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Article #2636

Re: Geographical uses of "in" and "on" (Long)

#2636
From: Robert E. Zabloudil
Date: Thu, 27 Apr 1989 15:14
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In article <12598@ihlpy.ATT.COM> krista@ihlpy.ATT.COM (Anderson) writes:
><>
>In article <5434@cs.Buffalo.EDU>, dmark@cs.Buffalo.EDU (David Mark) writes:
>> GROUP A: "IN", the CONTAINER image-schema
>> 
>> GROUP B: "ON", the PLATFORM image-schema
>> 
>When our company began issuing badges for us to wear, there was a
>ceremonious ritual about taking off the badges to go to lunch.  A
>new word was needed, so, in typical American fashion, so we made one
>up: "de-badge".  (Of course "re-badge" was used while reentering the
>building.)
>
>    But there was one exception.  A friend for whom English was a
>second language said "un-badge".  It sounded wrong.  There's some
>amorphous rule, some fuzzy logic that makes "de-badge" sound right

    Having taken Latin in high school, I would say it's not that fuzzy.
We use "un" as a quite negative prefix, so un-badging might be something you
do when terminating employment:  your badge would then be destroyed and cease
to exist.  Latin "de" means away from or down when prefixing (cf. descend,
decline, defend, defy, decide, derail, delimit, deposit, deposition, etc.),
although some of the meanings have become rather figurative over the years.

    So, as a rank amateur linguist, I would accept de-badge in the sense of
putting down your badge, and re- means again, so you come back and "badge up
again".  

We have files which can be dedicated to teleprocessing or batch, and we talk 
about dequeuing and requeuing them, which is parallel to your new word.

Of course, there are those who shudder at combining a Latin prefix with 
a non-Latin root, but maybe they won't call you on this one.

Bob Zabloudil

Opinions are my own...who else could come up with opinions like these!?
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Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!osu-cis!dsacg1!dsacg2!nol2105
From: nol2105@dsacg2.UUCP (Robert E. Zabloudil)
Newsgroups: sci.lang,comp.cog-eng
Subject: Re: Geographical uses of "in" and "on" (Long)
Keywords: spatial language, prepositions, metaphor
Message-ID: <675@dsacg2.UUCP>
Date: 27 Apr 89 15:14:15 GMT
References: <5434@cs.Buffalo.EDU> <12598@ihlpy.ATT.COM>
Reply-To: nol2105@dsacg2.UUCP (Robert E. Zabloudil)
Distribution: na
Organization: Defense Logistics Agency Systems Automation Center, Columbus
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