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Postings from November 1999
>I know you're some kind of linguistic expert (or at least have had some
>training in linguistics),
Most of my formal training was in various discrete languages, with only a
couple odd classes in general linguistics. Larry's was more the other way
around. Polyglot != Linguist, but sometimes one can fake the other. :-)
>but I wonder if your analogy is correct?
Yes, you can both be the teacher and the learner, the implyer and the
inferrer. But that doesn't mean they're interchangeable. Ilya was using
"infer" in places that I was pretty sure he meant "imply". I suppose
could have read him the wrong way. Wouldn't be the first time.
>I'm sure you'll now tell me how I've used the word "beknownst"
>inappropriately. Thanks.
Although I would have just used "known" in that case, at least in most
circumstances, your word is clearly a back-formation from the more
commonly heard "unbeknownst", but doesn't show up in my online word list:
% grep 'beknow' /usr/dict/words
beknow
beknown
unbeknown
unbeknownst
And the 'nst$' pattern isn't very common either:
% grep 'nst$' /usr/dict/words
against
anenst
canst
chanst
dunst
Ernst
forgainst
fornenst
forninst
gainst
thereagainst
unbeknownst
unknownst
yinst
But I'm not one to get pwittertated about inventful and amusing coinings,
because if I did, you'd scold me for the several um, innovations, I
placed in the "use foo if bar" analysis, over the querulous objections
of my online word list. :-)
--tom