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Her column drives me crazy with its blend of bad social advice and speculation presented as fact, but often enough there are a few good tidbits or puzzles that compel me to keep reading. Yesterday I found myself at the laundromat with only a "Parade" from November 13, and this was was the mind bender she offered:
"Which word doesn't belong in this list: irredeemable, irreducible, irreligious, irrevocable, irremovable, irrepressible, irreversible?"
She offered only one correct answer, a phonetic one. My answer was morphology-based, and equally valid. What's your first instinct? I'll give some possible answers in a bit...
"Which word doesn't belong in this list: irredeemable, irreducible, irreligious, irrevocable, irremovable, irrepressible, irreversible?"
She offered only one correct answer, a phonetic one. My answer was morphology-based, and equally valid. What's your first instinct? I'll give some possible answers in a bit...
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Tucson
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Re: Marilyn vos Savant: a genius but no linguist
Fri, January 6, 2006 - 12:18 PMI'd say that either irreligious or irrevocable could be excluded based on phonetic considerations. -
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Re: Marilyn vos Savant: a genius but no linguist
Wed, January 11, 2006 - 3:01 AM****************************************************************************************************
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I must admit, you're right, Anthony - I am both irreligious and irrevocable, and often I am excluded! -
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Re: Marilyn vos Savant: a genius but no linguist
Wed, January 11, 2006 - 10:43 AMAre you sure it's not just your low signal to noise ratio?
*hint hint*
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Re: Marilyn vos Savant: a genius but no linguist
Fri, January 6, 2006 - 12:31 PMWell, "irreligious" is the only one that is not derived from an adjective which was derived from a verb (redeem, reduce...). -
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Re: Marilyn vos Savant: a genius but no linguist
Sat, January 7, 2006 - 6:44 AMIt seems to me that they're all derived from adjectives: in- + religious, in- + redeemable. That is, for me, there is no verb to irredeem from which I can derive an adjective in -able. Same with the others. It's like saying that truck-driver is derived from a verb to truck-drive. That is [[truck][[drive][er]]] not [[[truck][drive]][er]] -
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Re: Marilyn vos Savant: a genius but no linguist
Sat, January 7, 2006 - 9:28 AMYes, I'm saying they are all derived from adjectives:
redeemable
reducible
religious
revocable
removable
repressible
reversible
All of these adjectives were in turn derived from verbs, save one:
redeem
reduce
*religious
revoke
remove
repress
reverse
Same conclusion as Jeau...expressing in the negative rather than the positive was probably confusing. -
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Re: Marilyn vos Savant: a genius but no linguist
Sat, January 7, 2006 - 11:25 AMThanks, I figured out your meaning after that first cuppa.
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Re: Marilyn vos Savant: a genius but no linguist
Sat, January 7, 2006 - 7:08 AMHere's Marilyn's only answer:
"Irrevocable is the only word pronounced with the accent on the second syllable, not the third."
Before I peeked at her answer, I decided that irreligious didn't belong. One can redeem, reduce, revoke, remove, repress, and reverse, but one cannot "relig". It's also the only word not using a suffix derived from the Latin -abilis.
And, yes Anthony, another phonetic consideration is the syllable count, which also makes irreligious the nonconformist. Hadn't noticed that.
This isn't the first time Vos Savant has ignored linguistic evidence, just the first time I've had a forum to gripe about it. ;)
