Erin McKean: Go ahead, make up new words!
Erin McKean: Śmiało naprzód, twórz nowe słowa!
As the co-founder of Reverb Technologies, the maker of the online dictionary Wordnik, Erin McKean is reshaping how we interact with language itself. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
into the dictionary.
that is your job.
co jest słowem, a co nie.
decides together
razem ustalają,
who agree to understand each other.
którzy rozumieją się nawzajem.
to decide whether a word is good or bad,
czy dane słowo jest poprawne,
"Because grammar!"
too much -- don't tell anybody.
nie mówcie nikomu.
there are two kinds of grammar.
Są dwa rodzaje gramatyki.
that lives inside your brain,
speaker of a language
których podświadomie przestrzegasz.
when you speak that language.
you learn a language as a child.
podczas nauki języka.
how to make the plural of wug.
liczbę mnogą od słowa "wug".
you just understand it.
po prostu ją rozumiesz.
by a professor at [Boston University]
profesor uniwersytetu bostońskiego
for a long time.
that exist in your brain,
istniejące w umyśle,
they're more like laws of nature.
raczej jak prawa natury.
a law of nature, right?
o przestrzeganiu praw natury.
your mom doesn't say,
it's going to be cold, take a hoodie,
about manners than they are about nature.
kultury niż natury.
na przykład "kapelusz".
"Don't wear hats on your feet."
żeby nie wkładać go na stopy.
"Can you wear hats inside?
czy można nosić kapelusz w pomieszczeniu,
you get to wear?"
of grammar,
as opposed to grammar.
"zastosowanie", a nie "gramatyka".
rules-based grammar
opartej na sztywnych regułach,
people are always telling you,
invent things, science and technology."
wymyślaj nowe rzeczy, naukę i technikę".
words, they're like,
whippersnappers. Give it a rest."
We should have more of them.
Trzeba ich mieć jak najwięcej.
as many new words as possible.
you can use to make new words in English.
na tworzenie nowych słów.
languages.
(Laughter)
so I'm just going to be honest
więc tak naprawdę to kradzież.
które lubimy, na przykład jedzenie.
that we like, like delicious food.
we took "caramel" from French.
od Francuzów "karmel".
for cool things like "ninja," right?
ninjas are hard to steal from.
can make words in English
słów w języku angielskim
other English words together.
you can put any two of them together.
można dowolne dwa połączyć.
"sandcastle" all are compounds.
"sandcastle" to złożenia.
"duckface," just don't make duckface.
ale miny nie rób.
in English is kind of like compounding,
when you squish the words together
of "breakfast" and "lunch."
"breakfast" i "lunch".
was a blend word?
there are parts missing.
of "education" and "entertainment."
"education" i "entertainment".
blend of "electric" and "execute."
mieszanka "electric" i "execute".
by changing how they operate.
zmieniając ich działanie.
as one part of speech,
jedną częścią mowy
part of speech.
hasn't always been a verb?
nie zawsze było czasownikiem?
and then we verbed it.
prawie z każdym rzeczownikiem.
and make them into nouns.
przymiotniki na rzeczowniki.
and now it's a noun.
teraz jest rzeczownikiem.
in English is back-formation.
jest formacja wsteczna.
kind of squish it down a little bit.
i nieco je "ścisnąć".
"editor" before we had the word "edit."
jeszcze przed słowem "edit".
sound a little silly:
and burglers burgle.
a bandyci bandycą.
and squish them together.
jakiegoś wyrażenia.
Administration becomes NASA.
Administration tworzy się NASA.
with anything, OMG!
the words are.
jak głupio brzmią te słowa.
good word of English.
angielskim słowem...
good word of English.
normal, they can sound really silly.
mogą brzmieć strasznie głupio.
your meaning across.
i przekazać treść całemu światu.
you're saying
your meaning across.
na przekazanie swoich myśli.
on this stage today have said,
help us explore, you can help us invent."
wymyślać nowe rzeczy".
in my online dictionary, Wordnik.
w moim słowniku online - Wordnik.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Erin McKean - Dictionary editorAs the co-founder of Reverb Technologies, the maker of the online dictionary Wordnik, Erin McKean is reshaping how we interact with language itself.
Why you should listen
Erin McKean's job as a lexicographer involves living in a constant state of research. She searches high and low -- from books to blogs, newspapers to cocktail parties -- for new words, new meanings for old words, or signs that old words have fallen out of use. In June of this year, she involved us all in the search by launching Wordnik, an online dictionary that houses all the traditionally accepted words and definitions, but also asks users to contribute new words and new uses for old words. Wordnik pulls real-time examples of word usage from Twitter, image representations from Flickr along with many more non-traditional, and highly useful, features.
Before Wordnik, McKean was one of the youngest editors of the New Oxford American Dictionary. She continues to serve as the editor of the language quarterly Verbatim ("language and linguistics for the layperson since 1974") and is the author of multiple books, including That's Amore and the entire Weird and Wonderful Words series. All that, and she maintains multiple blogs, too: McKean is the keen observationalist behind A Dress a Day and Dictionary Evangelist. Is there anything she can't do? Surprisingly, she is notoriously bad at Scrabble.
Erin McKean | Speaker | TED.com