WEBVTT

00:00:00.770 --> 00:00:02.258
I'm a lexicographer.

00:00:02.258 --> 00:00:03.992
I make dictionaries.

00:00:03.992 --> 00:00:05.371
And my job as 
a lexicographer

00:00:05.371 --> 00:00:08.841
is to try to put all the words
possible into the dictionary.

00:00:08.841 --> 00:00:15.519
My job is not to decide what a
word is, that is your job.

NOTE Paragraph

00:00:15.519 --> 00:00:16.875
Everybody who 
speaks English

00:00:16.875 --> 00:00:20.121
decides together what's a word
and what's not a word.

00:00:20.121 --> 00:00:25.305
Every language is just a group of people
who agree to understand each other.

00:00:25.305 --> 00:00:27.489
Now sometimes when people
are trying to decide

00:00:27.489 --> 00:00:30.045
whether a word is
good or bad,

00:00:30.045 --> 00:00:31.807
they don't really
have a good reason.

00:00:31.807 --> 00:00:34.488
So they say something like,
"Because...grammar!"

00:00:34.488 --> 00:00:36.962
(Laughter).

00:00:36.962 --> 00:00:39.375
And I don't actually care 
about grammar too much,

00:00:39.375 --> 00:00:40.423
don't tell anybody.

NOTE Paragraph

00:00:40.423 --> 00:00:43.564
But the word "grammar", actually,
there are two kinds of grammar.

00:00:43.564 --> 00:00:46.784
There's the kind of grammar that 
kind of lives inside your brain.

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,

00:00:49.602 --> 00:00:53.831
it's the unconscious rules that you follow
when you speak that language.

00:00:53.831 --> 00:00:56.882
And this is what you learn when
you learn language as a child.

00:00:56.882 --> 00:00:58.189
And here's an example:

00:00:58.189 --> 00:00:59.714
This is a Wug, right?

00:00:59.714 --> 00:01:02.385
It's a Wug.

00:01:02.385 --> 00:01:03.951
Now there is another one.

00:01:03.951 --> 00:01:04.904
There are two of these.

00:01:04.904 --> 00:01:05.923
there are two...

00:01:05.923 --> 00:01:07.107
(Audience): Wugs.

00:01:07.107 --> 00:01:11.030
Exactly! You know how to
make the plural of Wug.

00:01:11.030 --> 00:01:12.471
That rule lives
in your brain.

00:01:12.471 --> 00:01:15.480
You never had to be taught this
rule, you just understand it.

00:01:15.480 --> 00:01:17.179
This is a experiment 
that was invented

00:01:17.179 --> 00:01:20.644
by a professor at Boston College
named Jean Berko Gleason

00:01:20.644 --> 00:01:22.095
back in 1958.

00:01:22.095 --> 00:01:25.289
So we've been talking 
about this for a long time.

NOTE Paragraph

00:01:25.289 --> 00:01:28.563
Now these kinds of natural
rules that exist in your brain,

00:01:28.563 --> 00:01:31.105
they're not like traffic laws.

00:01:31.105 --> 00:01:32.784
They're more like
laws of nature.

00:01:32.784 --> 00:01:36.817
And nobody has to remind you
to obey a law of nature, right?


00:01:36.820 --> 00:01:38.643
When you leave the house in
the morning, your mom doesn't say,

00:01:38.643 --> 00:01:41.142
"Hey honey, I think it's
going to be cold.

00:01:41.142 --> 00:01:44.439
Take a hoodie. Don't forget
to obey the law of gravity."

00:01:44.439 --> 00:01:46.995
Nobody says this.

00:01:47.005 --> 00:01:49.156
Now there are other rules

00:01:49.156 --> 00:01:53.622
that are more about manners 
than they are about nature.

00:01:53.622 --> 00:01:56.504
So you can think of like,
a word like a hat.

00:01:56.504 --> 00:01:58.506
Once you know how hats work

00:01:58.506 --> 00:02:01.163
nobody has to tell you, 
"Don't wear hats on your feet."

00:02:01.163 --> 00:02:04.507
What they have to tell you is, 
"Can you wear hats inside?


00:02:04.507 --> 00:02:06.264
Who gets to wear a hat?

00:02:06.264 --> 00:02:09.016
What are the kinds of 
hats you get to wear?"

00:02:09.016 --> 00:02:11.818
Those are more of the 
second kind of grammar

00:02:11.818 --> 00:02:16.121
that linguists often call usage,
as opposed to grammar.

NOTE Paragraph

00:02:16.121 --> 00:02:20.525
Now, sometimes people use
this kind of rules-based grammar

00:02:20.525 --> 00:02:23.043
to discourage people from
making up words.

00:02:23.043 --> 00:02:26.167
And I think that is, well, stupid.

00:02:26.167 --> 00:02:28.993
So, for example, people
are always telling you,

00:02:28.993 --> 00:02:33.383
"Be creative, make new 
music, do art, invent things,

00:02:33.383 --> 00:02:34.625
science and technology."

00:02:34.625 --> 00:02:36.141
But when it comes to 
words, they're like,

00:02:36.141 --> 00:02:40.991
"Don't! No. Creativity stops right here,
whipper-snappers. Give it a rest."

00:02:41.004 --> 00:02:42.421
(Laughter).

00:02:42.421 --> 00:02:44.142
But that makes no sense to me.

00:02:44.142 --> 00:02:45.134
Words are great.

00:02:45.134 --> 00:02:46.645
We should have more of them.

00:02:46.645 --> 00:02:50.700
I want you to make as many 
new words as possible.

00:02:50.700 --> 00:02:52.858
And I'm going to tell you six ways

00:02:52.858 --> 00:02:55.340
that you can use to 
make new words in English.

NOTE Paragraph

00:02:55.340 --> 00:02:57.639
The first way is the simplest way.

00:02:57.639 --> 00:02:59.862
Basically, steal them from
other languages.

00:02:59.862 --> 00:03:04.206
(Laughter).

00:03:04.206 --> 00:03:06.244
Linguists call this borrowing,

00:03:06.244 --> 00:03:07.794
but we never give the words back

00:03:07.794 --> 00:03:10.712
so I'm just going to be honest
and call it stealing.

00:03:10.712 --> 00:03:13.454
We usually take words
for things that we like,

00:03:13.454 --> 00:03:14.567
like delicious food.

00:03:14.567 --> 00:03:16.467
We took "cumquat" from Chinese.

00:03:16.467 --> 00:03:18.344
We took "caramel" from French.

00:03:18.344 --> 00:03:21.161
We also take words for cool things,
like "ninja", right?

00:03:21.161 --> 00:03:23.691
We took that from Japanese, which 
is kind of a cool trick

00:03:23.691 --> 00:03:25.640
cause ninjas are 
hard to steal from.

00:03:25.640 --> 00:03:28.054
(Laughter).

NOTE Paragraph

00:03:28.054 --> 00:03:30.074
So another way that 
you can make

00:03:30.074 --> 00:03:34.215
words in English is by squishing
two other English words together.

00:03:34.215 --> 00:03:35.692
This is called compounding.

00:03:35.692 --> 00:03:38.497
Words in English are like Lego,
if you use enough force,

00:03:38.502 --> 00:03:40.667
you can put any two 
of them together.

00:03:40.667 --> 00:03:42.832
(Laughter).

00:03:42.832 --> 00:03:44.997
We do this all the 
time in English:

00:03:44.997 --> 00:03:48.965
words like "heartbroken", 
"bookworm", "sandcastle"

00:03:48.965 --> 00:03:50.344
-- all are compounds.

00:03:50.344 --> 00:03:52.436
So go ahead and make
words like "duckface:,

00:03:52.436 --> 00:03:53.874
just don't make duckface.

00:03:53.874 --> 00:03:55.835
(Laughter).

NOTE Paragraph

00:03:55.835 --> 00:03:57.878
Another way you can 
make words in English

00:03:57.878 --> 00:03:59.836
is kind of like compounding,

00:03:59.836 --> 00:04:03.059
but instead you use
so much force

00:04:03.059 --> 00:04:07.154
when you squish the words together
that some parts fall off.

00:04:07.154 --> 00:04:08.555
So these are blend words, 


00:04:08.555 --> 00:04:12.454
Like "Brunch" is a blend of
"breakfast" and" lunch".

00:04:12.454 --> 00:04:15.106
"Motel" is a blend of 
"motor" and "hotel".

00:04:15.106 --> 00:04:17.737
Who here knew that "motel"
was a blend word?

00:04:17.737 --> 00:04:20.691
Yeah, that word is like so old
in English that lots of people

00:04:20.691 --> 00:04:23.172
don't know that there
are parts missing.

00:04:23.172 --> 00:04:26.987
"Edutainment" is a blend of
"education" and "entertainment".

00:04:26.987 --> 00:04:34.523
And of course "electrocute" is a
blend of "electric" and "execute".

NOTE Paragraph

00:04:34.523 --> 00:04:37.858
You can also make words by 
changing how they operate.

00:04:37.858 --> 00:04:39.491
This is called functional shift.

00:04:39.491 --> 00:04:41.142
You take one word that act
as one part of speech,

00:04:41.142 --> 00:04:43.052
and you change it into
another part of speech.

00:04:43.052 --> 00:04:45.212
Okay, who here knew that "friend"


00:04:45.212 --> 00:04:49.101
hasn't always been a verb?

00:04:49.101 --> 00:04:53.826
"Friend" used to be noun
and then we verbed it.

00:04:53.826 --> 00:04:56.365
Almost any word in 
English can be verbed.

00:04:56.365 --> 00:04:58.978
You can also take adjectives
and make them into nouns.

00:04:58.978 --> 00:05:02.705
"Commercial" used to be an 
adjective and now it's a noun.

00:05:02.705 --> 00:05:05.541
And of course, you can 
"green" things.

NOTE Paragraph

00:05:05.541 --> 00:05:08.619
Another way to make words
in English is back-formation.

00:05:08.619 --> 00:05:12.157
You can take a word and you can
kind of squish it down a little bit.

00:05:12.157 --> 00:05:16.878
So for example, we had the word
"editor" before we had the word "edit".

00:05:16.878 --> 00:05:18.530
"Edit" was formed from "editor".

00:05:18.530 --> 00:05:21.065
Sometimes these back-formations 
sound a little silly:

00:05:21.065 --> 00:05:22.783
bulldozers bulldoze,

00:05:22.783 --> 00:05:23.803
butlers butle

00:05:23.803 --> 00:05:25.419
and burglers burgle.

00:05:25.419 --> 00:05:27.808
(Laughter).

NOTE Paragraph

00:05:27.808 --> 00:05:29.580
Another way to make 
words in English

00:05:29.580 --> 00:05:32.130
is to take the first letters of something
and squish them together.

00:05:32.130 --> 00:05:34.321
So National Aeronautics 
and Space Administration

00:05:34.321 --> 00:05:35.430
becomes NASA.

00:05:35.430 --> 00:05:38.963
And of course you can do this
with anything--OMG!

NOTE Paragraph

00:05:38.963 --> 00:05:44.602
So it doesn't matter how 
silly the words are.

00:05:44.602 --> 00:05:46.608
They can be really good 
words of English.

00:05:46.608 --> 00:05:50.626
"Absquatulate" is a perfectly
good word of English

00:05:50.626 --> 00:05:53.339
"Mugwump" is a perfectly
good word of English.

00:05:53.339 --> 00:05:55.597
So the words don't have 
have to sound normal,

00:05:55.597 --> 00:05:58.369
they can sound really silly.

NOTE Paragraph

00:05:58.369 --> 00:06:00.456
Why should you 
make words?

00:06:00.456 --> 00:06:02.797
You should make words 
because every word

00:06:02.797 --> 00:06:05.072
is a chance to express your idea

00:06:05.072 --> 00:06:06.918
and get your meaning across.

00:06:06.918 --> 00:06:10.054
And new words grab
people's attention.

00:06:10.054 --> 00:06:12.493
They get people to focus
on what you're saying

00:06:12.493 --> 00:06:15.747
and that gives you a better chance 
to get your meaning across.

00:06:15.747 --> 00:06:18.706
A lot of people on the 
stage today have said, 


00:06:18.706 --> 00:06:20.088
"In the future, you can do this,

00:06:20.088 --> 00:06:21.665
you can help with this,
you can help us explore,

00:06:21.665 --> 00:06:23.181
you can help us invent."

00:06:23.181 --> 00:06:25.480
You can make a new 
word right now.

00:06:25.480 --> 00:06:27.433
English has no age limit.

00:06:27.433 --> 00:06:29.859
Go ahead, start making
words today.

00:06:29.859 --> 00:06:30.816
Send them to me,

00:06:30.816 --> 00:06:33.472
and I will put them in my 
online dictionary word bank.

00:06:33.472 --> 00:06:34.835
Thank you so much.

00:06:34.835 --> 00:06:39.642
(Applause).