English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

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Anthony

18:00

Hey is anyone there?

skill patrol

Anthony

Hey

Are loan words just any foreign words that get used in a language?

Wikipedia seems to suggested that café is a loan word, but later on it lists it as a foreign word.

skill patrol

I think loan words are initially foreign.

Anthony

I know, but at what point is something considered a loan word? Just when it is used often enough?

skill patrol

Yes, while you're using it as a foreign word it's on loan :-)

Define: loan word

Is that ^ what you mean?

I would just use loan·word
ˈlōnˌwərd/
noun
noun: loan-word
a word adopted from a foreign language with little or no modification.

I'm not sure I understand what you are asking for?

Anonymous

18:22

I don't think you can draw a clear line and say "Before this point, it was not a word. Now it is!"

Anonymous

You can probably call it a loanword if you use it as a word in English.

Anonymous

But loans become regularized in morphology, pronunciation and spelling; they can shift in meaning, or the original can shift in meaning independently of the loan; and they can become established parts of the language they're borrowed into.

Anonymous

They remain loanwords, of course.

skill patrol

Definition of FOREIGN WORD. 1. : a word of a foreign language. 2. : a word taken from another language, pronounced and written as alien, and in English usually printed in italics.

Anonymous

English futon is not a native word, even though it has non-Japanese pronunciation (/ˈfuˌtɑn/), non-Japanese morphology (plural futons), non-Japanese meaning, ...

Anonymous

18:28

In the case of cafe, we can find differences in spelling, pronunciation, and meaning compared to the word it was borrowed from. It's clearly an English word, but it's also clearly a loan from French café.

Anonymous

English speakers have it in their mental lexicon, even many young speakers who might not have learned that it's from French yet.

Damkerng T.

Another example of foreign words: Muay Thai.

Hmm... is it a foreign word?

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. It's two words in Thai, isn't it?

Damkerng T.

How about Taekwondo?

skill patrol

Judo?

Damkerng T.

18:32

@snailboat It's unclear. It's a bit like homework, housework.

I think of it as one word.

Anonymous

Oh, I thought you were in favor of analyzing Thai as having few multisyllabic words apart from loans

Damkerng T.

@skillpatrol Karate!

skill patrol

Anonymous

We write it as two orthographic words in English, but I think it's clearly one lexical item.

Anonymous

Muay Thai, I mean.

skill patrol

18:34

Anonymous

Taekwondo and karate are both single words, even in the original languages.

Anonymous

Jūdō too.

Damkerng T.

@snailboat I have a mixed feeling about this word. :-)

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Well, it can be quite hard to define what constitutes a 'word'.

Damkerng T.

nods

skill patrol

18:36

runs

Anonymous

In English, we often let the orthography influence how we think about the "wordness" something has.

Anonymous

Becausewedon'twritelikethisIguess.

Damkerng T.

But it can be tricky too. For example, is copy editing one word or two?

Anonymous

Sure, why not?

Phonics The Hedgehog

18:58

@Cerberus @Mitch ah, I see. Thank you very much guys.

Faheem Mitha

19:32

Is there a good word for someone who you think has the right intentions? Well-intentions? And what about a corresponding noun? Well-intentionality?

Faheem Mitha

19:42

And how about describing someone when you are only concerned with their intentions?

Recognize Evil as Waste

20:30

I see that "to soft pedal" means "to slow down something", figuratively. I cannot find corresponding "to pedal" that would mean "to promote/drive (some topic)".

2 hours later…