1
00:00:00,770 --> 00:00:02,258
I'm a lexicographer.

2
00:00:02,258 --> 00:00:03,992
I make dictionaries.

3
00:00:03,992 --> 00:00:05,371
And my job as 
a lexicographer

4
00:00:05,371 --> 00:00:08,841
is to try to put all the words
possible into the dictionary.

5
00:00:08,841 --> 00:00:15,519
My job is not to decide what a
word is, that is your job.

6
00:00:15,519 --> 00:00:16,875
Everybody who 
speaks English

7
00:00:16,875 --> 00:00:20,121
decides together what's a word
and what's not a word.

8
00:00:20,121 --> 00:00:25,305
Every language is just a group of people
who agree to understand each other.

9
00:00:25,305 --> 00:00:27,489
Now sometimes when people
are trying to decide

10
00:00:27,489 --> 00:00:30,045
whether a word is
good or bad,

11
00:00:30,045 --> 00:00:31,807
they don't really
have a good reason.

12
00:00:31,807 --> 00:00:34,488
So they say something like,
"Because...grammar!"

13
00:00:34,488 --> 00:00:36,962
(Laughter).

14
00:00:36,962 --> 00:00:39,375
And I don't actually care 
about grammar too much,

15
00:00:39,375 --> 00:00:40,423
don't tell anybody.

16
00:00:40,423 --> 00:00:43,564
But the word "grammar", actually
there are two kinds of grammar.

17
00:00:43,564 --> 00:00:46,784
There's the kind of grammar that 
kind of lives inside your brain.

18
00:00:46,784 --> 00:00:49,602
and If you're a native speaker of a language 
or a good speaker of a language,

19
00:00:49,602 --> 00:00:53,831
it's the unconscious rules that you follow
when you speak that language.

20
00:00:53,831 --> 00:00:56,882
And this is what you learn when
you learn language as a child.

21
00:00:56,882 --> 00:00:58,189
And here's an example:

22
00:00:58,189 --> 00:00:59,714
This is a Wug, right?

23
00:00:59,714 --> 00:01:02,385
It's a Wug.

24
00:01:02,385 --> 00:01:03,951
Now there is another one.

25
00:01:03,951 --> 00:01:04,904
There are two of these.

26
00:01:04,904 --> 00:01:05,923
there are two...

27
00:01:05,923 --> 00:01:07,107
(Audience): Wugs.

28
00:01:07,107 --> 00:01:11,030
Exactly! You know how to
make the plural of Wug.

29
00:01:11,030 --> 00:01:12,471
That rule lives
in your brain.

30
00:01:12,471 --> 00:01:15,480
You never had to be taught this
rule, you just understand it.

31
00:01:15,480 --> 00:01:17,179
This is a experiment 
that was invented

32
00:01:17,179 --> 00:01:20,644
by a professor at Boston College
named Jean Berko Gleason

33
00:01:20,644 --> 00:01:22,095
back in 1958.

34
00:01:22,095 --> 00:01:25,289
So we've been talking 
about this for a long time.

35
00:01:25,289 --> 00:01:28,563
Now these kinds of natural
rules that exist in your brain,

36
00:01:28,563 --> 00:01:31,105
they're not like traffic laws.

37
00:01:31,105 --> 00:01:32,784
They're more like
laws of nature.

38
00:01:32,784 --> 00:01:36,817
And nobody has to remind you
to obey a law of nature, right?


39
00:01:36,820 --> 00:01:38,643
When you leave the house in
the morning, your mom doesn't say,

40
00:01:38,643 --> 00:01:41,142
"Hey honey, I think it's
going to be cold.

41
00:01:41,142 --> 00:01:44,439
Take a hoodie. Don't forget
to obey the law of gravity."

42
00:01:44,439 --> 00:01:46,995
Nobody says this.

43
00:01:47,005 --> 00:01:49,156
Now there are other rules

44
00:01:49,156 --> 00:01:53,622
that are more about manners 
than they are about nature.

45
00:01:53,622 --> 00:01:56,504
So you can think of like,
a word like a hat.

46
00:01:56,504 --> 00:01:58,506
Once you know how hats work

47
00:01:58,506 --> 00:02:01,163
nobody has to tell you, 
"Don't wear hats on your feet."

48
00:02:01,163 --> 00:02:04,507
What they have to tell you is, 
"Can you wear hats inside?


49
00:02:04,507 --> 00:02:06,264
Who gets to wear a hat?

50
00:02:06,264 --> 00:02:09,016
What are the kinds of 
hats you get to wear?"

51
00:02:09,016 --> 00:02:11,818
Those are more of the 
second kind of grammar

52
00:02:11,818 --> 00:02:16,121
that linguists often call usage,
as opposed to grammar.

53
00:02:16,121 --> 00:02:20,525
Now, sometimes people use
this kind of rules-based grammar

54
00:02:20,525 --> 00:02:23,043
to discourage people from
making up words.

55
00:02:23,043 --> 00:02:26,167
And I think that is, well, stupid.

56
00:02:26,167 --> 00:02:28,993
So, for example, people
are always telling you,

57
00:02:28,993 --> 00:02:33,383
"Be creative, make new 
music, do art, invent things,

58
00:02:33,383 --> 00:02:34,625
science and technology."

59
00:02:34,625 --> 00:02:36,141
But when it comes to 
words, they're like,

60
00:02:36,141 --> 00:02:40,991
"Don't! No. Creativity stops right here,
whipper-snappers. Give it a rest."

61
00:02:41,004 --> 00:02:42,421
(Laughter).

62
00:02:42,421 --> 00:02:44,142
But that makes no sense to me.

63
00:02:44,142 --> 00:02:45,134
Words are great.

64
00:02:45,134 --> 00:02:46,645
We should have more of them.

65
00:02:46,645 --> 00:02:50,700
I want you to make as many 
new words as possible.

66
00:02:50,700 --> 00:02:52,858
And I'm going to tell you six ways

67
00:02:52,858 --> 00:02:55,340
that you can use to 
make new words in English.

68
00:02:55,340 --> 00:02:57,639
The first way is the simplest way.

69
00:02:57,639 --> 00:02:59,862
Basically, steal them from
other languages.

70
00:02:59,862 --> 00:03:04,206
(Laughter).

71
00:03:04,206 --> 00:03:06,244
Linguists call this borrowing,

72
00:03:06,244 --> 00:03:07,794
but we never give the words back

73
00:03:07,794 --> 00:03:10,712
so I'm just going to be honest
and call it stealing.

74
00:03:10,712 --> 00:03:13,454
We usually take words
for things that we like,

75
00:03:13,454 --> 00:03:14,567
like delicious food.

76
00:03:14,567 --> 00:03:16,467
We took "cumquat" from Chinese.

77
00:03:16,467 --> 00:03:18,344
We took "caramel" from French.

78
00:03:18,344 --> 00:03:21,161
We also take words for cool things,
like "ninja", right?

79
00:03:21,161 --> 00:03:23,691
We took that from Japanese, which 
is kind of a cool trick

80
00:03:23,691 --> 00:03:25,640
cause ninjas are 
hard to steal from.

81
00:03:25,640 --> 00:03:28,054
(Laughter).

82
00:03:28,054 --> 00:03:30,074
So another way that 
you can make

83
00:03:30,074 --> 00:03:34,215
words in English is by squishing
two other English words together.

84
00:03:34,215 --> 00:03:35,692
This is called compounding.

85
00:03:35,692 --> 00:03:38,497
Words in English are like Lego,
if you use enough force,

86
00:03:38,502 --> 00:03:40,667
you can put any two 
of them together.

87
00:03:40,667 --> 00:03:42,832
(Laughter).

88
00:03:42,832 --> 00:03:44,997
We do this all the 
time in English:

89
00:03:44,997 --> 00:03:48,965
words like "heartbroken", 
"bookworm", "sandcastle"

90
00:03:48,965 --> 00:03:50,344
-- all are compounds.

91
00:03:50,344 --> 00:03:52,436
So go ahead and make
words like "duckface:,

92
00:03:52,436 --> 00:03:53,874
just don't make duckface.

93
00:03:53,874 --> 00:03:55,835
(Laughter).

94
00:03:55,835 --> 00:03:57,878
Another way you can 
make words in English

95
00:03:57,878 --> 00:03:59,836
is kind of like compounding,

96
00:03:59,836 --> 00:04:03,059
but instead you use
so much force

97
00:04:03,059 --> 00:04:07,154
when you squish the words together
that some parts fall off.

98
00:04:07,154 --> 00:04:08,555
So these are blend words, 


99
00:04:08,555 --> 00:04:12,454
Like "Brunch" is a blend of
"breakfast" and" lunch".

100
00:04:12,454 --> 00:04:15,106
"Motel" is a blend of 
"motor" and "hotel".

101
00:04:15,106 --> 00:04:17,737
Who here knew that "motel"
was a blend word?

102
00:04:17,737 --> 00:04:20,691
Yeah, that word is like so old
in English that lots of people

103
00:04:20,691 --> 00:04:23,172
don't know that there
are parts missing.

104
00:04:23,172 --> 00:04:26,987
"Edutainment" is a blend of
"education" and "entertainment".

105
00:04:26,987 --> 00:04:34,523
And of course "electrocute" is a
blend of "electric" and "execute".

106
00:04:34,523 --> 00:04:37,858
You can also make words by 
changing how they operate.

107
00:04:37,858 --> 00:04:39,491
This is called functional shift.

108
00:04:39,491 --> 00:04:41,142
You take one word that act
as one part of speech,

109
00:04:41,142 --> 00:04:43,052
and you change it into
another part of speech.

110
00:04:43,052 --> 00:04:45,212
Okay, who here knew that "friend"


111
00:04:45,212 --> 00:04:49,101
hasn't always been a verb?

112
00:04:49,101 --> 00:04:53,826
"Friend" used to be noun
and then we verbed it.

113
00:04:53,826 --> 00:04:56,365
Almost any word in 
English can be verbed.

114
00:04:56,365 --> 00:04:58,978
You can also take adjectives
and make them into nouns.

115
00:04:58,978 --> 00:05:02,705
"Commercial" used to be an 
adjective and now it's a noun.

116
00:05:02,705 --> 00:05:05,541
And of course, you can 
"green" things.

117
00:05:05,541 --> 00:05:08,619
Another way to make words
in English is back-formation.

118
00:05:08,619 --> 00:05:12,157
You can take a word and you can
kind of squish it down a little bit.

119
00:05:12,157 --> 00:05:16,878
So for example, we had the word
"editor" before we had the word "edit".

120
00:05:16,878 --> 00:05:18,530
"Edit" was formed from "editor".

121
00:05:18,530 --> 00:05:21,065
Sometimes these back-formations 
sound a little silly:

122
00:05:21,065 --> 00:05:22,783
bulldozers bulldoze,

123
00:05:22,783 --> 00:05:23,803
butlers butle

124
00:05:23,803 --> 00:05:25,419
and burglers burgle.

125
00:05:25,419 --> 00:05:27,808
(Laughter).

126
00:05:27,808 --> 00:05:29,580
Another way to make 
words in English

127
00:05:29,580 --> 00:05:32,130
is to take the first letters of something
and squish them together.

128
00:05:32,130 --> 00:05:34,321
So National Aeronautics 
and Space Administration

129
00:05:34,321 --> 00:05:35,430
becomes NASA.

130
00:05:35,430 --> 00:05:38,963
And of course you can do this
with anything--OMG!

131
00:05:38,963 --> 00:05:44,602
So it doesn't matter how 
silly the words are.

132
00:05:44,602 --> 00:05:46,608
They can be really good 
words of English.

133
00:05:46,608 --> 00:05:50,626
"Absquatulate" is a perfectly
good word of English

134
00:05:50,626 --> 00:05:53,339
"Mugwump" is a perfectly
good word of English.

135
00:05:53,339 --> 00:05:55,597
So the words don't have 
have to sound normal,

136
00:05:55,597 --> 00:05:58,369
they can sound really silly.

137
00:05:58,369 --> 00:06:00,456
Why should you 
make words?

138
00:06:00,456 --> 00:06:02,797
You should make words 
because every word

139
00:06:02,797 --> 00:06:05,072
is a chance to express your idea

140
00:06:05,072 --> 00:06:06,918
and get your meaning across.

141
00:06:06,918 --> 00:06:10,054
And new words grab
people's attention.

142
00:06:10,054 --> 00:06:12,493
They get people to focus
on what you're saying

143
00:06:12,493 --> 00:06:15,747
and that gives you a better chance 
to get your meaning across.

144
00:06:15,747 --> 00:06:18,706
A lot of people on the 
stage today have said, 


145
00:06:18,706 --> 00:06:20,088
"In the future, you can do this,

146
00:06:20,088 --> 00:06:21,665
you can help with this,
you can help us explore,

147
00:06:21,665 --> 00:06:23,181
you can help us invent."

148
00:06:23,181 --> 00:06:25,480
You can make a new 
word right now.

149
00:06:25,480 --> 00:06:27,433
English has no age limit.

150
00:06:27,433 --> 00:06:29,859
Go ahead, start making
words today.

151
00:06:29,859 --> 00:06:30,816
Send them to me,

152
00:06:30,816 --> 00:06:33,472
and I will put them in my 
online dictionary word bank.

153
00:06:33,472 --> 00:06:34,835
Thank you so much.

154
00:06:34,835 --> 00:06:39,642
(Applause).