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The other day I visited a friend of mine who is in an assisted living facility. He's a bright, highly accomplished person whose body has deteriorated but his mind is very sharp. While driving home, it occurred to me that most of the new words added to our language are created by younger people who are active and have more influence than those of us who are older. I think those of us who are older should mount a campaign to introduce words that express feelings, sentiments and experiences that are unique to our age group. The first word I would like to introduce is, "Childrenize." The act of treating an adult as though he or she is a child by speaking loudly in a high voice in one and two syllable words.
A few other experiences unique to old age that I wish we had words for are:
1. That moment when you realize your teen age grandchild no longer adores you the way he or she did when they were younger; how about "disadoration"?
2 The frustration you experience when you can't recall someone's name you've known for years; maybe, "Namesis"
3. The feeling of irritation you feel the first time you realize you are being treated as a stereotype. Would "Stereotation" work?
4. Suddenly realizing you look like an old person after meeting someone who is your same age. I would suggest "Miroritis"
That's it for now.
Garry
Garry Shirts said:
Eli-damon, "Infanticide is close, but I think they treat them more like children than infants. Even though my description was closer to "infanticide" than "childrenize."
Hi Garry. I don't think "infanticide" is what you meant. That might have one of those senior moments you were talking about. 😉 Anyway, I see your point but "infantilize" is used to mean exactly what you are describing. I have heard talk about the infantilization of old people, women, and disabled people.
As I've observed my older friends it seems as though we may need several words to characterize how they are treated. How about: "Infantilize" when they have to feed you with a spoon and change your diapers, "childrenize" when they talk to you as though you are a child "Be careful of that step there", "teenorize", when they treat you like a teenager, "Are you sure you can drive on the freeway? " "" adulteration" when they are young and adore you, and "humanization" when they treat you as an adult.
Off the senior topic ,but I wish we had a word like the german word "doch". A yes answer to a negitive question. I worked with a guy who said "yup-um" when this happened. It did not make it much clearer as a word but I learned that is what he was saying.
All this snow in the northeast made me think of a word. "Malltains" -the large piles of snow in mall parking lots. I do not know if I made this up or heard it somewhere like your show. If I heard it on the show ,now that's a senior moment.
M and G. I love the show!!!
Greetings from NJ to all
ednj said:
…I wish we had a word like the german word "doch". A yes answer to a negitive question.
Interesting. Could you give an example of its use?
And while we're on the topic of gaps in English vocabulary, I really think that we need two forms of "we", one that includes and one that excludes the person being spoken to. Why don't we have that, huh? Does any language have it?
Several languages have a different form of yes reserved for use when a negative response is expected. French is one example. The common word for yes is oui. The failure to use the special yes can trip up lots of excellent non-native speakers.
I can give examples from French, but not German. In response to questions:
Pascal: Are you going to the theater tonight?
Marie: Oui, I am going tonight.
Pascal: You're not going to the theater in this rain, are you?
Marie: Si, I am going no matter the weather. (N.B. not oui)
It must also be used to disagree with a preceeding negative statement:
Pascal: Louise loves red.
Marie: Non, blue is Louise's favorite color.
Pascal: Louise doesn't like blue.
Marie: Si, blue is Louise's favorite color. (N.B. not oui)
As far as languages with separate words for we, inclusive and exclusive of the second person, I know that Chinese is one example:
wo3men (我們) is exclusive (or indeterminate in some dialects)
zan2men (咱們) is distinctly inclusive
Lots of languages are reported to enjoy this distinction, including most Dravidian languages (e.g. Telugu), except Kannada.
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I have confirmed that Tagalog (Philippines) also features an inclusive and exclusive distinction in we.
On a related tangent, in the few cases I have confirmed, the inclusive we also allows for the possibility of any number of third persons to be included. I am looking for an example of a language in which they have 3 forms of we: exclusive; inclusive of 2nd persons only; inclusive of 2nd and one or more 3rd persons. I am also looking for the possibility of a language that has two forms of exclusive we, perhaps mirroring gender pronouns for 3rd persons (e.g. me and others, all men vs. me and others, all women).
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Well it turns out there are a few examples of languages with virtual mouthfuls of first person "plural" pronouns. There are a few examples that involve clusivity AND distinctions of singular vs. dual vs. plural — i.e. three or more (e.g. Samoan).
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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