Ball Words and a new genus species of English Phraseology

[Jan Bosselaers]

Dear all,

We have them in Dutch too. With some effort it should be possible to
find dozens but I only can produce two now:
"de paarden paarden in de weide" (the horses copulated in the prairie)
"vijf maten maten maten op" (five mates took measures)
I remember a Japanese collegue once demonstrated me something similar in
Japanese with a phrase about an attorney from Tokyo, but unfortunately I
forgot.

Best regards and Merry Christmas to all,

Jan

>  Le 25-12-04, à 15:48 -0700, nous recevions de Robin Leech :
>
>> Hi Taxacomers
>>
>> On the occasion of the symposium held in honor of my
>> former professor, I coined the name BALL WORD
>> or WORD CLONES in honor of George E Ball (The
>> Canadian Entomologist 126(3): 921-923.  Year 1994.
>>
>> For the publication, I found Ball Words in Chinese, Czech,
>> Ukrainian, Slovak, German and English.
>
>
>
>
>    Vous vous avancez un peu vite. Nous nous en souviendrons (comme à
> l'époque de de Gaulle) : la seconde seconde sera difficile, plus que
> la première première.
>
>    J. M.
>
>
>> They are either
>> rare or non-existent in most other languages.  Here is a
>> selection of English Ball Words from that publication:
>>
>> 1.  He gave her her book.
>> 2.  I agree only if you do do it.
>> 3.  If only I had had more money.
>> 4.  He could not not accept her offer.
>> 5.  A cat with nine lives lives here.
>> 6.  After the second second, he pulled the grenade pin.
>> 7.  Is that that that that represents?
>> 8.  Is the still still still still?
>>
>> Note that there is no punctuation between the Ball Words, and
>> that they are contiguous or juxtaposed.  For the last two listed
>> (#s 7 & 8), the meter or cadence must be right, or they won't
>> work.
>>
>> In the meantime, I am working on something similar - with
>> words that are homophonic, but which are spelled differently,
>> yet are all in one sentence, again with no punctuation between
>> the words.
>> Here is a small selection of them.  I propose that they
>> represent a new genus and species related to Ball Words.
>>
>> 1.  Work speed was up to two levels too high last week.
>> 2.  There will be lunch in the fore noon for four.
>> 3.  All will be for naught if you do not untie that knot.
>> 4.  Please mete the meat to my family when we meet.
>>
>> Can anyone think of more of them?
>>
>> Robin Leech
>
>
>

--
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Jan Bosselaers
"Dochterland", R. novarumlaan 2
B-2340 Beerse, Belgium               tel / fax 32-14-615896
home: dochterland at pandora.be  /  hortipes at dochterland.org
work: jbossela at janbe.jnj.com
web: http://www.dochterland.org/ or http://wyith.ch/home/dochterland.org/

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