{"id":3096,"date":"2018-05-15T22:24:41","date_gmt":"2018-05-15T22:24:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/?p=3096"},"modified":"2018-05-16T02:27:23","modified_gmt":"2018-05-16T02:27:23","slug":"word-of-the-day-babble","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/2018\/05\/15\/word-of-the-day-babble\/","title":{"rendered":"Word of the Day: Babble"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paul Schleifer<\/h1>\n

Babble<\/em> is a flexible word. As a verb, it can be intransitive (used without an object) or transitive (used with an object). It means \u201cto utter sounds or words imperfectly, indistinctly, or without meaning; to talk idly, irrationally, or foolishly; to make a continuous murmuring sound\u201d: I hate it when you babble; <\/em>or, I hate it when you babble nonsense <\/em>(www.dictionary.com<\/a>). We probably hear the former use more than the latter, and often we follow the intransitive with some sort of prepositional phrase instead of an object: Daniel liked to babble on and on about the brilliance of Dr. Who and how the show was based on \u201creal\u201d science <\/em>(https:\/\/wordsinasentence.com\/babble-in-a-sentence\/<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Babble <\/em>can also be a noun meaning 1. \u201cinarticulate or imperfect speech\u201d or 2. \u201cfoolish, meaningless, or incoherent speech; prattle\u201d or 3. \u201ca murmuring sound or a confusion of sounds (www.dictionary.com<\/a>). According to www.etymonline.com<\/a>, the verb appeared in English in the 13th<\/sup> century, from \u201cbabeln<\/em>\u00a0\u2018to prattle, utter words indistinctly, talk like a baby,\u2019 akin to other Western European words for stammering and prattling (Swedish\u00a0babbla<\/em>, Old French\u00a0babillier<\/em>, etc.) attested from the same era (some of which probably were borrowed from others), all probably ultimately imitative of baby-talk (compare Latin\u00a0babulus<\/em>\u00a0\u2018babbler,\u2019 Greek\u00a0barbaros<\/em>\u00a0\u2018non-Greek-speaking.\u2019\u201d The OED<\/em>, which also has the etymological information, also adds this: \u201cCompare also the name of\u00a0Babel<\/em>\u00a0(see\u00a0Babel\u00a0n.<\/em><\/a>), which, although etymologically unrelated, may have been associated with the verb in later use.\u201d<\/p>\n

So the \u201cba\u201d is an early sound made by young humans, and then by a process linguists call reduplication it is repeated, in this case with a slight alteration in the second half. Then, in another linguistic process called either functional shift<\/strong> or conversion<\/strong>, the verb babble becomes the noun babble. According to English Language and Linguistics Online (http:\/\/www.ello.uos.de\/field.php\/Morphology\/ConversionOrFunctionalShift<\/a>):<\/p>\n

“By Conversion we understand derivation of a new lexeme from an existing one without a specific morphological marker indicating the change of word class and meaning.”(Kortmann 2005, 103)<\/p>\n

As Kortmann points out, the word itself does not change although it\u00a0shifts<\/em>\u00a0into another word category and therefore experiences a change of meaning. Due to this apparent lack of change, linguistis also refer to conversion as\u00a0zero derivation<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The most productive form of conversion occurs within the three following word-class changes:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. noun > verb<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
      \n
    1. \n