Talk:Autological word

Autonym[edit]

There's no article for "autonym (word)" which is a synonym for "homologue". Can someone enter a request to have "autonym (word)" redirect to the "homologue (word)" page? I didn't see a link anywhere to have words redirected. Perhaps only admins can effect this change? Staplovich (talk) 17:54, 19 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

There is actually no need for such an article, because there is no synonymy between "autonym" and "homologue"/"autological". The logical term "autonym" as an attribute to words or symbols (not to be confused with autonym vs. heteronym as a self-given name) was introduced to logic by Rudolf Carnap and refers to just any word not used for representing its common conceptual denotate, but adduced for representing itself, normally within a metalinguistic statement (e.g. "five is a numeral" vs. "five is a number"). By consequence, metalinguistic statements about autological words necessarily have to adduce them as autonyms ("short" is short), but the same is true for metalinguistic statements about heterological words, too ("banana" is/is not a banana). Carnap's term refers to a mode of performance, not to a conceptual self-inclusive relation between denotate and material sign. --92.72.164.91 (talk) 08:26, 11 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Wait, Banana is NOT a Banana? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Komkast22 (talk • contribs) 23:33, 9 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Ehm, maybe in the sense that the word "banana" is not itself a banana? Is that the idea? Rodaen (talk) 08:52, 16 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

That would imply that with the other statement, the word "banana" is a banana. 49.180.249.140 (talk) 01:25, 2 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

This dichotomy was also used to illustrate paradoxes in GEB by Douglas Hofstadter — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jchook (talk • contribs) 20:34, 2 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Inclusion of Oxymoron[edit]

The word "oxymoron" is an oxymoron. The Greek word "oxy" means "sharp" and "moron" means "dull". — Preceding unsigned comment added by Tradereddy (talk • contribs) 01:11, 10 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Synthetic autologies[edit]

After seeing this passage marked dubious, and finding no support for it either, I'm storing it here until someone can show that there's any basis for it. Do restore it if we've wrongly judged! hgilbert (talk) 03:13, 14 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Interestingly, non-autological words are sometimes playfully modified such that the new word becomes autological. Examples of such modifications include informal words like "ridonkulous" (saying the word "ridiculous" in a ridiculous way) and "ignant" (saying the word "ignorant" in an ignorant way). Words such as these are termed "synthetic autological words".^{[dubious – discuss]}

Examples[edit]

Should more examples be added? Stuff like bold, italic, CAPITALS, ^superscript, etc. Kmlkmljkl (talk) 09:36, 19 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Nope. Those are typological tricks, not autological terms. HGilbert (talk) 17:50, 19 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

"Saxon" is not Saxon[edit]

The point seems to be adequately made by saying that "German" is not German. Indeed, there are people who are apt not to understand that there is a language called "Saxon". Anyway, we don't want to open this up with endless debates whether it would be better to say "Chinese" is not Chinese or that "Gaelic" is not Gaelic or "slang" is not slang or ... TomS TDotO (talk) 13:39, 31 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Removed "German" is not German.[edit]

There are no Anglo-German tribes, and no German reference in the article. So, ""German" is not German" is removed. 180.251.144.131 (talk) 05:40, 27 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

There is no claim that there is an Anglo-German tribe, and no reference to Germans. It is about the word "German", not about the Germans. There is no need to change or remove this example. As I suggested above, to make changes to this example is to open things up to endless, pointless discussion. Let things be, unless there is something wrong or misleading, not just trivial cosmetic changes. TomS TDotO (talk) 12:20, 27 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Mondegreen etc.[edit]

I am doubtful if "eggcorn", "mondegreen" etc. are autological. You see, "eggcorn" may be defined as "a malformed term for acorn" in which case the word is an eggcorn, but not autological; in the sense "a term for malformed words based on mishearing", "eggcorn" is no longer an "eggcorn" because no mishearing has taken place. Similar for two conceivable definitions of "mondegreen", "1. Mondegreen, supposed Scottish aristocratic surname; 2. mondegreen: misheard lyrics" (definition 2. is not based on a mishearing), or "bahuvrihi", "1. Sanskrit for 'one who has much rice'; 2. an exocentric compound" (definition 2. is no longer an exocentric compound, compounds do not own rice). The only possible exception might be oxymoron, if read as "being really clever in an apparently stupid way" because this describes the actual class of words or expressions in a way that is, arguably, "pointedly incongruous".

I was looking for the term for "an example of a class being taken as a term for that class" (as in mondegreen). This is probably not "autological", most likely this would just be called synecdoche (Synecdoche#Specific_class_name_referring_to_general_set_of_associated_things)? --dab (𒁳) 13:56, 7 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The style of text in which a word is printed is not relevant to its being autological[edit]

An editor classified the word blue, when written in blue typeface, as autological.

The font a word is printed in is irrelevant to its autological status; words exist apart from their typography. (Otherwise the word miniscule, when written thus: miniscule, would be autologically miniscule, etc.; indeed, essentially every word would be sometimes autological, sometimes not. Clean Copy^talk 17:53, 27 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Metaphor[edit]

The word metaphor itself is a metaphor, coming from a Greek term meaning to "transfer" or "carry across." Metaphors "carry" meaning from one word, image, idea, or situation to another. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:2C3:4201:D70:EDBE:79BA:F847:1756 (talk) 23:00, 20 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

True enough, but perhaps -- given the obscurity of the Greek meaning to an English reader -- it is not the best example for this article. Clean Copy^talk 03:33, 24 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

"example"/"counterexample"[edit]

I took out "example" from my own list, since I'm not 100% sure if it qualifies. By the way, do you think "counterexample" in a list of autological words would by an example of the Grelling–Nelson paradox? Electricmaster (talk) 09:20, 11 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]