this post was submitted on 29 Dec 2023
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English usage and grammar

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What is the name of the phenomenon in which you confuse a noun with one of its verb tenses? (Example below.) (self.english)
submitted 10 months ago by favrion to c/[email protected]
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For example, if you say that "feed" isn't a real word because there is a better way to say "issued someone a fee," but the real word is "feed" as in "to provide with nourishment," what would that error in judgment be called?

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[–] dragontamer 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

"Fee" -> "Feed", as per your first example is this (non-official) tendency of American speakers to "Verb" words, as the Calvin and Hobbs comic puts it. The more official path is the Gerund as I said before. Fee -> Feeing sounds wrong and is uncommon. But other "nouns" can turn into verbs like Subpoena -> subpoenaing, or the Google -> Googling example of my earlier post.

So from the Gerund and the Noun-into-verb transitions, Fee -> Feed is somewhat correct. The problem is that it

  1. Creates a Homonym, which is confusing. (Animal Feed is different from being issued a Fee)

  2. Feed (defined as "to issue a fee") is not common.

So between #1 and #2, its a bad idea. So its seems unlikely to me that such a verbing would ever catch on.

Calvin and Hobbs pokes fun at this whole "turn nouns into verbs" thing by using the noun "Verb" and turning it into the verb "verbing". So everything here is common English, perhaps not how its been taught... but its truly how Americans use the language.

If a popular celebrity comes out 5 years from now and uses the word "feed" as in, to issue a fee to someone else, then our language will change. Its a very free-form kind of language, and its why our rules are so inconsistent. We are constantly copying the cool, the popular. It literally changes words, like the word "Literally" that means "figuratively" these days.

Or "No Way", which can often times mean "yes". We break rules and mix up words all the time, just as a meme and as fun. And it becomes official language when enough people do it.