atw: The Rule of Un Verbs: Encumbering, Covering or Attaching words

Following up on some of Pullum's writing, I was interested to come across a 
rule I hadn't heard of, although it's one we seem to learn by absorption ....   
What a strange language we have....

 From one of his talks in Lingua Franca...  on the ABC..   He is citing work by 
Benjamin Lee Whorf, an amateur linguist

> There is a class of operations involving encumberment or concealment through 
> surface
> attachment, and only the verbs that refer to operations of that sort take the 
> reversing
> un prefix.
> Binding, tying, or chaining involve attaching basically one-dimensional stuff 
> to the
> surface of an object so that it is encumbered and partially covered.
> Tangling is doing that to a one-dimensional object using parts of itself.
> Covering, veiling, wrapping, and dressing involve putting basically 
> two-dimensional
> stuff over the surface of a three-dimensional object so that it is hidden and 
> to some
> degree encumbered.
> Folding is doing that to a two-dimensional object using parts of itself.
> Burdening, loading, and stacking involve putting objects on each other's 
> upper surfaces
> so that the upper ones cover and encumber the lower ones.
> Clogging is encumbering something such as a gutter or drain by attaching or 
> loading
> things into it to stop water running down it.
> So the verbs we get from reversing un are: unbind, untie, unchain, untangle; 
> uncover,
> unveil, undress, unfold; unburden, unload, unstack, unclog, and that's about 
> it.
>
> Interestingly, we find undo, but only when the rather vague action verb do 
> stands for
> something of the encumbering, covering, or attaching sort: you can undo your 
> shoelaces,
> but you can't undo your homework; you can undo a parcel, but you can't undo a 
> good deed.

Some verbs (most) can't used with the "un" prefix.

Of course, this +doesn't+ suggest that no verbs can be.  That much is pretty 
obvious.

(Oops! Was that one of the new flame categories?)




-PeterM
peterm_5@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
The wise man learns more from his enemies than a fool does from his friends. - 
Chinese Proverb
(And that's a truly random "fortune" selection.. )
**************************************************
To view the austechwriter archives, go to 
www.freelists.org/archives/austechwriter

To unsubscribe, send a message to austechwriter-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 
"unsubscribe" in the Subject field (without quotes).

To manage your subscription (e.g., set and unset DIGEST and VACATION modes) go 
to www.freelists.org/list/austechwriter

To contact the list administrator, send a message to 
austechwriter-admins@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
**************************************************

Other related posts: