atw: Re: What word to use when ...

I can't think of many verbs that actually can take the prefix un-. The 
only ones that come to mind are 'untie' and 'uncover'. 

I'd never thought about it before, but this leads to an interesting (but 
almost useless) observation. The forms 'untied' and 'uncovered' can be 
interpreted EITHER as participles formed from these two verbs OR as 
negated forms of the participles 'tied' and 'covered'. 

But these two interpretations correspond to slightly different meanings. 
The second form, I think, would be applied to something that had *never* 
been tied or covered. So an 'untied shoelace' in the first interpretation 
would be, for example, one on a shoe you'd just taken off, but in the 
other sense it'd be a 'virgin' shoelace - straight from the factory and 
never been tied. 

For mathematicians, this illustrates the fact that the operations of 
negation and forming a past participle do not 'commute' : un((tie)d) isn't 
the same as (un(tie))d. 

How's that for a truly pointless observation? Please indulge me - I need 
some light relief from a mountain of editing work ...

Howard

PS Actually, now that I think about it some more, there are plenty of un- 
verbs. Uninstall, undo, unwind, ... I mustn't be thinking clearly. I 
definitely need a break.



Howard Silcock
Technical Writer
ADI Limited
Electronic Systems
1 Phipps Close, Deakin, ACT 2600
Ph. +61 2 6234 6075
Fax +61 2 6234 6011
Email: howard.silcock@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Web page: www.adi-limited.com.au 




"Michael Lewis" <mlewis@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent by: austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
26/09/2006 02:47 PM
Please respond to austechwriter

 
        To:     austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, 
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        Subject:        atw: Re: What word to use when ...


Bob Trussler:

> There are words in English that seem to have an opposite, but really 
they
> don't.
> In this case, I am sure that 'undeploy' is a nonsense word.
> Of course, I could just be showing that I am a grumpy old man, and not
> keeping up with the latest trends..

I can't answer for your age or mood, Bob, but there's a big difference 
between
negating a state and reversing an action. As a verb, "undeploy" -- 
presumably
meaing "to reverse a previous process of deploying", does indeed stink. As 
an
"adjective" (one of the functions of a participle is as modifier in a 
nominal
group), "undeployed" -- meaning "not in the state of having been deployed" 
--
works fine. Just like the difference between unpainting a door and 
describing
a door as unpainted, really.


Michael Lewis

--------------------------------------
Brandle Pty Limited, Sydney, Australia
www.brandle.com.au
--------------------------------------


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