An overature to the nucular family and the doctorial committee
About a year ago,
I
looked at some things that aren't eggcorns, but instead arise from
some sort of morphological reanalysis that assimilates word structures
to common morphological patterns -- in particular, the famous
nucular, the well-known
doctorial (in many lists of errors,
including Paul Brians's
Common Errors),
and the less-known
overature.
I've now accumulated more examples of all three types.
Along the way, I came across another type, so far illustrated only by
the verb
fellatiate,
discussed in
my
first posting on the vocabulary of toadying. Otherwise, we
have the
overature type, with
-ature for
-ture; the
nucular type, with medial
-ul-; and the
doctorial type, with
-i- before a final Latinate suffix
beginning with a vowel.
First, the
overature. Here there are quite a few,
beginning with
aperature for
aperture, suggested to me by Coby
Lubliner on 5/16/05:
I feel like opening up the larger
aperature and closing the smaller one before proceding. ... For now
waveguide opening is wall-of-microwave oven aperature. (
link)
But also
fixature,
mixature, and
strucature (I stopped searching at
this point, since I was getting hits on almost everything I tried):
Dominic Heutelbeck is a fixature in the
miniature painting community. (
link)
Law of Partial Pressures (Dalton's Law): The total pressure exerted by
a mixature of gases is the sum of the partial pressures of the
individual gases. (
link)
John Mills: "So i think 52 million it's there, we have to look at it
and re-strucature county governement." (
hint)
(The hits for
fixature include many that are substitutes for
fixative, but there are still plenty that are clearly substitutes for
fixture.)
On to
the nucular family.
Here we have
perculate - perculation
- perculator,
esculate -
esculation - esculator,
nuptuals
(pointed out on ADS-L by Alison Murie on 3/3/06 and discussed at some
length thereafter),
jubulant
(offered by Victoria Neufeldt on ADS-L on 3/7/06), and
simular(
ity). A few examples, from
enormous numbers that can be Googled up):
Also this perculator graces the counter
with its beautiful old-fashioned design ... Farberware Cordless 12-Cup
Perculator is the best of the past with the ... (
link)
Now the violence will esculate as you go blow for blow attack for
attack and you have lowered yourself to the lowest common denominator
and therfore have no ... (
link)
Wedding Advice You Must Have Before Planning Nuptuals
A tiny fascinating book you must read before planning a wedding. The
compiled experience from many years as a wedding planner. (
link)
Atop his warhorse, he trotted up through Haraguchi Kenichi's men (all
of them bloody, dirty, and oddly jubulant) ignoring the men as he
passed by. (
link)
I suppose I might be able to use a less accurate algorithm and use a
simularity matching algorithm like Levenshtein distance on the smaller
set. (
link)
Finally,
the doctorial committee:
mischievious (in Brians),
grievious (in Brians), and
intravenious(
ly), all with
-ous;
pastorial (in Brians), and
pectorials, with
-al, like
doctorial;
galiant (reported on ADS-L by
Matthew Gordon and discussed at some length thereafter, since it might
be a blend of
gallant and
valiant), with
-ant; and
similiar(
ity), with
-ar. A few examples:
Mischievious cartoons from the
CartoonStock directory - the world's largest on-line collection of
cartoons. (
link)
My sin, guilt, grievious errors, or hatreds associated with the knots,
that lay deep within my conscience. (
link)
He was an intravenious drug user and a homosexual. He was a great guy,
and I will never forget him. (
link)
Pastorial Care. The primary principle of the College Charter states
that:. "The needs of the children and their learning shall be
paramount." (
link)
Other muscles used include abdominals, back, shoulders and arms
(including deltoids, pectorials and biceps). (
link)
The 7th and last match was a galiant effort by the little Moxies, ...
Despite a galiant effort by Teresa's team, Barb's team display of
scrappy defense and ... (
link)
Programs Similiar To GeekLog...? (
link)
The ADS-L discussion of
galiant
noted that
gal(
l)
iant
was a fairly common version of this word in the 19th century, but it
seems unlikely to me that the modern examples are merely continuations
of this usage.
Throughout these examples, we see reshapings of Latinate words to
conform to common morphophonological patterns in the language. No
doubt there are plenty more out there. New ones come by every few
weeks.
zwicky at-sign csli period stanford period edu
Posted by Arnold Zwicky at April 23, 2006 01:41 PM