Oh language-18
In the last but one episode, we had seen opposite terms beginning with
‘Im’, most of which have the positive term beginning in the consonant ‘P’ as
presented then [Improper X Proper, Impossible X Possible, Impertinent X Pertinent, Impolite X Polite, Imprudent X Prudent,
Immature X Mature, Immaterial X Material
] Of course the last two begin with ‘M’.
In the previous episode, negative terms had the prefix ‘In’, while their
positive versions began with consonants, A/ C/ E / F/ S. What do you infer from
these? Please let me know. There may be some phonetic criterion behind such
spelling culture. If someone has any definition or clue, kindly explain it and
let all get the benefit. Be that as
it may, there are other styles of spelling to indicate the ‘opposite’ or the
negative form.
Two such styles are ‘mis’ and ‘dis’
Miscarriage, Misconception, Misconstrue Misfortune, Misguidance, Mismanagement,
Mismatch, Misread, Misspell, Misprint
First, let us consider terms beginning with the prefix- ‘Mis’, which appears
to confer, a negative sense on to a term. In a way it appeals as the opposite
of the term, though it may not always serve that function.
Miscarriage –The term refers to an event of end of pregnancy causing the
birth of a baby before its complete period of gestation. Such infants have high
mortality risk.
‘Miscarriage’ of justice in a court of law is an expression to indicate
an unfair decision or a wrong decision. In both the situations ‘miscarriage’
does not represent the negative sense of ‘Carriage’.
‘Misconception’ refers to wrong or improper conception of an idea or
information. It is ‘misconception’ that animal food alone can provide protein /
fat for humans. In this situation,
conception means proper understanding which is the opposite of ‘misconception’.
‘Misconstrue’ truly represents the opposite of ‘Construe’.
‘Construe’ means to grasp an idea in a particular way. So, to misconstrue
is to ‘perceive’ or understand a word or action in a wrong way. Thus, Construe
and misconstrue negate each other.
‘Misfortune’ refers to an event or happening causing misery or deprivation.
‘Fortune’ is generally a situation of positive prosperity by way of wealth. So,
‘fortune’ and ‘misfortune’ signify opposed states in life.
‘Misguidance’ means wrong guidance in providing safe idea or giving
precise directions for reaching a place and so on. ‘Guidance’ refers to the act
of providing right ideas or clues to overcome difficulties.
‘Mismanagement’ means ‘improper’ or corrupt functioning of an
administration.
‘ Mismatch’ is a situation where
the members in a pair look unsuitable or faulty as against the term ‘match’
that signifies suitability or well balanced pair.
‘Misread’ means to read wrongly or to provide wrong information from
improper understanding of the information. So, it fails to serve the utility of
‘reading’.
‘Misspell’ means ‘wrongly spelling’ a word.
‘Misprint’ is generally a typographic error in which either letters are
missing or are interchanged in the course of ‘word formation’.
Thus, of the prefix ‘Mis’ tends to suggest some error in the act
prescribed by the word.
I hope these are intelligible.
ToContinue ……. _________________________________________________________
