Lexical gaps

Feb 14, 2008 at 5:12 PM
2 comments

As I was reading Ch. 10 and Cruse was discussing body parts I was thinking about the lexical gaps we have when talking about our toes. For our fingers we have: index, middle, ring, and pinky finger, but for the toes we only have: big toe and pinky toe. At least as far as I know there are no names, specifically, for the other three in between. Any thoughts or answers?

2 comments

Comments

I would venture to guess that we don't have names for the other three toes because:

we don't point with our 'index' toe, nor do we traditionally wear rings on our 'ring' toe, and best of all we can't give anyone the 'middle' toe.

I think funtion/importance is the best explanation for why the toes aren't getting as much lexical attention.

I have trouble with this lexical gap all the time. I usually refer to the toe in the middle as the 'middle toe', but for the other 2 that are left without terms I usually have to say something like 'second toe' for the one next to the big toe, and 'the one next to the pinky/little toe' for the one next to the pinky/little toe. It really isn't efficient.

Lexical gaps

Comments

Post a comment

About Me

Neighborhood

Archives