The borrowing of "bologna" isn't what's confusing, it's the fact that English kept the Italian spelling but then pronounces it differently from both the spelling and the native pronunciation ("bo-lon'ya"). We butcher lots of words, granted (and other languages return the favour), but even then, you'd think it'd come out as "boh-log-nah", not "bah-low-nee" when looking at the spelling (or "bo-lon-ya" if we tried to mimic the pronunciation but ended up substituting out the non-English "nya"/"ɲ" sound). It's not an unreasonable "huh?" situation.
predatory = pred/-at(e)/-tor/-y = prey / to do / agent / quality/condition/state = describing something that preys
immobilization = im-/mobil/-iz(e)/-at(e)/-ion = not / mobile / to do / condition from action = the state of being unable to move
stability = sta/-bili/-ity = stand / ability/capacity / quality/condition/state = describing something that can stand
adaptation = ad-/apt/-at(e)/-ion = towards / fit / to do / condition from action = something that has been made to fit better
It's like mini-sentences inside a word; some languages extend this further and make actual sentences single words, while others go the opposite way and don't even conjugate base words, and just add new words to change the meaning within the context of the sentence. Fundamentally, however, we're all just taking small blocks of info and putting them together to make more complex meanings, but it's really interesting to compare and contrast the different ways to do it, and the different sets of logic behind the various strategies.
I was actually studying Japanese at the same time as the Latin/Greek course, so I was already actively comparing it to English and French conjugation stuff, and then started comparing English word construction to how kanji are formed and put together too. I'm terrible at vocab so my grades sucked for both classes, but it was really fun. Then I took a linguistics course in my last year, and it reignited that fascination all over again - and since it didn't require learning hundreds of new words and roots in three languages simultaneously, I got a good mark that time.
I took a Latin/Greek course in university that was nothing but taking English words and breaking them down into all their components: it was really interesting. Pretty much every polysyllabic English word can be broken down into a set of affixes bracketing a Latin or Greek root (which often came to English via Old French).Time Turner said:You'd be surprised how many English teachers argue exactly the opposite.Hobbes said:You know what I love about English? That it is so flexible. It doesn't have a tyrannic organization ruling supreme over everything related to it and dictating what is correct and what is not, it instead relies on the most common usage, which makes the most sense for something as changing as language.
I do get what you're saying though, there are plenty of reoccurring suffixes, prefixes, and morphemes in English. For example, take "ject", which has fallen out of modern usage but was derived from the Latin jacero, which refers to something being thrown or thrown down (can be interpreted as lying down). This morpheme can then have the prefix "in" (inside) placed on it to create "inject", which refers to throwing something inside of something else. In most cases, "ject" doesn't literally refer to throwing something, but merely the displacement of an object or even something more abstract than that. Another example would be "subject", combining "sub" (under or below) with "ject", which clues you in on the meaning (something that lies underneath something or someone else). From there, you can start to notice the patterns: "project", "reject", "objective", "trajectory", "conjecture", "adjective", and the list goes on and on. It's not something you need to study to pick up on: as you see the same few words crop up, you automatically associate them with each other, which helps immensely with comprehension. It's easy to create words just by taking a common word and sticking a prefix or a suffix on it ("serve" has "conserve", "reserve", "deserve", "observe", "servile", "servant", "service", "server", and so much more) Even with words that seem esoteric, like "obnoxious", it's a simple combination of "ob" (against, also in "objection") and "noxious" (harmful or dangerous), or with "mnemonic", which uses the common "-ic" suffix (pertaining to something else) while also being where "meme" comes from. The English language is one heck of a mixing pot, but it certainly has its clever tricks, even if those tricks may be borrowed from other languages. It wouldn't be much of a mixing pot if those languages weren't there, though.
i had an english teacher obsessed with the roots of words and i fear that he rubbed off on me
predatory = pred/-at(e)/-tor/-y = prey / to do / agent / quality/condition/state = describing something that preys
immobilization = im-/mobil/-iz(e)/-at(e)/-ion = not / mobile / to do / condition from action = the state of being unable to move
stability = sta/-bili/-ity = stand / ability/capacity / quality/condition/state = describing something that can stand
adaptation = ad-/apt/-at(e)/-ion = towards / fit / to do / condition from action = something that has been made to fit better
It's like mini-sentences inside a word; some languages extend this further and make actual sentences single words, while others go the opposite way and don't even conjugate base words, and just add new words to change the meaning within the context of the sentence. Fundamentally, however, we're all just taking small blocks of info and putting them together to make more complex meanings, but it's really interesting to compare and contrast the different ways to do it, and the different sets of logic behind the various strategies.
I was actually studying Japanese at the same time as the Latin/Greek course, so I was already actively comparing it to English and French conjugation stuff, and then started comparing English word construction to how kanji are formed and put together too. I'm terrible at vocab so my grades sucked for both classes, but it was really fun. Then I took a linguistics course in my last year, and it reignited that fascination all over again - and since it didn't require learning hundreds of new words and roots in three languages simultaneously, I got a good mark that time.