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From: jmast@cisunx.UUCP (John M Allen)
Newsgroups: sci.lang,comp.cog-eng
Subject: Re: Geographical uses of "in" and "on"  (Long)
Keywords: spatial language, prepositions, metaphor
Message-ID: <17778@cisunx.UUCP>
Date: 26 Apr 89 17:02:07 GMT
References: <5434@cs.Buffalo.EDU> <12591@ihlpy.ATT.COM>
Reply-To: jmast@unix.cis.pittsburgh.edu (John M Allen)
Organization: Univ. of Pittsburgh, Comp & Info Sys
Lines: 32

In article <12591@ihlpy.ATT.COM> krista@ihlpy.ATT.COM (Anderson) writes:
>When our company began issuing badges for us to wear, there was a
>ceremonious ritual about taking off the badges to go to lunch.  A
>new word was needed, so, in typical American fashion, so we made one
>up: "de-badge".  (Of course "re-badge" was used while reentering the
>building.)
>
>    But there was one exception.  A friend for whom English was a
>second language said "un-badge".  It sounded wrong.  There's some
>amorphous rule, some fuzzy logic that makes "de-badge" sound right
>and "un-badge" sound wrong.  It may be a vague semantic rule or it
>might be simple euphony; "un-badge" is more effort to pronounce.

   The answer for this is very simple.  The prefix `un-' is ambiguous
between to forms.  The first one attaches to adjectives and produces
an adjective with the meaning "not X" (e.g. unclear, unavoidable).
The second one attaches to verbs and produces a verb with the meaning
"to undo X" (e.g. unzip, undress).  On the other hand `de-' appears to
attach to nouns and produces a verb with the meaning "to remove X"
(e.g. defrock).  `Badge' is obviously a noun and not a verb or an
adjective, so the only appropriate prefix is `de-'.

>Krista A.


\		 |  |			John Allen
 \		\ ||			allen@mercutio.lcl.cmu.edu
/ \					formerly allen@mercurio.lcl.cmu.edu
					jmast@unix.cis.pittsburgh.edu

   "The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of
respect and joy in each other's life.  Rarely do members of one family
grow up under the same roof."  -Richard Bach, _Illusions_