Fuddland

Today has consisted of figuring out the finer [possibly the very finest] points of the English language, discussing things like:

1. the difference between ‘into’ and ‘in to’ [trying think of a good example of the usage of both. I’ve only managed to come up with, “Why did you put the ball into the box?” “I put it in to stop it rolling around”]

2. the difference between ‘setup’ and ‘set up’ [noun/verb distinction]

3. where you put the emphasis in ‘preface’ [coincidentally also discussed elsewhere just last week — never ‘pre-face’, whether it’s the verb or the noun]

I’ve also been prompted to wonder if I know people with unwanted airmiles they want to donate to me, in what may well become the first annual Fuddathon™. Not sure I’d be prepared to sit in a bath of cold baked beans though.

#1

Phil | 2004 / 01 / 16 – 18:51

“setup” is not a word that appears in the Oxford English Dictionary. It’s “set up”, or “set-up”. “Setup” was created by brain dead american programmers at Microsoft.
:o)

#2

imogen | 2004 / 01 / 16 – 19:04

you might even, also, have talked about the different pronunciations of the noun/verb ‘progress’ (which people often make fun of me for saying “in a funny way” or accuse me of trying to sound British when i do say it correctly).

#3

David | 2004 / 01 / 16 – 19:57

Re #1: You’re right, ‘setup’ is one I didn’t check in the OED. Looks like ‘set-up’ is the equivalent of ‘setup’ in the OED definition, and what with the dismissal of the hypen in a lot of hyphenated words [e.g. e-mail to the generally accepted email], it’s really only a matter of time before it enters the OED. Not sure your etymology of ‘setup’ has been thoroughly researched though. ;)

Re #2: Yep, c.f. ‘attributes and ‘protest’ for examples of words where the emphasis [as well as the context] alters the verb/noun status. As I mentioned before, I think a lot can be forgiven by the accent of the speaker. Which reminds me: I’ve wanted to link to the Speech Accent Archive for a while now. Well worth a browse [although the New Zealander doesn’t pronounce ‘six’ in the comedy manner I anticipated].

#4

imogen | 2004 / 01 / 16 – 20:18

btw — yay to the annual Fuddathon! sounds like a great idea to me.

i’ll make the t-shirts, but i won’t make any comments about the baked beans. [snort]

#5

richard | 2004 / 01 / 17 – 20:12

‘In’ and ‘to’ should be written separately when their sense is separate. In, “I put it in to stop it rolling around” the two words are part of different clauses of the sentence and their sense is quite separate.

On the other hand, “I poured the beer into the glass” has the two words forming part of exactly the same sense and so they are combined into one word. As well as forming a pleasant image in the mind :oP

#6

Daisy | 2004 / 01 / 17 – 20:41

Well, as it ‘appens, I’m sure I’ve got some paper air miles around here somewhere. But we need details of this Fuddathonâ„¢ malarky first. And a badge thingy to put on our our blogrolls. In a variety of colours of course - I couldn’t possibly settle for anything other than pink.
:-0)))

#7

David | 2004 / 01 / 18 – 03:38

Re #6: Easy now — I’ll have to see if Lenny Henry and Griff Rhys Jones are available before I wheel out any badges and the like. ;)

#8

David | 2004 / 01 / 18 – 03:41

Re #5: Thanks for the mnemonic — I always find things make more sense in the context of beer. :)

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