In Nathan Bierma's language column, he writes about Angela Cheater's article in English Today describing English for Information Technology. Bierma concludes that the grammar of e-English isn't all that new or different, and I tend to agree with him.

1) Making nouns of prepositions - Cheater's examples here are "aboutness" and "non-aboutness," referring to the relevance of a document in a search query. However, Cheater herself acknowledges that "aboutness" originated in philosophy.

2) Making nouns out of verbs - Cheater's examples this time are programs named "Quantify" and "Make." She also argues that e-English commonly makes verbs out of nouns, as in "I interfaced with the computer." We have discussed about this before, such as using "to dialogue," making a verb out of a noun. Bierma suggests a line of herbal products for making nouns out of verbs, "Arise and Shine."

3) Making transitive verbs out of intransitive verbs - Cheater's example here are "evolve the Web" or "mutate the system." Bierma gives an example from an article in Next City, where they said, "...he has so thrived them his company may soon become...." This is probably less common, though.

4) Making new one-word verbs and nouns out of phrasal verbs - Cheater's examples are "logon" and "feedback." "Feedback" is surely a lot older than the Web. There are a lot of these; Bierma gives "fallout," follow-up" and "playoffs."

5) Making a new word from parts of two others - Cheater's examples are "mechantronic" and "notwork," which comes from "not-working-network." Again, there are lots of these, as well. Bierma suggests "infotainment," "ginormous," and "blamestorming."

6) Making new opposites/reversals for words - Computer commands need words for reversal actions, so there are words such as "uninstall" or "unformat" or "deactivate," Cheater says. While Bierma agrees that odd opposites are more common in e-English, there certainly are some in regular English, such as "unlearn" or "disenfranchise."

7) Making new adjectives - by adding -y or -able or -free, such as "configurable" or "deadlockfree." This of course is common in regular English, with words like "doable" or "carefree," Bierma says.

What do you think? Can you come up with examples from regular English?

Looking at Kalleh's first category, making nouns from prepositions, we can include such ancient and familiar words as the inside, the outside, the underside. And we can kick someone in the behind.

Does anyone have further input to add to my output?

Does anyone have further input to add to my output?[/QUOTE]
Definitely not!
'Input' and 'output', though having other valid uses, in this context are vaguely defined generalities. "Does anyone have comments/ replies/additions/criticisms/praise to add to my examples" would be much clearer. I am not getting at H&U but so many of Kalleh's citations of words from e-English, are ugly, contrived, lack precise meaning, and some are painfully ungrammatical. It hurts to read: 'aboutness', 'blamestorming'; and making verbs from nouns such as 'dialogue' makes me scream with anguish.
However, it's surprising how new words that succinctly convey meaning will persist and add to the language. "Feedback' and 'fallout' are, for example, well entrenched, and are less algetic.
Moral: neologisms by all means, but let's please be selective.

"are less algetic" ???

<< wordnerd-running-to-the-dictiionary icon >>

I'm surprised I haven't heard it before; it apparently means "relating to or causing pain."

quote:

Originally posted by Kalleh:
I'm surprised I haven't heard it before; it apparently means "relating to or causing pain."

I' surprised too. In your revered profession you will be more familiar with its opposite: analgesic.