Fraggle Rocker
Staff member
I would point out that in English, hyphenation generally binds two words together into a compound word. This is a new word whose definition may have very little relation to the meaning of either of the components. "Smarty-pants" is a good example, since it has nothing to do with the clothing of the person being insulted.Obviously, there is a difference in which two or more words we compare, and "pants" and "trousers" are not particularly controversial, but it is not true that they are interchangeable. One cannot say "smarty-trousers" instead of "smarty-pants."
Compound words are often misleading if interpreted literally. As Gallagher points out, a "parkway" is actually a place where we drive, whereas a "driveway" is a place where we park.
This falls under my observation that "there are no absolutes in life, including this one." Language may be largely rational, but they all have their irrational idiosyncrasies. As I just pointed out in the thread about technical terms, two languages as closely related as English and German use their cognate prepositions in much different ways. Which one is the more logical, "I will write this in English," or Ich wird das auf deutsch schreiben." ["Auf" is cognate with English "up," but is also used to mean "on."]On principle, I argue that language is rational, and that as such, there is no true redundancy or absolute interchangeability in it or its use.
Depends? That's an entirely different type of pants.Where's the rigor in "it depends"?!