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Krabo
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29 Nov 2012, 12:13 pm

There should be several words that properly refer to themselves, such as

1. Noun is a noun.
2. Short is short.
3. English is English.

More, please.



naturalplastic
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29 Nov 2012, 5:55 pm

word ( is itsself a 'word').

ugly is a rather uneasthetic and unmelodic sounding word.



Krabo
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30 Nov 2012, 1:12 am

^I had this ugly issue in mind but I thought it wouldn't be possible in English. Thank you for letting me know it is.

Then, there are
understandable is understandable
polysyllabic is polysyllabic
green is green
term is a term

More, please.



Jitro
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30 Nov 2012, 1:24 am

Krabo wrote:
^I had this ugly issue in mind but I thought it wouldn't be possible in English. Thank you for letting me know it is.

Then, there are
understandable is understandable
polysyllabic is polysyllabic
green is green
term is a term

More, please.


Four has four letters.

Abbr. is an abbreviation. (this one's not really a word, just an abbreviation)



naturalplastic
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30 Nov 2012, 6:38 pm

Oxymoron, which literally means "a wise stupidity" is itsself an oxymoron.

Probably the best example of a self referential word.



kevinjh
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01 Dec 2012, 3:22 am

Oxymoron: dull-sharp, but still

Autological, perhaps? :twisted:



Krabo
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01 Dec 2012, 3:49 am

Yes, autological and heterological are words that readily lead to paradoxes if applied to themselves. Anyways,
pentasyllabic is pentasyllabic.



kevinjh
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01 Dec 2012, 3:53 am

"Short," is a fairly short word, and, "written," when written is a written word.



Krabo
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01 Dec 2012, 4:03 am

Accordingly, read can be a read word (past participle).



kevinjh
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01 Dec 2012, 4:16 am

"Existent," exists, and "plosive," "nasal," "sibilant," and "fricative," might also be considered autological.



IDontGetIt
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01 Dec 2012, 4:21 am

Oranges are orange.



Krabo
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01 Dec 2012, 5:14 am

Correctly-spelled is correctly-spelled.

A paradox follows if we try the opposite, wrongly-spelled is as correctly spelled as any other correctly-spelled word. If we try to force in some wrong spelling, like

Wronggly-spelled is wronggly-spelled,

we should first define what wrongg means. Suppose we agreed upon the definition "Wrongg spelling means any spelling that deviates from standard English spelling", then wronggly-spelled would be good English and the word itself would be correctly spelled. This raises a philosphical problem: how is it that correct and wrong are not symmetrical? We can apply the property of being correct to correct, but we cannot apply the property of being wrong to wrong. The answer must hinge on our dealing with words, not what lies behind those words. It's one thing to talk about cats, and another thing to talk about cats.



Krabo
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01 Dec 2012, 5:25 am

kevinjh wrote:
"Existent," exists, and "plosive," "nasal," "sibilant," and "fricative," might also be considered autological.


Well, existent is certainly existent, but the whole word sibilant, for example, is not sibilant. Just the first phoneme is. Sorry for being pedantic :wink:



kevinjh
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01 Dec 2012, 5:39 am

Krabo wrote:
kevinjh wrote:
"Existent," exists, and "plosive," "nasal," "sibilant," and "fricative," might also be considered autological.


Well, existent is certainly existent, but the whole word sibilant, for example, is not sibilant. Just the first phoneme is. Sorry for being pedantic :wink:
Not a problem, it could probably be better described as minor onomatopoeia. :)

Perhaps, "sesquipedalian," could be said to be autological, considering its low frequency of usage due to common perceptions about long words.



Krabo
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01 Dec 2012, 7:08 am

IDontGetIt wrote:
Oranges are orange.


Well, yes and no. If you are speaking of the fruit that are colored orange, then it is not what this thread is about. But if your reply is slightly modified, thus

Orange is orange,

then it is, namely, about words that describe themselves. Again, sorry for being pedantic but it is in my genes.



Jitro
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01 Dec 2012, 1:55 pm

Dyslexia has a complicated spelling.