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Home » Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

A Way with Words, a radio show and podcast about language and linguistics.

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Verb-ing?
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1
2009/01/13 - 10:12am
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Hey again,

I'm also wondering,

Is there a rule for turning certain nouns into verbs (i.e. to spearhead, to shoehorn, to weasel)? It seems as if this is only a modern phenomenon in linguistics. As such, do you know if this is unique to the English language?

Thanks! Take care.

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2
2009/01/14 - 6:25am
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My favorite new one is 'medal' as in:  'Will she be able to medal in this event?' It is an interesting question, as to whether we really need a new word or use of a word, the speaker just does not know  another way to say it, or something entirely different. 

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3
2009/01/14 - 2:00pm
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There's nothing exclusively modern about "verbing" nouns.  Shakespeare did it pretty regularly.

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