Editing 2043: Boathouses and Houseboats
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==Explanation== | ==Explanation== | ||
| + | {{incomplete|BOTBOT or BOATBOAT is funny, but please also mention here the reason why this isn't complete - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}} | ||
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Most English {{w|English compound|compound nouns}} can be constructed recursively. In many cases they are written ''open'' or ''spaced'' like "piano player" (a player of a piano.) But ''closed'' forms like "wallpaper" (paper for a wall) are not less common. | Most English {{w|English compound|compound nouns}} can be constructed recursively. In many cases they are written ''open'' or ''spaced'' like "piano player" (a player of a piano.) But ''closed'' forms like "wallpaper" (paper for a wall) are not less common. | ||
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Additionally, he is somewhat inconsistent in some parts of the chart. While the chart is supposed to show examples of neologistic compound words <x><y> that refer to a <y> that ''holds'' an <x>, rather than a <y> ''in'' an <x>. However, Randall's examples sometimes are those of the latter example. He proposes to call lifeboats, which are boats held by other boats, "boatboat", instead of using that to refer to boats holding other boats, such as floating drydocks. Additionally, it is established naval practice to refer to a boat which is carried by another vessel as a "ship's boat", and call any vessel that carries a boat a "ship". In other words, according to usual naval terminology, a "boatboat" is a contradiction in terms; it is either a "boatship", synonymous with ship and hence redundant, or a "shipboat", the ship's boat. "Apartment" is a similar case: an apartment is a house in a house, while a house that holds a house is an apartment building or apartment complex. (However, in the title text, Randall points out an <x><y> could also refer to a <y> in an <x>, similar to the lifeboat and apartment examples. Nevertheless, "lifeboat" and "apartment" do not fit with the rest of the items of the chart and disobey the rule annotated in the corner.) | Additionally, he is somewhat inconsistent in some parts of the chart. While the chart is supposed to show examples of neologistic compound words <x><y> that refer to a <y> that ''holds'' an <x>, rather than a <y> ''in'' an <x>. However, Randall's examples sometimes are those of the latter example. He proposes to call lifeboats, which are boats held by other boats, "boatboat", instead of using that to refer to boats holding other boats, such as floating drydocks. Additionally, it is established naval practice to refer to a boat which is carried by another vessel as a "ship's boat", and call any vessel that carries a boat a "ship". In other words, according to usual naval terminology, a "boatboat" is a contradiction in terms; it is either a "boatship", synonymous with ship and hence redundant, or a "shipboat", the ship's boat. "Apartment" is a similar case: an apartment is a house in a house, while a house that holds a house is an apartment building or apartment complex. (However, in the title text, Randall points out an <x><y> could also refer to a <y> in an <x>, similar to the lifeboat and apartment examples. Nevertheless, "lifeboat" and "apartment" do not fit with the rest of the items of the chart and disobey the rule annotated in the corner.) | ||
| − | In the title text: "Truck food" is | + | In the title text: "Truck food" is a theoretically valid term, however English parsing makes it sound like food FOR trucks rather than food FROM trucks. "Carphone" is a real noun, it defines the predecessors to mobile phones which were permanently installed in cars throughout the late 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, not modern mobile phones which can be picked up, inserted into pockets or bags, and removed from the vehicle. ''{{w|Bananaphone}}'', a song by Raffi Cavoukian, is also mentioned. |
{| class="wikitable" | {| class="wikitable" | ||
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| A small boat carried on a ship, meant to be used to evacuate the larger ship, especially if it starts to sink or catches fire | | A small boat carried on a ship, meant to be used to evacuate the larger ship, especially if it starts to sink or catches fire | ||
| A Boat that holds a Boat | | A Boat that holds a Boat | ||
| − | | | + | | The "lifeboat" is the smaller vessel carried on the large one; it is not the larger vessel that carries the smaller one. And the larger vessel is usually a ship, not a boat. |
| Boatboat | | Boatboat | ||
|} | |} | ||
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==Trivia== | ==Trivia== | ||
| − | The first version of the comic image | + | The first version of the comic image mixed up the order of what holds what. The second word holds the first but at the original the opposite was told as it can be seen [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/archive/3/38/20180907164439%21boathouses_and_houseboats.png here]. |
{{comic discussion}} | {{comic discussion}} | ||
