Palilalilalilalia
When one is studying...one comes across some mildly amusing distractions.
Today I learned, while looking up 'Pallava' in my linguistics dictionaries (which wasn't in either of them; it's a type of script) and I came across the appropriately named:
Palilalia - "Speech disorder described as the involuntary repetition of words or larger units".
Perhaps one's brain is receptive to these things at certain times....I'm not so sure it's funny, now that I've spent time typing this up.
This word reminds me of 'echolalia', which, apart from the title of a Something for Kate album, also means "mechanical repetition of the words just uttered by another speaker, when symptomatic of a speech or other mental disorder".
Enoughough ofofof me and me and my linginguistic nerderdinessess.
Today I learned, while looking up 'Pallava' in my linguistics dictionaries (which wasn't in either of them; it's a type of script) and I came across the appropriately named:
Palilalia - "Speech disorder described as the involuntary repetition of words or larger units".
Perhaps one's brain is receptive to these things at certain times....I'm not so sure it's funny, now that I've spent time typing this up.
This word reminds me of 'echolalia', which, apart from the title of a Something for Kate album, also means "mechanical repetition of the words just uttered by another speaker, when symptomatic of a speech or other mental disorder".
Enoughough ofofof me and me and my linginguistic nerderdinessess.
posted by Hooch | 4:52 pm
12 Comments:
There's 'stuttering' - which sounds like it is.
Of course, there's Spoonerism, which is named after one of its sufferers. Maybe the Reverend John Spooner would call it 'Oonerspism', or something like that. (Incidentally, once I wrote a 'News Report Presented by the Reverend John Spooner', but never got around to publishing it. It began. 'Good evening. And near is the Hughes. I'm the Reverend Spon Juner...'
Glossolalia, which I guess mimics the way the tongue moves, is the speaking of false words. (People at Pentacostal churches are prone to glossolalia', though you suspect politicians are too.)
I like babble, which again sounds like what it is. As you know, it comes from the 'Tower of Babel' story, which itself was a shortening of 'The Tower of Babylon'.
(I once knew a woman who called her flat 'Babble On', and thought this was incredibly witty and original. God, she was stupid. Excuse me.)
And of course, there's that wonderful old term for expostulation: 'Ejaculation'. I read two of the Pollyanna books when I was a kid (I do a lot of reading), and do you know, Pollyannas did a LOT of ejaculating?
The operative syllable in that word is 'JAC'; with the short 'A'. There are several rhythmic stresses in the word, but the strongest is upon the 'Jac', so when you pronounce the word, the way you spit out that 'Jac' mimics the way rude words/blasphemies, etc, can spit out of your mouth. Or the way ...
But I DON'T think we'll go into that!
I've said too much already!
Is "palilalia" an example of onomatopoeia?
If only the word "onomatopoeia" was just that...
Yes, 'onomatopoeia' has got to be one of those words that ISN'T like what it describes. My favourite is 'pulchitrudinous' - which describes beauty, but sounds like the opposite.
"Help! Doctor, there's an outbreak of pulchitrudinousness! Is there anything you can do?"
"I'll get the medicine, my boy - and pray - pray - for the love of God, PRAY!"
Phoenetic isn't spelt the way it sounds, either.
James - where did you get that from? it's quite strange. Are there more fairy tales, or is it just a one off?
Daniel - it could be an example of onomatopoeia. I'm not sure. I always understood onomatopoeia to be imitative of a sound.
According to answers.com, onomatopoeia means to 'imitate the sounds associated with the objects or actions they refer to'; this definition would include 'Palilalia'.
According to my linguistics dictionary (it's the Oxford Concise), it means 'a word ... whose phonetic form ... [imitates] a sound, or associated sound with something that they denote'. I think we could squeeze Palilalia into this definition as well.
TimT - 'pulchitrudinous'! I have never heard this word before, it's great! I hope to incorporate it into my lexicon over the coming weeks :)
TimT - incidentally, 'ugliness' of the wound words is entirely subjective. Studies have shown that we have unpleasant associations with different sounds because we've been psychologically conditioned to do so.
I remember a study I hear about where British people were asked to rank different dialects of British English from 'Most Pleasant Sounding' to Least Pleasant'. A correlation was found betweent the class that each particular dialect was associated with. Then, a bunch of Americans were asked to rank the same British dialects, and there was not correlation, because there was no associated status with each dialect for the Americans.
I got the spelling wrong - it's 'pulchritudinous'.
There are lots of psychological associations with words. I think a lot of sci-fi villains' names begin with V, X, or Z, for instance.
except for 'V' who was, of course, a hero as opposed to a villain.
A. Because he's a little bush.
V is a hero but ambiguously so. The stuff he does to Evie is spine-chilling even if you think it is well-intentioned. But we accept it from him because we agree with his overall cause and because he is so damned charming. I think this ambiguity made for a much more interesting movie than it may have been.
But back to Onomatopoeia: I challenge anyone to think of an alternative word for 'onomatopoeia' which is in fact onomatopoetic...
I'm not sure who V is ... and me a big geek and all! I hang my head in shame! Was he connected to the 1980s sci-fi series of the same name, about killer alien lizards, or some such, who overran the earth?
In John Boorman's 1970s sci-fi flick Zardoz, the hero (played by Sean Connery) is a barbarian called Z whose main heroic duties seem to entail running around and starting wars, and generally killing people. The villain is a chap called Zardoz - also a God - who, also ambiguously, is 'evil' because he has discovered the secret of eternal life. It's a confusing movie.
Dr Xavier, of course, from the X-men... Zander, from Buffy ... Voltron, from the show of the same name ...
I seem to have shot my hypothesis about V, X, and Z-characters being evil right out of the water! Maybe those letters are more associated with mystery and ambiguity than evil.
Maybe we should all just agree that John Howard is evil, and have done with it. (The actor, I mean ...)
There you go, questioning my geek status even more.
Well go on, then. Ask me about my favourite character from C.S. Lewis's 'Out of the Silent Planet' trilogy. Or whether I prefer Jerry Cornelius over Dorian Hawkmoon as the eternal champion in Michael Moorcock's 'Multiverse' novels. Go on. Bet other geeks wouldn't know that!
*Goes off to sulk*
hehe. I just got 'vemjmout' as my word verification on a friend's blog. Wanted to record it down in history somewhere so I came here.
Timt: your Geek status is fully restored (and duely admired)!
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