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Appears in this episode
John McWhorter
Episode details
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Words like chit-chat, pitter-patter and wishy-washy are formed that way for a reason beyond the pleasing way that they sound. The vowel change actually signifies something more meaningful to our human way of thinking. John explains.
About "reduplication": in physics (cosmology, to be exact), the binding of loose electrons with loose protons in early Universe, as the hot plasma cooled, is called "recombination." (A hot plasma is the "fourth state of matter," where the electrons and nuclei are energetic enough to be ionized, unbound from each other.)
But they were never combined to begin with! I think it's borrowed from plasma physics of stellar atmospheres, where electrons and nuclei dissociate into ions, then recombine, then ionize again, then recombine, ... etc.
I would subscribe to Tax Law by John McWhorter, though I presume to think John would not be enticed to become an expert in such a topic, however the world so needed it.
Throw Up, Turn Out & Believe
John, I think you were born in 1915 :)
About "reduplication": in physics (cosmology, to be exact), the binding of loose electrons with loose protons in early Universe, as the hot plasma cooled, is called "recombination." (A hot plasma is the "fourth state of matter," where the electrons and nuclei are energetic enough to be ionized, unbound from each other.)
But they were never combined to begin with! I think it's borrowed from plasma physics of stellar atmospheres, where electrons and nuclei dissociate into ions, then recombine, then ionize again, then recombine, ... etc.
I would subscribe to Tax Law by John McWhorter, though I presume to think John would not be enticed to become an expert in such a topic, however the world so needed it.