This answer is biased because it is based on a selective (and I'd say unwarranted) underlying definition of the terms 'word' and 'productive'. —
Edwin Ashworth 16 hours ago
Your views are not the only ones, though you rarely accept that others may be preferable, or acknowledge them only dismissively. Here is a fairer overview of the situation from
about education: "Sometimes 'nonce-formation' is restricted to linguistically irrelevant, quirky stylistic 'novelties'; sometimes it is seen as fully representative of the system of word-formation defining 'possible words.'" (Pavol Štekauer and Rochelle Lieber, Handbook of Word-Formation. Springer, 2005) —
Edwin Ashworth 6 hours ago
@EdwinAshworth I must be missing your point (which seems unnecessarily argumentative, and that may be the cause of my distraction). I don't see how your cited article conflicts with tchrist's inputs on the subject of nonce formation. It looks like unnecessary hair-splitting to me, but that could be a byproduct of trying to be concise. Maybe you can elaborate here in comments or in an answer also addressing the OP's question. What am I missing from your comment? —
Jim 5 hours ago
@Jim I'm referring to the statement ' “productive” affixes, a word that means they can be used at will to create any which word the coiner desires.' I've placed a question addressing whether this statement is true, or whether the word 'productive' is being used here with a sense which is unlicensed. The use of 'highly productive affixes', 'slightly productive affixes', and 'no longer productive' affixes in say academic articles indicates, I'm convinced, that this is the case. —
Edwin Ashworth 3 hours ago
He appears to have downvoted just about everything I have posted in the last few weeks.
How can that statement be wrong?
Productive affixes can be used to create new words at need.
Now he wants to quibble about whether some affixes are more or less productive than others.
Which of course, they are. But that is stupid.
Maybe it’s the -ize thing.
Maybe he hates versionize.
And yes, it all seems unnecesssarily argumentative.
But that is nothing compared to a couple of other users, new ones, who write 5-page comment chains argying with people.
I need to find a new place to be.
Fortunately, mods are able to transplant entire rants to a chat room now.
And note that I am not even tangentially involved in any of that.
But it is not conducive to comfort zones.
I spent about three hours tonight researching professional literature of affix productivity in English.
And I was an idiot to have bothered.
We had a serious hail storm here today.
Today I learned that just as each 1000 feet of elevation gain is like 3–5 degrees F cooler, it is also like being 600 miles further north.
So that is how to convert altitude to latitude.
Technically, it is 300 meters of altitude equates to 2 degrees C. Something like that.
It might well be that 300 meters of altitude therefore equals a megameter further north.
macbook# units '600 miles' 'megameter'
* 0.9656064
/ 1.0356187
If 300 meters equates to 1000 kilometers, than each meter up is about 3 km north.
If 300 meters higher equates to 1000 kilometers more northwards, than each meter up is about 3 km north.
Oh strange. That was an edit.
Maybe I should use a different browser.
Things are moving but I cannot see anything.
I can’t get the room to load.
I will be gone for a “long” time.
I am going away tomorrow.
If I’m not back in a week or so, I guess I got lost.
Discussion on answer by Brillig: Exis…
Here in the following sentences why are we using "I thought she might have had" with 'had', why not simply "I thought she might have"?
Vincent remembered Eddie’s wife, “I knew Naedine very well; she was very nice to me. I felt I had a great rapport with her".
Vincent said, “Eddie didn’t talk m...
I hear this phrase used to describe people who are sort of nordic, but where does it come from?
