The Iconoclast
Wednesday, 19 September 2007
Pinker panky

I imagine it's difficult to have a good old ding dong argument with Steven Pinker. Especially on sound symbolism (my emphasis):

Somewhat handier than pure onomatopoeia is sound symbolism, whereby a word’s pronunciation merely reminds people of an aspect of the referent. Long words may be used for things that are big or coarse, staccato words for things that are sharp or quick, words pronounced deep in the mouth or throat for things that took place long ago or far away (compare this and that, near and far, here and there). And if I told you that the Chinese words for “heavy” and “light” were pronounced qìng (with a high tone) and zhòng (with a falling tone), you would be right in thinking that qìng means light and zhòng means heavy.

Aha, but what about now and then? "Now" has a diphthong with back vowels and "then" has a mid front vowel. And the German cognates of near and far are nahe and fern. Nahe has a low back vowel and fern a mid front one. So there, Mr Pinker-Panker-Ponker.

Actually, Pinker is probably more right than wrong, but it is good to find rule-proving exceptions.

Posted on 09/19/2007 6:40 AM by Mary Jackson
Comments
19 Sep 2007
Reactionry
Groundskeeper Wahhabi?
Or: Dither & Yawn
 
Steven "The Piker" Pinker too casually dismisses some colourful etymologies, such as the one about the Babylonian Honey Mead Month/Moon, "out of hand" (see not Long John Silver again, but Cap'n Hook).  Robert Jones (see "Robert Jones Splint", unsuccessfully used in treating Mr. Silver), probably not the author of "Sans Teeth, Sans Caboodle, Sans Krit, Sans Everything", noted that a Hindu sect, after succeeding where all but the "dwarfish folk*" immortalized by Robert Louis Stevenson, had failed, used the expression, "Heather and Yoni", and later brought back with him the expression..........[sorry to drone on; I seem to have put the Gentle Readers to sleep] 
 
*See the "Picts" cited by R.L.S. (also see Restless Lingham Syndrome) and described by Tacitus, not as "swarthy" or  "dwarfish", but "red-haired" and "large-limbed", and the previous "Terror Scot" thread.
I once felt that I might be "going over the line" when I asked someone what folks thought of the Simpsons'  "Groundskeeper Willie" back in her native land.  Her reply both did and undid my mild embarrassment (cheeks probably not quite red enough for the Robert Burns Unit), given that, dolt that I am, had failed to "put two and two together" with respect to her hair colour: "They say I could be his daughter."  -A bonnie bon mot, if not quite a put-down, IMHO -also apparently sufficing to turn away any wrath of her companion.  


19 Sep 2007
Reactionry
 
Eat My Shouts, Dude
 
For those unfamiliar with Groundskeeper Willie, here's a pict [sic] of him telling someone to eat shouts then hoes and leaves.
 
For those who didn't "get" "Heather and Yoni", listen mein Kinder and ye shall hear, not a tale of William Tell or Steven Pinker or Paul Revere, or Tel Aviv or Tel Afar [ht Hugh and to the herds of the tribe which threatened to trample the "Lucy" site (see posted Wordsworth parody)] or Hans Brinker or Silver Skates, or a sailor named Bates (see "Fandango":no nuts, no dates), or midnight gardens near and far, or good or evil Adam and Eve, but, rather gather hither and thither for something out of the Wild Blue Yonder.