Invented Words
1 Comment »Tuesday August 5th, 2003
A challenge for everyone – I need to know what you call someone who makes up words (please, I’d be the first to respond to such a question with an answer of “painful” or “strange” – but I’m actually serious here !).
Anyone ?
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George W. Bush? I personally think he is unparalleled as a proponent of malapropism :)
On a more serious note, this got me thinking… I think it is necessary to differentiate between people who make up words deliberately, and those who do it unknowingly. Wernicke’s Aphasia is a psychological condition characterised by the loss of comprehension of written and spoken language and distortion of speech. Wernicke’s aphasics can speak fluent sentences that often contain little meaning or syntax, but sound perfectly fine to them.
On the other hand, I think people who deliberately make up words are known as Neologists…
Jamie