30 replies to this topic

[guhati]

My analogy on this topic is, "Do Rarely Used words get Extinct?" If you think about it, then the answer is completely unknown, because there isn't a man on earth that knows EVERY SINGLE WORD on the earth, and this doesn't limit to English language, but also multi-language stage. Now if you look at the most common name used in America is John. How many members on these boards have a name that has that name. Probably 30% MAYBE? NO? Well it could be.

Let's say we ban the name john. No offense to those people who have that name, but let's just take that scenario. Do you think that it will get extinct? YES? I think No. Here's why.

If we take a poll right now, about the most popular name and include all peoples name in the poll, and also JOHN. Do you think that they will choose THERE name or the NAME JOHN. Which one do you think they will choose? I will certainly choose my name. Why you ask because I am familiar with my name, and I have used it since the day I was born.

I have posted this topic to make you guys think about this. I have thought about this and couldn't get an answer to it. I don't want to start a debate here but want to hear your most enthusiastic opinions.

I will be updating this list with my thought logs....

Edited by guhati, 17 April 2009 - 11:23 PM.

[rogerthecamel]

As soon as a word is written or recorded it can't become extinct until all record and memory of that word is removed. There are plenty of extinct words out there, I mean look at the ancient egyptian language, all thats left are pictures/symbols, nothing vocal. Because of this it is impossible to name any "extinct" word. Just words that have fallen out of use. Although you could probably argue that if a word is excluded from the dictionary of a language then it become extinct from that language. The word would be fallen out of use enough, or been replaced that it is technically no longer correct to use. This could include a word such as "thy" although I'm not sure if it is no longer part of the english language.

To ban a name would not make it fall out of use, conversely it will probably be remembered throughout history as that strange time when the name John was banned and never used as a name again. But it would be remembered forever and therefore not become extinct.

Your poll about what the most popular name is, well I wouldn't pick my own name, I know it isn't the most popular name and just because I hear it more often than any other name doesn't make it seem any more popular to me. Now if the poll was "What name do you hear the most often?" then I might be more inclined to choose my own, but there are actually probably others that I might hear more often, like "Rihanna", "Chris Brown", etc. These names are mentioned all the time on the radio more often than people need to refer to me by my name to get my attention.

[Lightning73]

How do you name something that doesn't exist.. It's like trying to see a living dinosaur. Not possible in my opinion.

[rogerthecamel]

Unicorn... there I just named something that doesn't exist. Na, although I'm not sure what your logic is there Lightning73. Seeing a living dinosaur could simply mean recreating it.

[rpgsearcherz]

rogerthecamel, on Apr 16 2009, 08:40 PM, said:

Unicorn... there I just named something that doesn't exist. Na, although I'm not sure what your logic is there Lightning73. Seeing a living dinosaur could simply mean recreating it.

Um, unicorns are real. I've seen them in the Chronicles of Narnia, games like Lineage II, and movies like Harry Potter. So yes, they exist!

About words going extinct...I doubt they do, really. If you think about it, we have millions of words that if you even saw them you would be like "Huh? Since when is that English?"

There are like 8-9 words that mean the exact same thing as any other word.

For example, you can take the word "big" and come up with many, many other words that could take its place and mean the same thing.

And that doesn't even get into thoughts....Think if there are 8 words for each other word, and 5 words in a sentence, that's a total of 40 just on the basis of the words themselves. And then there are probably a hundred for the thought as a whole.

And that's just English! Imagine all of the languages put together.

(Granted, English is the only one with so many words that mean the same. And I forgot the name of it..Homonym or something?)

So my view is that words never become extinct. And there are many words that nobody has heard but one or two people. Think of the word "pwned." It started out small and got bigger. But regardless, if one person claims a word is a word, it is. You can say "Ombgajhlsdfsdo" and it's now a word.

[rogerthecamel]

Well your justification for why words won't go extinct is a little counter intuitive. The more words in a language that are synonyms(same meaning) the more likely the less often used ones will become extinct eventually. And your new word "Ombgajhlsdfsdo" will probably never be used beyond the scope of this thread and so in 100 years when the site no longer exists, the hard drives are all destroyed and unreadable and you and I don't even remember this conversation, then that word will have no way of coming back into use. Therefore it is extinct.

Its the term "extinct" that makes this topic so hard, to say something is extinct implies finality, as in it can never be used ever again. For something like dinosaurs this is easy because we can say they are extinct when no more of them exist, they are finite in number at any given time and cannot be duplicated. To apply it to a word is like to apply it to computer data. Since data can be copied repeatedly, quickly and without much control over it, then even the most obscure files can still exist somewhere and then quickly go from only having one copy left to millions. Same with a word, all it requires is one person to remember it, start using it, and it can spread to be in full use again.

[guhati]

You guys have a great build up to your justified argument, KUDOS to you guys, but I have to differ on the Homonym's meaning. Homonym mean that the word has a same pronunciation and spelling, but mean different things. Now here are my thoughts on it.
As I said that I would think about this matter, and tell you guys what I think about it. OK, I think that Rarely Used Words/Names WILL go extinct, as they are never used before. But I also believe that there are many words that can be made by single word, although it doesn't fit in to my argument. It is outside of what we are talking. Back to going extinct. Now don't forget that words have been evolved by their ROOTS from Latin language. So their are chances that some words were made, but they have been forgotten now. It is a possibility.

Post your opinions on this. And don't get biased by my opinions.

[rogerthecamel]

Well one thing you probably need to do before this topic goes much further is define what it means for a word to become extinct. The way I see it there are two possible meanings.

a) a word falls out of all knowledge and becomes impossible to ever use again (except by chance when someone makes a new word).
a word is dropped from a language because no one uses it and so the word is not considered to be correct in that language.

While a) is what I was thinking of when discussing extinct words, it is also impossible to prove the existance of even though it is highly likely they exist. By finding one of these extinct words they instantly become not extinct and so there in lies the problem.
Words fitting the definition of definitely exist as languages naturally evolve over time, and so words fall out of use and eventually become not part of the language. Simple examples are the word "colour" in American English, it is extinct and was replaced by "color". While it could be argued they are the same word there are likely more extreme examples.

It is funny that you should reference Latin as it is a dead language. This basically means that no one speaks it naturally anymore. But words in this language will unlikely ever become extinct. This is why scientists use it for naming plants and animals because the language isn't changing or evolving anymore. So the names they give will never change in their meaning.

[guhati]

rogerthecamel, on Apr 18 2009, 10:59 PM, said:

Well one thing you probably need to do before this topic goes much further is define what it means for a word to become extinct. The way I see it there are two possible meanings.

a) a word falls out of all knowledge and becomes impossible to ever use again (except by chance when someone makes a new word).
a word is dropped from a language because no one uses it and so the word is not considered to be correct in that language.

While a) is what I was thinking of when discussing extinct words, it is also impossible to prove the existance of even though it is highly likely they exist. By finding one of these extinct words they instantly become not extinct and so there in lies the problem.
Words fitting the definition of definitely exist as languages naturally evolve over time, and so words fall out of use and eventually become not part of the language. Simple examples are the word "colour" in American English, it is extinct and was replaced by "color". While it could be argued they are the same word there are likely more extreme examples.

It is funny that you should reference Latin as it is a dead language. This basically means that no one speaks it naturally anymore. But words in this language will unlikely ever become extinct. This is why scientists use it for naming plants and animals because the language isn't changing or evolving anymore. So the names they give will never change in their meaning.

I wasn't saying that the Latin language is dead. I was saying that some words that have evolved over the course of time have changed them and gotten them to become extinct. And I dont understand your last sentence. Do you mean that the words cannot have 2 meaning?

[networker]

I don't think any word really could become obsolete in the English language.
Once it's become part of a dictionary,then the word is official,and will be forever
no matter how little it is subsequently used.