Erin McKean: Go ahead, make up new words!
Erin MekKin (Erin McKean): Izvolite, smišljajte nove reči!
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.
sve moguće reči u rečnik.
that is your job.
to je vaš posao.
decides together
who agree to understand each other.
dogovara o međusobnom sporazumevanju.
to decide whether a word is good or bad,
da li je neka reč dobra ili loša,
"Because grammar!"
too much -- don't tell anybody.
nemojte nikome da kažete.
there are two kinds of grammar.
postoje dve vrste gramatike.
that lives inside your brain,
speaker of a language
when you speak that language.
kada govorite taj jezik.
you learn a language as a child.
kada učite jezik kao dete.
how to make the plural of wug.
da napravite množinu od "vag".
you just understand it.
tom pravilu, prosto ga znate.
by a professor at [Boston University]
profesor na Bostonskom univerzitetu
for a long time.
that exist in your brain,
koja postoje u vašem umu
they're more like laws of nature.
već više kao zakoni prirode.
a law of nature, right?
da poštujete prirodni zakon, zar ne?
your mom doesn't say,
it's going to be cold, take a hoodie,
hladno, uzmi jaknu,
zakon gravitacije."
about manners than they are about nature.
u vezi načina, nego u vezi prirode.
"Don't wear hats on your feet."
"Ne nosi šešir na nogama."
"Can you wear hats inside?
"Da li šeširi mogu da se nose unutra?
you get to wear?"
of grammar,
as opposed to grammar.
kao suprotnost gramatici.
rules-based grammar
gramatike zasnovane na pravilima
da izmišljaju reči.
people are always telling you,
invent things, science and technology."
bavi se umetnošću, naukom i tehnologijom."
words, they're like,
whippersnappers. Give it a rest."
ovde prestaje. Prestani s tim."
We should have more of them.
as many new words as possible.
što je moguće više novih reči.
you can use to make new words in English.
pravljenje novih reči u engleskom.
languages.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
so I'm just going to be honest
pa ću biti iskrena
that we like, like delicious food.
kao na primer, ukusnu hranu.
we took "caramel" from French.
"karamel" iz francuskog.
for cool things like "ninja," right?
za kul stvari kao što je "nindža".
ninjas are hard to steal from.
od nindži teško ukrasti bilo šta.
can make words in English
novih reči u engleskom
other English words together.
you can put any two of them together.
možete spojiti bilo koje dve.
"sandcastle" all are compounds.
"knjiški moljac", "pesak-kula"
"duckface," just don't make duckface.
kao što je "patkasto lice".
in English is kind of like compounding,
u engleskom je sličan slaganju,
when you squish the words together
prilikom spajanja dve reči,
of "breakfast" and "lunch."
"brekfast" (breakfast) i "lanč" (lunch).
was a blend word?
there are parts missing.
koji su izostavljeni.
of "education" and "entertainment."
od "zabava" i "edukacija".
blend of "electric" and "execute."
od "struja" i "spržiti"
by changing how they operate.
promenom njihove funkcije.
as one part of speech,
kao jedna vrsta reči
part of speech.
hasn't always been a verb?
(sprijateljiti se) nije uvek bio glagol?
and then we verbed it.
i onda smo je verbalizovali.
može biti verbalizovana.
and make them into nouns.
pretvoriti u imenice.
and now it's a noun.
a sada je imenica.
in English is back-formation.
u engleskom je tvorba unazad.
kind of squish it down a little bit.
"editor" before we had the word "edit."
reč "editor" pre nego reč "edit".
sound a little silly:
zvuči pomalo smešno:
and burglers burgle.
a provalnici provaljuju.
reči u engleskom
and squish them together.
nečega i spojite ih.
Administration becomes NASA.
Administration" postaje NASA.
with anything, OMG!
sa bilo čim, OMG!
the words are.
good word of English.
engleska reč.
good word of English.
normal, they can sound really silly.
mogu zvučati blesavo.
your meaning across.
i prenesete smisao,
you're saying
na ono što govorite
your meaning across.
da prenesete smisao.
on this stage today have said,
help us explore, you can help us invent."
u istraživanju i pronalaženju."
da pravite reči danas,
in my online dictionary, Wordnik.
u svoj rečnik na internetu, 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