be devel­ oped in such surprising ways a s homonymic sentence-pair sand hetero­ nymic sentence-pair s. The clas sification of words according to meaning is decidedly Ie s s saH sfactory. Certain topic s in thi s section are related to the struct­ ure of language - - how words are related to each other. Just as words can be classified by means of their letters or syllables, so can they be clas sified by meaning: synonyms and antonyms. In conveying mean­ ing, the structure of language becomes important, and words play many specialized roles: parts of speech, tense s and conjugations, singulars and plurals. Of almost equal importance is the distinction between the objective meaning of a word (as given in a dictionary) and the subjective meaning of a word (how people react to it): conno­ tations. Other topics are related to the problems that people encounter in communicating thoughts and ideas by means of language. Problems arise in meaning because language is not a static thing; in the words of a well-kr language ch find a word may invent to different problem of translation. human deve and contrad THE SIGH1 A. Propert 1. Tran Clas s Entr Fact Mutt 1= Spec 3 Trar: c Sent~ 1= 2, Isorr: Clas E Isorr: Spec Lon~ Amb Sim\: Palh 4 f Swit< Taut 3, Ana~ h have all any short­ .ining a ern, either s to a var­ utonyms, n words. s and ACE he final ds as unit s erdeve10ped this time. lith lette r s less elab­ )asic unit s ~ seems to and re­ lromes, tic 11 a1pha­ )wel nto another) . greater occasionally Le words, as words sound­ , spelled the an be devel­ and hetero­ ided1y1ess :he struct­ 1st as words can they be ing mean­ ds play :ations, listinction ionary) .t): conno­ :ounter in )rob1ems the words 245 of a well-known Protestant hymn, time makes ancient good uncouth: language change and specialization. In particular, if people cannot find a word in the existing language to express their meaning, they may invent a new one: coinage s. Ultimately, language change lead s to different dialects and completely different languages, and the problem of communicating meaning is solved in a more formal way: translation. Problems also arise in meaning because language is a human development; it doe s not always follow a logical set of rule s, and contradictions can arise: ambiguities and inconsistencie s. IN DE X THE SIGHT OF WORDS A. Properties Involving All Letters in the Word 1. Transpo sitions (DEARTH- THREAD-HA TRED) Classification: 4-1etter types 4-55 4-169, 5-letter types 3-25, selected 6-letter type s 3- 2 7 Entrie s in a transposition dictionary 4- 28 4-143 Factorization of transpositions 4-161 Multiple transpositions 4-3 4-143, including capitalization and punctuation 4- 82 4-168 Spe cific transpositions: long words 2- 24 2-119, mathematical 3-112, state names 3-222 4-14 5-15, Caroline 4-68 Transposition puzzles: animals 1-146 2-162, elements 1-55, countries 1-97, proverbs 1-87, anatomy 1-113, cities and states 4-119, cities and towns 5-210 Sentence-length transpositions: te1anagrams 3- 35 3- 82, trans­ pose every word in sentence separately 3-138 5-15 2. Isomorphs (EXCESS- BAMBOO-MAUMEE) Classification: 4-1etter types 4-228 5-5, 5-1etter types 4-113, 6-1etter types 4-229 5-5 Isomorph dictionary need 4-227, fulfillment 5-3 5-205 Specific word patterns 3-48 4- 131 4-135 5 - 5 Longest non-unique word pattern, shortest unique pattern 5-44 Ambiguous sub stitution cipher s 3- 241 4- 55 4-119 Simultaneous isomorphs and transpositions 5-104 5-174 Palir,dromes (DEIFIED): long 3- 5, each central letter 4-133 4-2105-6, Abplanalp 5-113 5-177, catoptrons (mirror re­ flection) 1-39 4-92 4-144 Switch words (IN/TERPRET/IN/G}: 1-112-595-65-205 Tautonyms ( MURMUR): 1-142 5-24 near tautonyms 5-24 3. Anagrammatic Isomorphs (BUGABOO- MILLION- COXCOMB) I I 4-1 246 Classification: 10-letter types 4-231 5-14 Specific word patterns 4-135 Sparseness (total distinct letters/total letters) 5-49 5-81 5-109 Isograms (AMBIDEXTROUSLY): long 3-123 5- 22, dictionary 5-79, 26-letter sentence (pangram) 1-1015-205, transpo­ sitions of long isograms 3- 29 5-145 Multiple isograms (ARRAIGNING): 1-201 4-136 4-142 5-7 5-25 5-143 5-205 Polygrams (UNNUN, NONILLION) ~ 5-49 5-110 Pyramid words (EFFETE, SLEEVELESS): 3-109 5-26 5-236 Most different letter s 5- 22 4. Length of Words Dictionary words, 23-plus letters 5-82 5-145 5-205, longest Websterian word 1-33 4-116 5-22, one-letter words 5-238 Chemical nomenclature 1-33 4-56 4-80 French place name 1-230 2-124 B. Properties Involving Some Letters in a Word 1. Letter s in Specified Position in Word All beginnings/endings (ToucH): long words 3-324-454-195 5-15, short words 3-33 5-40 5-81 Heads' n tails words (UNDERgroUNDER): 1-249 2-186 3-48 3-107 4-170, each central letter 4-132 5-6 5-24, center also a word 5-181 Doubled beginnings/endings (AAlII): 1-17 All terminal bigrams 3-152 3-211 2. Isolated Letters, Any Position in Word Several rare letters (JuKeboX): 1-69 1-249 3-180 5-162 5-206 Each vowel once (hOUsEmAId): all vowel orders 2-208 3-18, uoiea 1-25, yuoiea 1-206, each vowel twice (thrice) 3-18 3-1475-17 High proportion of vowels 1-138 2-136 3-213, low proportion (abstemious words) 1-1382-133 5-26 5-515-108 5-174 Shortest words, three letters same 4-135 5-7, four same 2-53 3-147 3-1815-75-23, five same 3-2524-1445-7, most letters of one kind 5-23, most different letters 5-22 3. Isolated Letter Groups, Any Po sition in Word Bigrams (bUXom): sample dictionary 2-215 3-19, xx 1-198 5-14 Trigrams (reGALe): sample dictionary 2-166 2- 245 3 -1 7 3- 253 three letters same 2-522-2033-17 5-7, abc-xyz 5-22, gal 4-242, all-vowel trigrams 4-594-814-124 Multigrams: 4-52 4-116 5-23, internal palindromes 1-12 5-23 Repeated big rams , trigrams (INsINuatINg): 3-176 5-25, suc­ cessive doubled letters (bOOKKEEper) 1-152 1-2184-180 Alternating monotonies (sYzYgY): 1-31 4-77 5-23 4. All 26 Letters Used (Pangrams) Sentences using all letters at least once 1-1011-116, at least twice 4-181 4-209, word sets using all letters at least once Natura neE 5. Symbo Specia Arabic Interne Superf Most a me 6. Omiss Te st f( Constr C. Propertie L All Wo Mutual ParHa hal so pe~ pIe ea< Be of ParHa GC Dice y.. Single. 4-] 2. All We No woo 5­ Crash tio Word: de de lo! Be Garbh 3­ Single 3. Word Word Word· Word· Ll x5 fewest :ferent 1et­ 17 43-147 ~~ 4-73, . another deleted 2-145 laritab1e 9, t-DISC­ partial ences ) 4-144 5-22 :onD) : er: 5-186 ~AQK): 2-25 ) 3 - 151 3- 244 .3): 3-231 Ire): termi­ ters 5-133 5-140 ~8 ~ 12xl + 5x3): :kpile of Lysis of 249 Palindrome s: 2-125 Word cycle rings (SAW HORSE I HORSE POWER. POWER SAW): 1-118 3-38 3-41 3-84 Lexemes (multi-word phra se s): with isolated letters 3-233 4- 52 4-100 5-23, longest lexeme 4-116, internal (hidden) words (OVO in AB OVO) 5-27 5-185 Paragraph characterized by word-lengths: 4-12 4- 81, pi mne­ monic 1- 146 Pangrammatic paragraph (all words different): 5 - 39 Word squares with words in cells: 1-225 Acronyms: 3- 23 5 THE SOUND OF WORDS 1. Syllabification Longest one-syllable word 2-1803-783-1093-1735-27, two­ syllable word 1-88 3-79 3-148 4-117 5-26 Words with high syllable s /letter s ratio 2-180 3-45 3-77 3-148 4-11 7 5-27 Add letter s, reduce number of syllable s 3 -49 2. Homonyms (RIGHT I WRITE, RITE, WRIGHT) Examples 2- 184, three different initial letter s, none sounded 4- 8, two homonyms with no common letters 1-144, homonyms with transpo sitions also homonyms 2-120 Rhyme s (te rminal homonyms): one- syllable words rhyming with A 1-22 1-224, V-W rhymes (VERILY-WARILY) 5-1225-166, sight rhymes 1-243, oh-rhYJTIe terminated with 15 different letters 5-235 Homonymic sentence-pairs 2-143, French pairs 2-142 3-101 English-foreign pair s 3-232 Sentences of homonyms (I EYE AYE-AYE) 5-131 5-204, stutterances (GOD, FREE GODFREY) 5-146 3. Heteronyms (Poli sh, polish) Examples 1-107 1-1512-1504-9, literary format 1-219 Sight rhymes (terminal heteronyms): 1-243, -OUGH varia.tions 4-118 Heteronymic sentence-pair s 2-7 2-142 t Fo ster compounds 2-205 4. Writing-Spea.king Inconsistencies Writeable but not speakable I and vice versa 3-48 Lette r sounded in word but not written 3-168, letter written in word but not sounded 3-168 Change one letter, strongly alter pronunciation ( CHEMlSE­ CHEMIST) 3-49 Sentences difficult to pronounce 1-144, harde st word to pronounce 4- 8, no pronunciation given 3- 80 4- 8, strange pronunciations 5-150, wordy definition of a pronunciation 3-235 5. Spelling Spelling illogic (GHOTI = FISH) 2-119, simplified spelling move­ ment 4-40, "s as in sea" ambiguity 5-171, W spelled like U 250 ambiguity 3-206, exceptions to spelling rules 2-90 Spelling quizzes 1-15 1-84 1-152 THE MEANING OF WORDS A. The Structure of Language 1. Singular s and Plurals One plural, many singulars 2-182 3-47 3-199 5-28, one singu­ lar, many plurals 2-182 3-47 3-2013-211 Words simultaneously singular and plural 3-198 Plurals ending in every letter of alphabet 3-169 3-198 Add letters at end to form plural 3-195 4-19 5-28, inside word 3-196 4- 80, at beginning 3-197, subtract letter s 4-19 3-197 Words existing only in singular or in plural form 3-196 4-80 Plurals unlike singulars 3-195 3-2114-23 False plural s 4-176, collective nouns 5- 230 Plurals spelled same, pronounced differently 4- 24 Formation of plurals by II singular" rule s 4-19 Special plurals: lexemes 4- 20, - MAN words 4- 22, container­ ful plurals 4- 21 2. Part s of Speech, Tense s, Conjugations Most consecutive verbs 3-66, different verbs but same noun form 2-182, past tenses 5-28 Most prepositions ending sentence 1-172 3-83 Adjectives following their nouns 3-1094-524-117, adjectives not changed to adverb by adding -LY 3-110, adjectives re­ lated to the major planets 4-173 Definite article: 5-208, 5-233 II If I was the President. .. II 2-186 3-48 3. Subjective Meanings (Connotations) of Words Word association test 3-238, sandwich fillings 3-43, crossword puzzle 2-68 Comforting Wor ds 3-60, immoral words starting with L 1- 3 8, beautiful words 2-69 4-52 5-16 5-111, ugly words 2-69, beautiful words, ugly context 5-144, dangerous word 5-153, sad words 3-92, euphemisms for jobs 1-105, pejorative words 5-76 4. Synonyms and Antonyms Words with essentially same meaning 2-123 3-175 3-233 Same spellings, two opposite meanings 2-118 2-179 Redundant words (first half, last half synonyms) 2-125 Synonym-transpositions 4-170 5-173 3- 233, synonym-palin­ dromes (different languages) 4-241 Internal synonyms (caLumnIEs) 1-245 B. Problems in Communication 1. Language Change and Specialization Problems of change 3-102 3-170 4-174 4-238, shifted meanings 1- 1~ mea Word OJ two cita Double­ ingE Meanin! 2. Coinage Degree: LGlng pC! gral lett. New wo Artifici Help Fi Produc1 Specifi< 3-1· 3. Transl. Problel terJ Foreigl Eng 4. Ambig1: Irish bl leg. NewspC! 3-2 Self-de to C! Lingui~ ENTERTAINl 1. Poetry Relatio TransF 4-] lin 2-] Palind 2-2 2-] pIa Acrost lin' 2-] Lipogr ChangE o me singu­ 8 lside word 4-19 3-197 96 4-80 ontainer­ ne noun djeetives :tive s re- crossword :l L 1-38, ds 2-69, rord 5- 153, orative .233 .25 l-palin­ i meanings 251 1-1983-85, obsolete meanings 4-25 4-1725-29, pedantic meanings 5- 231 Word origins: Indian words 3- 20, eponyms 3- 95, words with two distinct origins 2-122 2-146, Jim and the Bible 1-40, citations in Webster I s dictionary 3- 249 Double-duty words 4-112 5-168, words with specialized mean­ ings 3-50 3-81 4-172 5-51, obscure meanings 1-83 Meaning quizzes 1-2002-1232-1812-1843-1723-175 2. Coinages of Words Degree s of word admis sibility 4- 120 LGlng palindromes 3-5, long transpositions 3-136, multiple i80­ grams 5-102, strong & weak verbs 5-98, successive doubled letters 4-1801-120, pyramid words 5-236 New words in print 1-71 5-95 5-143 5-204 Artificial language 4- 241, Pig Latin 3-44 3-17 5 Help Fill Word Gap 2-48, un-negatives 2-119 Product names 1-146 1-173 1-220 1-802-745-14 Specific coinages 1-86 2-3 (logology) 2-52 2-55 2-57 3-49 3-81 3-180 3-236 3-2224-114-144-1444-1714-207 5-69 3. Translation Problems with poetry 4-46, specifics 4-1744-218 5-15, extra­ terrestrial 1- 202, birds 2- 79, bee s 4- 53 Foreign language II looks" English 2-134 4-241 5-179, II sounds ll English 3- 232 4. Ambiguities and Inconsistencies Irish bulls 3-104, contradictory proverb-pairs 4-210 4-137 legal inconsi stencie s 5- 228 Newspaper, magazine, song boners 3-45 3-111 3-170 3- 232 3-2344-504-237, Mystery news 3-145, blunders 2-163 Self-descriptive words (autologs) 2-1824-2405-171, "up to and morel! 4-237, exception to every rule 5-46 Lingui stic illusions 5-11 ve rbal illusions 5- 81 ENTERTAINMENTS 1. Poetry Relation of poetry to word-play 2-4 Transpositions: lines 1ette r-transposals of each other 2- 13 3 -1 07 4-172, two poems using same set of letters in corresponding lines 2-16, two (three) poems using same stockpile of words 2-18 2-85 3-140 3-209 4-83 1-143 Palindromes: how to compose 5-55 5-220, line-by-line in poem 2-20 4-250 5-80 5-221, whole poem 1-17 1-153 2-7 2-20 2-135 4-249 5-223, using words as units 4-249, poems ex­ plaining a palindrome 2-32 2-49 2-55 Acrostics: 1-53 1-112 1-180 1-199 2-832-140 3-2034-515-195, lines beginning JAN, FEB .. 2-31, aero-double (triple) 2-159 3-203 4-2515-196, anachutt1es 2-82 3-204 5-116 Lipograms 2-30 3-18 2-138 Change line-lengths, change mood of poem 5-170