Erin McKean: Go ahead, make up new words!
Erin McKean: Allez-y, inventez de nouveaux mots.
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
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into the dictionary.
les mots possibles dans le dictionnaire.
ce qui est un mot ; c'est votre boulot.
that is your job.
decides together
décident ensemble
et ce qui n'en est pas un.
who agree to understand each other.
qui acceptent de se comprendre.
to decide whether a word is good or bad,
si un mot est correct ou non,
"Because grammar!"
« C'est la grammaire ! »
de la grammaire — ne le dites à personne.
too much -- don't tell anybody.
there are two kinds of grammar.
il y a deux sortes de grammaire.
that lives inside your brain,
qui vit dans votre cerveau,
speaker of a language
when you speak that language.
inconsciemment quand vous la parlez.
you learn a language as a child.
quand vous êtes encore enfant.
how to make the plural of wug.
comment faire le pluriel de wug.
you just understand it.
vous l'avez juste comprise.
by a professor at [Boston University]
un professeur de l'Université de Boston
for a long time.
that exist in your brain,
qui existent dans votre cerveau,
they're more like laws of nature.
ce sont plutôt des lois de la nature.
a law of nature, right?
d'obéir aux lois de la nature, si ?
your mom doesn't say,
votre mère ne dit pas :
faire froid, prend un manteau,
it's going to be cold, take a hoodie,
à la loi de la gravité. »
about manners than they are about nature.
plus des manières que de la nature.
fonctionnent les chapeaux,
«Les chapeaux, c'est pas pour les pieds. »
"Don't wear hats on your feet."
"Can you wear hats inside?
porter un chapeau à l'intérieur ?
you get to wear?"
of grammar,
cette seconde grammaire,
as opposed to grammar.
par opposition à la « grammaire ».
rules-based grammar
ce genre de règles de grammaire
d'inventer des mots.
people are always telling you,
on vous dit tout le temps :
invent things, science and technology."
fais de la musique, de l'art,
des sciences et technologies.»
de mots, c'est plutôt :
words, they're like,
whippersnappers. Give it a rest."
malheureux. Arrête-toi là. »
We should have more of them.
On devrait en avoir plus.
as many new words as possible.
de nouveaux mots que possible.
you can use to make new words in English.
de créer des mots en anglais.
languages.
(Laughter)
(Rires)
so I'm just going to be honest
donc je vais être honnête
qu'on aime, comme la bonne cuisine.
that we like, like delicious food.
we took "caramel" from French.
«caramel» au français.
for cool things like "ninja," right?
de choses étonnantes : «ninja» !
ninjas are hard to steal from.
quelque chose à un ninja.
can make words in English
de fabriquer des mots en anglais
other English words together.
you can put any two of them together.
on peut en assembler deux.
"sandcastle" all are compounds.
sont tous des composés.
"duckface," just don't make duckface.
mais ne faites pas de duckface.
in English is kind of like compounding,
ressemble à la composition,
when you squish the words together
pour assembler les mots
of "breakfast" and "lunch."
de «breakfast» et «lunch».
was a blend word?
était un néologisme ?
there are parts missing.
qu'il lui manque des morceaux.
of "education" and "entertainment."
et «entertainment».
blend of "electric" and "execute."
de «electric» et «execute».
by changing how they operate.
en changeant leur nature.
as one part of speech,
part of speech.
hasn't always been a verb?
n'a pas toujours été un verbe ?
and then we verbed it.
qu'on a ensuite transformé en verbe.
peut être transformé en verbe.
and make them into nouns.
et le changer en nom.
and now it's a noun.
et maintenant c'est un nom.
«verdir» [«green»] les choses.
in English is back-formation.
des mots est la troncation.
kind of squish it down a little bit.
un peu pour le raccourcir.
"editor" before we had the word "edit."
existait avant le mot «edit».
sound a little silly:
sonnent un peu bizarrement :
and burglers burgle.
«majordoment» et les voleurs volent.
and squish them together.
lettres de plusieurs mots.
Administration devient NASA.
Administration becomes NASA.
with anything, OMG!
OMG [Oh My God] !
the words are.
de très bons mots anglais.
good word of English.
good word of English.
normal, they can sound really silly.
normaux, ils peuvent être drôles.
your meaning across.
et de faire passer un message.
l'attention des gens.
you're saying
your meaning across.
faire passer le message.
on this stage today have said,
aujourd'hui ont dit :
help us explore, you can help us invent."
explorer, vous pourrez inventer.»
des mots dès aujourd'hui,
in my online dictionary, Wordnik.
dans mon dictionnaire en ligne, 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