Erin McKean: Go ahead, make up new words!
Erin McKean: Forza, create parole nuove!
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.
le parole possibili nel dizionario.
cos'è una parola;
that is your job.
decides together
decidono insieme
who agree to understand each other.
in un gruppo di persone
di decidere
to decide whether a word is good or bad,
"Because grammar!"
È la grammatica!
too much -- don't tell anybody.
non ditelo a nessuno.
there are two kinds of grammar.
that lives inside your brain,
che risiede nel vostro cervello
speaker of a language
when you speak that language.
quando parlate quella lingua.
you learn a language as a child.
quando siete bambini.
how to make the plural of wug.
Sapete come si forma il plurale di Coso.
you just understand it.
semplicemente la capite.
by a professor at [Boston University]
professoressa dell'Università di Boston
for a long time.
that exist in your brain,
che esistono nel vostro cervello
they're more like laws of nature.
sono più una legge di natura.
a law of nature, right?
di obbedire alle leggi della natura?
your mom doesn't say,
vostra madre non vi ha detto
it's going to be cold, take a hoodie,
alla legge di gravità.
about manners than they are about nature.
l'educazione che la natura.
come ad un cappello.
come funziona il cappello,
"Don't wear hats on your feet."
"Non indossare il cappello sui piedi".
"Can you wear hats inside?
"Puoi indossare il cappello al chiuso?"
you get to wear?"
of grammar,
as opposed to grammar.
uso, contrapposto a grammatica.
rules-based grammar
di regole grammaticali
dall'inventare parole.
people are always telling you,
vi dicono cose tipo:
invent things, science and technology."
inventate cose, scienza e tecnologia".
words, they're like,
whippersnappers. Give it a rest."
Dacci un taglio".
We should have more of them.
Dovremmo averne di più.
as many new words as possible.
più parole possibile.
you can use to make new words in English.
usare per creare nuove parole in inglese
languages.
(Laughter)
(Risate)
so I'm just going to be honest
le parole, devo essere onesta
that we like, like delicious food.
che ci piacciono, tipo il buon cibo.
we took "caramel" from French.
"caramel" dal francese.
for cool things like "ninja," right?
per cose forti tipo "ninja", giusto?
ninjas are hard to steal from.
non è facile rubare ad un ninja.
can make words in English
parole in inglese
other English words together.
you can put any two of them together.
ne potete unire due qualsiasi.
"sandcastle" all are compounds.
"sandcastle" sono tutte composte.
"duckface," just don't make duckface.
"duckface", non fate il muso di papera.
in English is kind of like compounding,
in inglese è una specie di composizione,
when you squish the words together
tanta forza quando le appiccicate
of "breakfast" and "lunch."
di "breakfast" e "lunch".
di "motor" e "hotel".
was a blend word?
fosse un incrocio di parole?
there are parts missing.
quali siano le parti mancanti.
of "education" and "entertainment."
di "education" e "entertainment".
blend of "electric" and "execute."
di "electric" e "execute".
by changing how they operate.
il modo di funzionare.
as one part of speech,
che sia una parte del discorso
part of speech.
parte del discorso.
hasn't always been a verb?
non è sempre stato un verbo?
che poi abbiamo trasformato in verbo.
and then we verbed it.
può essere trasformata in verbo.
and make them into nouns.
e trasformarli in sostantivi.
and now it's a noun.
un aggettivo e ora è un nome.
"green" le cose.
in English is back-formation.
in inglese è la retroformazione.
kind of squish it down a little bit.
e farne cadere un pezzetto.
"editor" before we had the word "edit."
la parola "editor" prima di "edit".
sound a little silly:
possono suonare ridicole:
and burglers burgle.
e burglers - burgle.
le parole in inglese
and squish them together.
di qualcosa e unirle.
Administration becomes NASA.
Administration diventa la NASA.
with anything, OMG!
OMG!
the words are.
possano essere ridicole.
davvero in buon inglese.
good word of English.
perfetta in inglese.
good word of English.
perfetta in inglese.
normal, they can sound really silly.
possono anche sembrare davvero ridicole.
perché ogni parola
your meaning across.
la vostra idea e il suo significato.
you're saying
su quello che state dicendo
your meaning across.
di trasmettere il vostro messaggio.
on this stage today have said,
potrete aiutarci ad esplorare,
help us explore, you can help us invent."
nuova proprio ora.
in my online dictionary, Wordnik.
dizionario online, Wornik.
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