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chinagary
Joined: 03 Jun 2006
Posts: 22
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 Posted: Sat May 23, 2009 4:27 pm Post subject: Could you tell me the meaning of "tablish" in the |
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Dear Sir or Madam,
Could you tell me the meaning of "tablish" in the following sentence:
The word �table�, for example, means a raised slab because we have agreed that it will be the symbol for what we know a table to be. Otherwise, there is nothing at all �tablish� about the sound of the word. |
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dragn
Joined: 17 Feb 2009
Posts: 450
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| Posted: Sat May 23, 2009 7:47 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
Could you tell me the meaning of "tablish" in the following sentence:
The word �table�, for example, means a raised slab because we have agreed that it will be the symbol for what we know a table to be. Otherwise, there is nothing at all �tablish� about the sound of the word. |
It means precisely what you should think it means: like a table, or like the word "table."
And no, you won't find it in the dictionary because the writer made it up. 
The suffix -ish is an adjective-forming suffix, and so instantly transforms whatever word it is attached to into an adjective. The writer created the word he needed at the moment he needed it. We do this all the time. Note the use of quotation marks around the word. One of the functions of quotation marks is to alert the reader to a word that merits special attention, possibly because it is being used with some type of special or irregular meaning or (as in this case) it is a word that is being "manufactured" by the writer.
The writer is basically saying that there is nothing special about the sound of the word table that should cause us to think of an actual table when we hear the word. The only reason it calls to mind the image of a table is simply because we all agree that the word table represents that particular object. We could all agree that a raised slab with four legs is an oogabooga. If that were the case, then every time somebody said oogabooga, you'd think of a table...er, I mean a raised slab with four legs.
Greg |
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