Lacuna Matata!

Hello again to you all! Now, I don't know if you're like me at all (though I'm sure we all have at least one of these moments once in our lives) but do you ever just stand there, red and flustered in the face, flailing your arms and searching for a word that doesn't exist? Or is it just me? To be totally honest, I experience lexical gaps (now I know the word for it is a lacuna!!!) on a daily if not conversational basis! There are ideas out there that I just want a word for! (For example, that FUWBBUWBWUBWUBWUB noise you get while wiggling a piece of sheet metal.) Now, at first, this video just seemed fun and silly because it was talking about a word for a non-virgin, but it quickly gained far more interest to me when it began talking about lexical gaps and how all languages have them.



Interestingly enough, I know very little about linguistics (though I call myself an English major and I get a happy tingly feeling within my soul as we discuss language-y things in class.) I found though that I'm constantly trying to fill my own lexical gaps by constantly making up words to fit what I want. Not very English-Major of me, but it works and keeps me happy. The video gave me a new word to add to my vocabulary though and made me giggle with glee!



Once again, I don't think there's much to agree or disagree with this video (it's pretty much an informational video). If I had to pick a side though and discuss what I'm agreeing with, I'd say yeah! Post things you think are funny and learn new things about them! In all seriousness though, lexical gaps are something I wish we had less of or that we could find ways to fill.



After watching this video, I have the sudden urge to run out and see how many lacuna's I can come across in a week and then look into something even more curious to me- are there actually words out there for what we want and we just don't know them, or is it a true lacuna with no real word within our English? I have a feeling that if I actually find the time to do so, it'd make for a very fun and interesting research project!



Lacuna's are aspects of every language (as mentioned in the video about Romanian and their lack of a word for 'shallow'). It's curious though that if we can describe a phenomenon, why do we have no word for it? Not just in English, but in all languages. Why are lexical gaps possible and how could we bridge these gaps? What would happen to language in itself if we found a way to name everything? Could it possibly lead to creating a universal language? All of these questions swim through my head and it makes my inner nerd giddy.



Well, I think that's it for this week! See you all for Blog #4!



Signing Off!



Juliana Mandile