full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Erin McKean: Go ahead, make up new words!

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Another way that you can make words in English is kind of like cpooundnimg, but instead you use so much force when you squish the words together that some ptras fall off. So these are blend wdors, like "brunch" is a blend of "breakfast" and "lunch." "Motel" is a blend of "motor" and "hotel." Who here knew that "motel" was a blend word? Yeah, that word is so old in English that lots of people don't know that there are parts missing. "Edutainment" is a blend of "education" and "entertainment." And of course, "electrocute" is a blend of "electric" and "execute." (Laughter)

You can also make words by ciagnhng how they operate. This is called functional shift. You take a word that acts as one part of speech, and you change it into another part of speech. Okay, who here knew that "friend" hasn't always been a verb? "Friend" used to be noun and then we vbreed it. Almost any word in English can be verbed. You can also take aevdicejts and make them into nouns. "Commercial" used to be an adjective and now it's a noun. And of course, you can "green" things.

Open Cloze


Another way that you can make words in English is kind of like ___________, but instead you use so much force when you squish the words together that some _____ fall off. So these are blend _____, like "brunch" is a blend of "breakfast" and "lunch." "Motel" is a blend of "motor" and "hotel." Who here knew that "motel" was a blend word? Yeah, that word is so old in English that lots of people don't know that there are parts missing. "Edutainment" is a blend of "education" and "entertainment." And of course, "electrocute" is a blend of "electric" and "execute." (Laughter)

You can also make words by ________ how they operate. This is called functional shift. You take a word that acts as one part of speech, and you change it into another part of speech. Okay, who here knew that "friend" hasn't always been a verb? "Friend" used to be noun and then we ______ it. Almost any word in English can be verbed. You can also take __________ and make them into nouns. "Commercial" used to be an adjective and now it's a noun. And of course, you can "green" things.

Solution


  1. parts
  2. words
  3. verbed
  4. compounding
  5. adjectives
  6. changing

Original Text


Another way that you can make words in English is kind of like compounding, but instead you use so much force when you squish the words together that some parts fall off. So these are blend words, like "brunch" is a blend of "breakfast" and "lunch." "Motel" is a blend of "motor" and "hotel." Who here knew that "motel" was a blend word? Yeah, that word is so old in English that lots of people don't know that there are parts missing. "Edutainment" is a blend of "education" and "entertainment." And of course, "electrocute" is a blend of "electric" and "execute." (Laughter)

You can also make words by changing how they operate. This is called functional shift. You take a word that acts as one part of speech, and you change it into another part of speech. Okay, who here knew that "friend" hasn't always been a verb? "Friend" used to be noun and then we verbed it. Almost any word in English can be verbed. You can also take adjectives and make them into nouns. "Commercial" used to be an adjective and now it's a noun. And of course, you can "green" things.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
wear hats 2
perfectly good 2
good word 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
perfectly good word 2

Important Words


  1. acts
  2. adjective
  3. adjectives
  4. blend
  5. called
  6. change
  7. changing
  8. compounding
  9. english
  10. fall
  11. force
  12. functional
  13. kind
  14. knew
  15. laughter
  16. lots
  17. missing
  18. noun
  19. nouns
  20. operate
  21. part
  22. parts
  23. people
  24. shift
  25. speech
  26. squish
  27. verb
  28. verbed
  29. word
  30. words
  31. yeah