[MR] Any Linguists In The Tavern?

[Peters, Rise J.]

The most enjoyable book I've read on this topic recently is Pinker's Words and Rules.  http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0060958405/qid=1044882565/br=1-19/ref=br_lf_b_19//102-0791418-7208115?v=glance&s=books&n=11986

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Towey, Brian [mailto:cbt4489 at glaxowellcome.com]
> Sent: Thursday, February 06, 2003 12:36 PM
> To: atlantia at atlantia.sca.org
> Subject: [MR] Any Linguists In The Tavern?
>
>
> Friends and neighbors,
>
> I remember a linguistics class from long ago where the prof
> mentioned a
> bunch of patterns in Old English that carry through into
> modern English.
>
> There was the -som suffix, which makes a property into an adjective:
> 	lissome
> 	buxom
> 	toothsome
> 	handsome
>
> There was the -ester suffix, which indicates that a word has
> an opposite:
> 	eastern western
> 	northern southern
> 	best worst
> 	brother sister
> 	mother father
>
> From the Latin side, we get agent/patient tags in words,
> which tell us who
> is the doer and who is the done-to.  Active parties are -ers,
> -ors, and
> -ists, while passive parties are -ents, -ees, and -ects.  (As
> a linguistic
> determinist, the prof was convinced that social hierarchy was
> of a piece
> with the language that conceived it.)
>
> I'm not sure where we get the -yer suffix, which makes a tool into an
> occupation:
> 	bowyer
> 	lawyer
> 	sawyer
>
> I was trying to explain some of these patterns to my 2nd
> grader, who is
> wrestling with the subtleties of spelling.   Do any of you
> know of a good
> book on such things?  Etymologies are usually word by word, and an Old
> English grammar would probably not address modern usage.  But, I bet
> somebody, somewhere has a treatise on such patterns.  What's
> more, if there
> is such a book, I'd bet someone in this group has read it.
>
> Many thanks,
>
> Charles Fleming
>
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