A compound word is created when two closely-related words are joined to form a new word. The word light has given rise to several compound words, including flashlight, spotlight, and penlight. A compound word can also be formed with a hyphen, such as low-slung car, down-home cooking, fill-in position, and on-line dating.
The dictionary function on my Kindle accesses words through Wikipedia, and that source recognizes as compound words those that remain as two words, such as post office, which is two words for the rest of the world and postoffice for the Wiki dictionary. A game player is a person who plays games, and it is two words for most of the world, but one word for Wiki: gameplayer. Putting these words together comes naturally, but there are some compounds that don't look correct. A suitcase is a piece of luggage used for carrying clothing on a trip; Wiki thinks that suitjacket is also a compound word, rather than two separate words. A person can be overly-protective, but Wiki encourages the writer to use overprotective.
Yes, language evolves, but creating new words by not using established grammar rules goes beyond evolution, which is a natural process, and borders on just plain being lazy. I edit books as I read them, and I am amazed at how many words are just tossed together. Engagementring is two words; eveninggown is two words; weddingday is two words; however, some modern writers write them as one word. Yes, the reader can figure it out, but there are already rules for writing, so why break them just to save one stroke on the computer keyboard? Online dating has already morphed into one word that is natural and easier than using the hyphenated form. Down home cooking without the hyphen takes a second to process, but downhome cooking is easy to understand.
Grammar is simply a sharedunderstanding of how to manipulate commonwords in a sentence to createmeaning. If the writerchooses to put wordstogether that aren’tusually writtentogether, it makes it morechallenging for the reader to figureout what the sentencesays, and that hinders the making-meaning process that is the core skill of reading.
Success is not determined so much by the position one has reached in life, but more so by the obstacles one has overcome while attempting to succeed. --Unknown
Vegetation
What happens when one forgets the basket of onions one left on top of the 'fridge
Soaring above the competition is all in how you see it.
"... there are great perils in rising too quickly in any organization. Hawks may soar, but chipmunks don't get sucked into jet engines."
--Joseph Finder, Paranoia, p.183
--Joseph Finder, Paranoia, p.183
Metal Sculpture
photo by Monique
Ignorance is so not Bliss
As Issac Asimov said, "There is a cult of ignorance in the United States ... nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge'." (Jan. 21, 1980).
Ranger
Our little guy grows up
Another perspective
If you think you're a leader but no one is following you, you're just taking a walk.
When Mia shares her floor cushion,
you know the dogs have bonded.
Every Day is Mother's Day
He asked, "What's your mother going to say when you tell her?"
The round black face screwed up in astonishment. "I ain' gonna tell her. That'd be fucked up. You never win no arguments 'gainst yo' mother." --Jeffery Deaver, The Broken Window (266)
The round black face screwed up in astonishment. "I ain' gonna tell her. That'd be fucked up. You never win no arguments 'gainst yo' mother." --Jeffery Deaver, The Broken Window (266)
Perspective on Self
"But with adults I see absolutely no justification for setting other people's views of what is good for them above their own ideas of what is good for themselves." --The Reader, Bernhard Schlink, p 141-42
I'm Watching You ...
but you can't see me!
Explaining the Moment
"You know ... sometimes you do things you don't really understand. You just have to do them. Sense or no sense--it really doesn't matter much." --Scott Turow, Innocent, p 64.
Albert Einstein on teaching ...
"One should guard against preaching to young people success in the customary form as the main aim in life. The most important motive for work in school and in life is pleasure in work, pleasure in its result, and the knowledge of the value of the result to the community."
Blog Archive
from The Innocent, by author Harlan Coben
"The world is neither cruel nor joyous. It is simply random, full of particles hurtling, chemicals mixing and reacting. There is no real order. There is no preordained cursing of the evil and protecting of the righteous.
Chaos, baby, It's all about chaos."
Chaos, baby, It's all about chaos."
Spotting Daisy
... casing the neighborhood from the front room window.
Confucius said ...
By three methods we may learn wisdom: first, by reflection, which is noblest; second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.
About Me
- Liza
- I am the person who lives inside my soul; I just have to figure out who she is and where she's been all these years.
Please, don't disturb me: I'm reading a book
"I love the solitude of reading. I love the deep dive into someone else's story, the delicious ache of a last page."
--Naomi Shihab Nye
--Naomi Shihab Nye
Primary Motivation: an unread book
"Just the knowledge that a good book is awaiting one at the end of a long day makes that day happier." --Kathleen Norris
George Orwell
Political language... is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.
Life Lesson
One of the things I noticed in all of this was the simultaneous delicacy and brutality of the scalpel. How much people can hurt, the ways they hurt, and how sometimes they have to get hurt even more so they'll get better in the long run.
--John Sandford, Preface, Eyes of Prey
--John Sandford, Preface, Eyes of Prey
A Book Makes Any Day a Better Day
"Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counsellors, and the most patient of teachers."--Charles W. Eliot
Quotation
The most ridiculous example I can think of is that the people who run public education promote the stupid and idle along with the industrious -- because all men are created equal, educators will gravely tell you, the children left behind suffer terrible feelings of inferiority. We know all men are not created equal in the sense some people would have us believe -- some people are smarter than others, some people have more opportunity because they're born with it, some men make more money than others, some ladies make better cakes than others--some people are born gifted beyond the normal scope of most men.
--Atticus Finch, closing remarks to the jury, To Kill a Mockingbird
--Atticus Finch, closing remarks to the jury, To Kill a Mockingbird
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