Tag Archives: semantics

Glass, Bamboo, Curry

Posted on April 4, 2012 by achouston

I was intrigued by a recent question posted at Quora about whether there is a bamboo ceiling in American corporate culture, parallel to the idea of a glass ceiling, but with reference to the experience of Asians’ efforts to become promoted to … Continue reading →

Posted in Meaning Change, metonymy, social context of language, Word Usage | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

More Linguistic Asymmetries

Posted on October 21, 2011 by achouston

The English prefix un- comes directly from Old English (and shares a common Indo-European root with Latin in- and Greek a-) Prefixed to an adjective A, the resulting new word means ‘not A’ and can convey either positive or negative … Continue reading →

Posted in Word Formation, word meaning, Word Usage | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Parts

Posted on August 12, 2010 by achouston

There’s a commonly deployed linguistic device with a fancy Greek name — metonymy.  Metonymy is using an attribute or a part of something to refer to the thing itself. Here are some examples: All hands are to report to the … Continue reading →

Posted in metonymy, word meaning | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

By and Large

Posted on July 12, 2010 by achouston

Here are three sentences pulled semi-randomly off Google, all using the expression ‘by and large’. By and large they are a group of passionate cyclists who take pride in building some darn good mountain bikes! By and large they are … Continue reading →

Posted in Meaning Change | Tagged , , | Leave a comment