Yonatan Zunger’s Blog

Question for all you native (and fluent) speakers out there, especially language geeks:

I generally don’t split infinitives in English. There’s one case that I’m stuck on, though, because I’m not sure if there’s another way to indicate the difference I have in mind: “not to do X” versus “to not do X.” The former implies that X is not done, but possibly through inattention or accident; the latter, a usage borrowed mostly from the speech habits of computer scientists, implies that the not doing of X is a primary objective of one’s actions.

Is there a more correct way to say this? It feels clunky every time I say it.

(What brought this to mind was a news article about the Clintons’ married life, where they say that Mr. Clinton “has told friends that his No. 1 priority is not to cause her any trouble.” When I read that, it seemed that “not” was modifying “is” rather than “cause,” which would suggest that his next line ought to be “It’s to make sure other people do! Wahahahaha!”)

Cut to preserve your virgin eyes

A single word can have two different antonyms which are not synonyms of one another. For example, synonymy (the condition of two words having the same meaning) has antonyms antonymy (the condition of two words having opposite meaning) and polysemy (the condition of one word having multiple meanings).

Also, “synonymy,” “antonymy,” and “polysemy” are cool words.

In the past day, I’ve come across a surprising number of bizarre words in the English language.
Yes, these all are real.

Bathykolpian: Deep-breasted.

Yes, the English language has a word for everything.

Current Music: (I wish they all could be) Bathykolpian girls… [Now firmly stuck in my head]

Looking up “draught” in the OED for pronounciation notes, which can’t be copied into here because it’s full of symbols that ordinary HTML can’t render. Apparently the pronounciation “drawt” showed up in late Middle English but went out around the 18th century; the Scots currently pronounce it “dracht” (guttural ch, as in ‘loch’) and everyone else has gone over to “draft,” a pronounciation which the OED editors apparently don’t like because it makes the connection with “draw” less obvious. (A draught is something which is drawn, as a breath, a drink, a pen across a page, or an animal’s load)

The more logical spelling “draft” is therefore coming into use, but is apparently the accepted spelling only for certain senses of the word, e.g. a drafting table, or a gust of wind in a room, and not e.g. a draught of beer or a draught animal.

This has been another useless fact.

So while I’m waiting for the interview, some random words that popped into my head last night while sleep-deprived:

Cryptoglossia n. Secret speech, conversation in code; e.g. “The blue dog howls at midnight,” or the dialogue of secret in-jokes between lovers.

Eschatolalic adj. n. One who rambles incoherently about the end of the world; the madman on the street shouting that the end is near, or on occasion a politician’s speech.

Ichthyopneia n, infl. form: pl. same as sing. An (intrinsically) nonexistent thing, or a dream-thing; like a box of moonbeams, or a lost city.

…and dammit, I’m really wondering when I’ll get that call back…