Yesterday someone found this blog by searching for "where did the word 'jewelry' come from?". I realized that they had probably gone away unsatisfied. Since I do have full access to the Oxford English Dictionary online, and since this is a nice intersection of linguistics and jewelry, I'll answer! (Although, please note, I never really did etymology, even though etymology questions are the ones I get asked most frequently. Well, etymology and, "Do you have this in a different color?" But since I'll be here till my dying day waiting for someone to ask me about, say the semantics of temporality in Swahili, which was what I used to spend my time on, linguistics-wise...well, I'll take it where I can get it, is what I'm saying.)
'Jewelry' is historically composed of 'jewel' + 'ery'. (The British spelling makes this clearer, 'jewellery'). 'Jewel' in turn is from Old French joel (found around the 12th century). Where the Old French came from is still a bit of an open question, but probably from either Latin gaudium or jocare . '-ery' just turns a verb into a noun-- originally it was used with only words of French origin, but generalized a bit after that to words of English origin, too. It's the same -ery you'll find in 'bravery', 'cutlery', 'treachery', 'bakery', 'pottery'....
There you go! Here at My Word! we have (or can find) the answers to all your linguistics-related jewelry questions, and your jewelry-related linguistics questions.
Showing posts with label linguistics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label linguistics. Show all posts
Monday, September 28, 2009
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Overthinking Jewelry: words
Back to words, then. Words on jewelry. Here's my approach:
Words have what linguists call 'argument structure'. 'Argument structure' refers to what goes with a particular word in a sentence. For example, some words need an additional word to go with them, as an integral part of their meaning-- you might see such words as carrying an empty slot along with them that has to be filled with another word. Verbs are the best examples of this: if you hope, you're hoping [for something]. If you create, you're creating [something]. There's a little empty piece that can be filled in. Not just the object, in fact, but also the subject: [You] are creating [something]. And also indirect objects are sometimes required: [You] give [something] [to someone].
Ok. So, nouns generally don't have much argument structure. Most nouns are ok just floating out there on their own, and they're complete that way. They make great labels, but they don't leave much to the imagination. There's not much crying out to be filled in, meaning-wise. I generally stay away from nouns on jewelry for this reason.
Verbs, on the other hand, have one or more empty slots in them that have to be filled in at least subconciously in order to make much sense: subject, direct object, indirect object. All of these are things that a person reading the word will have to supply in order to make sense of the word. On jewelry, this can be wonderfully imaginative and unique to each person. So I love using verbs on my jewelry! When you see a pendant that says give, you still have to do some work: give [love] [to everyone]? Give [money] [to the needy]? Give [time] [to your family]? All of the above? It gets you thinking a bit, and allows each person to come up with an interpretation that's meaningful to them personally.
Next we have adjectives and adverbs. These are interesting because they too 'require' things be filled in-- nouns, of course, in the case of adjectives, and verbs in the case of adverbs. So that takes us back to my stance on nouns and verbs-- I will use both adjectives and adverbs in my work, but I'll take an adverb over an adjetive any day. If you put an adjective on a pendant, it's sort of taken by default to refer to the person wearing it. "Brave", for example. "Ok, the wearer says she's brave." And that's kinda the end of it. Turn it into an adverb, though, and suddenly all sorts of questions are raised-- do what bravely? You understand there to be some verb lurking there. Then you have to fill in its argument structure. The imagination is fully engaged at this point. It's a bit more work-- ok, a lot more work-- and some people may simply choose not to engage with the piece, but others (especially the verbally talented among us) become absorbed, as they create meaning, and build a little world around the verb I've given them.
My absolute favorites are the prepositional phrases that describe manner or time. The principle is the same as for adverbs-- they evoke an event, the contents of which is left open for the viewer (or coauthor as I sometimes like to think of it) to construct. "After the moon rose", or "with a careless joy" beg for more information: what happened then? What did she do so joyfully?
Words have what linguists call 'argument structure'. 'Argument structure' refers to what goes with a particular word in a sentence. For example, some words need an additional word to go with them, as an integral part of their meaning-- you might see such words as carrying an empty slot along with them that has to be filled with another word. Verbs are the best examples of this: if you hope, you're hoping [for something]. If you create, you're creating [something]. There's a little empty piece that can be filled in. Not just the object, in fact, but also the subject: [You] are creating [something]. And also indirect objects are sometimes required: [You] give [something] [to someone].
Ok. So, nouns generally don't have much argument structure. Most nouns are ok just floating out there on their own, and they're complete that way. They make great labels, but they don't leave much to the imagination. There's not much crying out to be filled in, meaning-wise. I generally stay away from nouns on jewelry for this reason.
Verbs, on the other hand, have one or more empty slots in them that have to be filled in at least subconciously in order to make much sense: subject, direct object, indirect object. All of these are things that a person reading the word will have to supply in order to make sense of the word. On jewelry, this can be wonderfully imaginative and unique to each person. So I love using verbs on my jewelry! When you see a pendant that says give, you still have to do some work: give [love] [to everyone]? Give [money] [to the needy]? Give [time] [to your family]? All of the above? It gets you thinking a bit, and allows each person to come up with an interpretation that's meaningful to them personally.
Next we have adjectives and adverbs. These are interesting because they too 'require' things be filled in-- nouns, of course, in the case of adjectives, and verbs in the case of adverbs. So that takes us back to my stance on nouns and verbs-- I will use both adjectives and adverbs in my work, but I'll take an adverb over an adjetive any day. If you put an adjective on a pendant, it's sort of taken by default to refer to the person wearing it. "Brave", for example. "Ok, the wearer says she's brave." And that's kinda the end of it. Turn it into an adverb, though, and suddenly all sorts of questions are raised-- do what bravely? You understand there to be some verb lurking there. Then you have to fill in its argument structure. The imagination is fully engaged at this point. It's a bit more work-- ok, a lot more work-- and some people may simply choose not to engage with the piece, but others (especially the verbally talented among us) become absorbed, as they create meaning, and build a little world around the verb I've given them.
My absolute favorites are the prepositional phrases that describe manner or time. The principle is the same as for adverbs-- they evoke an event, the contents of which is left open for the viewer (or coauthor as I sometimes like to think of it) to construct. "After the moon rose", or "with a careless joy" beg for more information: what happened then? What did she do so joyfully?
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Language Project
Apparently 2008 is the International Year of Languages, so declares the UN. The folks over at Language Log blogged about it a bit today, and left me inspired. Yes, language is a bit abstract a subject for art, but hey! I'm a calligrapher, and I already have a bit of a language theme going on in my work, and wouldn't mind riffing on it a bit more. I think I'll have a go at it. I like a challenge.
Here's my plan: one new piece per day for the rest of the year in another language. I'll aim for one or two new different languages per week. I may do a number of words and phrases for each language, depending on where my whim takes me, but for each I will at the very least do pieces featuring the equivalents of 'listen' and 'tell me'.
Yeah, I know, a tall order! I'll have to go do a little research to figure out how to say those things, since it's a little more involved than just looking them up in a dictionary. Sounds like fun to me (I welcome any excuse to go hang out in the library and study languages). If you happen to speak another language well, I'd love a helping hand with the translations. And I'm game to do non-Roman scripts, too-- though anything non-alphabetic might require a little (um, or a lot) of coaching.
Up first, my favorite second language, KiSwahili. To kick it all off, I'm listing these earrings in my shop this afternoon. 'Amani' and 'imani' are KiSwahili for 'peace' and 'faith', respectively.
Asante kwa kusoma na karibu tena!
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
I still go to a reading group on my favorite linguistics subject, tense and aspect. When I tell people this, they give me a Look. A "What? Why?" look. Well, I enjoy it, is the only reason I need. For an hour a week (if the discussion is interesting), I am filled again with a sense of pleasure that I only get from linguistics. The feeling of understanding something so well that you can clearly perceive the vast panorama of things you don't yet understand, and a path or two to finding out the answer. Oh, it's delicious. Remind me to tell you a little about aspect some time.
Of course, on the mundane level, it involves a lot of things I'd just as soon have nothing to do with, which is why I stopped. The day-to-day drudgery of jewelry making is far more pleasant than the day-to-day business of knowledge-making. I enjoy creating in and of itself. But I do miss the pursuit of the question, just a little.
It always seemed to me that artistic creativity and, for lack of a better term, scientific creativity, are closely related, if not identical, processes. You have to put everything you know together in one place, give it a good examination, and then answer the big question: what can I contribute? How can I approach this differently? What remains to be explored? And if you're lucky, if you have that spark, you can find some angle, some little corner to magnify and riff on in your own way. Development of lexical aspectual systems in L2 Swahili; paper jewelry-- same diff. Always building on the work of others, hopefully adding something valuable to the conversation.
Well, enough of that for now.
Of course, on the mundane level, it involves a lot of things I'd just as soon have nothing to do with, which is why I stopped. The day-to-day drudgery of jewelry making is far more pleasant than the day-to-day business of knowledge-making. I enjoy creating in and of itself. But I do miss the pursuit of the question, just a little.
It always seemed to me that artistic creativity and, for lack of a better term, scientific creativity, are closely related, if not identical, processes. You have to put everything you know together in one place, give it a good examination, and then answer the big question: what can I contribute? How can I approach this differently? What remains to be explored? And if you're lucky, if you have that spark, you can find some angle, some little corner to magnify and riff on in your own way. Development of lexical aspectual systems in L2 Swahili; paper jewelry-- same diff. Always building on the work of others, hopefully adding something valuable to the conversation.
Well, enough of that for now.
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