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Collector's Corner, Round 6, Jeremiah Farrell

Word Ways

Martin Gardner wrote 111 puzzles for his good friend Isaac Asimov to include in Isaac's Science Fiction magazine. The popular Sci-fi paperback is still being published. For details contact the editor Sheila Williams.

Letter Banks, Zorn Radisavljevic

Word Ways

A letter bank is a type of puzzle where all the letters of one word (the "bank") can be used as many times as desired (a minimum of once each) to make a new word or phrase. For example, IMPS is a bank of MISSISSIPPI, and CYNDI LAUPER is a letter bank of PERPENDICULARLY.

National Puzzler's League, Zorn Radisavljevic

Word Ways

You probably noticed that some authors of anagrams use pseudonyms. Most of them are members of the National Puzzlers League (NPL), an Americna non-profit organization focused on puzzling, primarily in the realm of word play and word games. Founded in 1883, NPL is the oldest puzzlers' organization in the world. it originally hosted semiannual conventions in February and September of each year, but conventions are now held annually, in July.

Numerograms - Another Hidden Meanings In Letters, Zoran Radisavljevic

Word Ways

Numerogram is a puzzle which I invented in 2001. It was firstly published in Belgrade magazine "Enigmatika".

The Language Perfectionist: Quotation Quota, Don Hauptman

Word Ways

Every few years, my friend Mardy Grothe assembles a new collection of quotations. The defining characteristic of these anthologies is that all the entries share an interesting or quirky theme.

A Pangrammatic Limerick, A. Ross Eckler

Word Ways

A pangrammatic limerick.

Anagram Quiz 3, A. Anil

Word Ways

The clues are definitive anagrams or polyanagrams of the answers. Most are reversibles. Answers are out back.

Phonetic Palindromes, Susan Thorpe

Word Ways

Words which are palindromes may, or may not, sound like palindromes. NOON, PEEP, and KINNIKINNIK sound like palindromes. However, most palindromes with more than 4 letters do not sound like palindromes, an exception being the 5 letter MINIM. The palindromically-inconsistent sounds, sometimes subtle, are, nevertheless, real: MADAM, LEVEL, TENET, CIVIC, SOLOS, DEIFIED, and ROTATOR. On the other hand, there exist words which are not palindromes but which sound like palindromes. These are phonetic palindromes. MAIM is a phonetic palindrome.

Hydromorons, A. Anil

Word Ways

Hydromorons complement oxymorons. (H and O are two extremes on the chemical reactivity or redox scale.) In contrast to the glaring self-contradiction of an oxymoron, a hydromoron is a glaring redundancy like each of the three pairs in this telling headline.

Punk Whiz 15, A. Anil

Word Ways

More Pun Quiz misdefinitions. In parenthesis are the letters in the answer; (3|6) is a charade, a nine-letter word that splits into a three plus six letter pun. My answers are out back.

Us County Names, Darryl Francis

Word Ways

Over the years, I have written various articles for Word Ways on the logology of the names of the 50 US states and the 50 state capitals. There have been transposals, transdeletions, transadditions and so on. But I've never explored the names of the US counties.

Josephus Words, Dana Richards

Word Ways

In the articles on "Magic Spells" (Word Ways, Feb and May 2010) it was proposed that tricks could be performed with a deck of n letter cards. The deck would be prearranged, spelling some word u. There would be a "skip sequence" of integers k1, k2, ..., kn; the more natural the sequence the better.

"Hey -- Stumble? Stay Humble!": More Story Spoonerisms, Don Hauptman

Word Ways

One of my favorite varieties of spoonerism is the narrative form, in which a setup is followed by a punned punch line.

Gwan Tong, Amy Chi

Word Ways

These two Chinese characters literally mean boiling soup. To local people, this type of soup is different from louh fo tong in terms of nutrition, medicinal value and the heart that the cook puts into making it.

Semi-Pseudo-Plurals And Semi-Quasi-Pseudo-Plurals, T.A. Hall

Word Ways

A recent perusal of Webster's Third New International Dictionary has uncovered a number of pseudo-plurals and quasi-pseudo-plurals that were not included in my article in the last issue of this journal. These new examples are listed in Figure 1 and Figure 2 respectively.

In Your Mind's Ear, Ron Singer

Word Ways

"Hmm. A metaphor that melds body parts. 'In the mind's eye'?"

Ladies' Diary Riddle -- An Answer, Ronnie Kon

Word Ways

The answer to the Riddle that Faith Eckler asked about so long ago is an Oven. I kid you not.

Special Words, T.A. Hall

Word Ways

In two recent articles in this journal, Susan Thorpe identifies schwa as the phonetic symbol of English which can be represented by the most letters of the alphabet.

Totally Extreme Words, Susan Thorpe

Word Ways

Consider the word CLIFF. The first letter (C) has an alphabetical value of 3; the last letter (F) a value of 6. Coincidentally, the total value of the whole word is 36. CLIFF is what I call a totally extreme word. However, it doesn't end there. The total value of the middle letters situated between C and F is 27, which is 9 times the value of the first letter, C.

Alphabetical Antonyms, A. Ross Eckler

Word Ways

During 1993 Nyr Indictor published the short-lived N is for Newsletter, a journal devoted to "alphabets, alphabet books, and alphabet memorabilia for alphabet lovers." The September issue contained the following challenge: "Create an alphabet of antonyms, that is, pairs of words that begin with the same letter that are in some way opposites, like aerobic and anaerobic, author and authoress, or ask and answer." A large number were published in the October/November issue, including a complete set that I submitted. The following selection is taken from that list.

Eskimo Words For Sea-Ice, A. Ross Eckler

Word Ways

Linguistics professor Geoffrey Pullum demolished the Boas-Whorf claim that there are 200 Eskimo words for snow, in his book The Great Eskimo Vocabulary Hoax. A new version of this myth shows up in Mariana Gosnell's Ice.

Answers And Solutions

Word Ways

Answers and solutions to the puzzles contained in this issue.

Back Cover

Word Ways

Back cover, including a tribute to Howard W. Bergerson by Zorn Radisavljevic.

Sentence Adverbs In The Kingdom Of Agree, Chih-Hsiang Shu

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

This dissertation offers a novel account of the syntax of sentence adverbs. The need for a new account is clear from the lack of descriptive coverage and theoretical coherence in current work on adverbial syntax. Descriptively, the majority of work has so far neglected the fact that sentence adverbs behave syntactically like typical focusing adverbs. There has been no coherent and let alone comprehensive syntactic analysis of various focus- sensitive adverbs in generative grammar. The main proposal I make is that sentence adverbs, as well as focusing adverbs in general, are `inflectional affixes writ large'. In other words, sentence adverbs …

Tautonymic Sights And Sounds, Susan Thorpe

Word Ways

Most tautonymic words, as well as consisting of a repeated letter/group of letters, are also phonetically tautonymic, the 2 identical letter groups having identical pronunciations. On the other hand, there exist tautonymic words with a difference in pronunciation between the 2 identical letter groups. The degree of audible difference varies. it may be obvious as in ISIS, a river in Oxford, and in the TSETSE fly; or the difference may be more subtle.

Neologisms L Through O, J. James Mancusco

Word Ways

An alphabetic listing of neologisms, letters L through O.

More What Four?, Steve Kahan

Word Ways

Like Schubert's symphony number 8 in B minor, the listings in the following quiz are unfinished. More precisely, each of the twenty-five questions consists of a pair of word fragments from which the same final quartet of letters is missing. For instance, if LUL/WAL appeared below, then appending the letters LABY to the end of each would reveal the words LULLABY and WALLABY. Appropriately, score four points for any duo which is identified correctly.

Code-Switching And Language Change In Tunisia, Lotfi Sayahi

Languages, Literatures and Cultures Faculty Scholarship

This article quantitatively studies the patterns of Tunisian Arabic/French code-switching and the possible implications for contact-induced change in the Tunisian dialect. The purpose is to account for the extent of the occurrence of code-switching across gender lines and levels of education and assess its role in the interference from French into Arabic, both at the lexical and structural levels. Recorded semi-directed sociolinguistic interviews with twelve speakers are examined for type and frequency of code-switching and use of French borrowings.

Results show that education plays a role in distinguishing the group with a higher education from the group with only a …

Norcal Vs. Socal: Culture As Communication, Jillian J. Smith

Communication Studies

No abstract provided.

Andre Goeritz Mfa Thesis Statement, Andre M. Goeritz

CGU MFA Theses

I strive to make objects of no complicity--arranging smaller parts to create larger forms, or allowing the combination of parts to allude to narratives without linearity, foreshadowing, point of entry, point of attack, conflict, context, or catharsis; a state of sustained stillness until equilibrium is no longer a desired result, at which point the parts of the whole can be dismantled, reconfigured, made anew. I think about words, rhythm, inflection, resonance or timbre, vocal dissonance, dismembered disjointed utterances, and repetition--somatic impulses guided by intent. Intention translates into action--an act of will, a willful act, an act of willful intent--a marker …