HUMOROUS MORPHOLOGY

In Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the Gryphon used the word “uglification,” and Alice asked the Gryphon what the word meant. The Gryphon was amazed that Alice didn’t know this word. He asked Alice if she knew the meaning of “beautification,” and Alice responded that she did, but she still didn’t think that “uglification” was a real word with a real meaning. Indignantly, The Gryphon said that a word means whatever you want it to mean, and then he went on to give other examples. He said that what is taught in the schools is “reeling,” “writhing,” “uglification,” and “derision.”

Teachers should be called “tortoise” because “they taught us.” Lessons are called “lessons” because they lessen every day. In Wonderland, “Latin and Greek” are called “Laughing and Grief,” and “drawing, sketching and pointing in oils” becomes “drawling, stretching, and fainting in coils.”

The Watergate Hotel is where the break-in of the National Democratic headquarters occurred. Today’s dictionaries give more room to the metonymous meaning of Watergate than to the literal meaning of “a gate controlling the flow of water.” “Gate” has now become a suffix meaning “scandal” as in Irangate, Contragate, Iraqgate, Pearlygate, Rubbergate, Murphygate, Gennifergate, Nannygate, Monicagate, ad infinitum.

On National Public Radio’s “Cartalk,” Click and Clack are playing with Morphology in their list of credits: Copyeditor: Adeline Moore, Accounts Payable: Ineeda Czech, Pollution Control: Maury Missions, Purchasing: Lois Bidder, Statistician: Marge Innovera, Russian Chauffeur: Picov Andropov, Legal Firm: Dewey, Cheetham, and Howe.

Another kind of humorous morphology is when words are translated (actually transliterated) from one language to another. “Un petit d’un petit / S’étonne aux Halles” makes no sense in French, but it makes perfect humorous sense in English: “Humpty Dumpty / Sat on a wall.”

In summary, the inflectional and derivational morphology of English Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, Adverbs, and Pronouns have an amazing capacity to morph into other Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, Adverbs, and Pronouns.

Can you think of other humorous examples of English words morphing into other words?

Don and Alleen Nilsen “Humor Across the Academic Disciplines” PowerPoints:

https://www.public.asu.edu/~dnilsen/