pregnant word

English translation: loaded, suggestive

23:39 Jul 30, 2007
English language (monolingual) [PRO]
Art/Literary - Linguistics / translation theory
English term or phrase: pregnant word
Could someone explain to me what is a 'pregnat word' and provide me with some examples?

Also is this a universal word category (found in other languages as well)?

Context: An article in the Linguist
'...this appears to be in the cases of pregnant words...'

Thank you
Selene
Selenegr
Local time: 13:13
Selected answer:loaded, suggestive
Explanation:
While Websters uses 'meaningful' and 'profound', Oxford leans towards 'suggestive', which I think is better.
A google check suggests that 'pregnant word' is not a phrase as such, but if you look at the references below, the idea of 'suggestive' is born ('scuse the pun) out.
Selected response from:

niczav
South Africa
Local time: 12:13
Grading comment
This was a tough call as one way or another all candidates have provided an argumentative optical point of view. Semantically though, niczav was more convincing in his explanation but I would have liked to see some personal exemplifications of this concept. Thank you all for your help. Selene :-)
2 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



SUMMARY OF ALL EXPLANATIONS PROVIDED
4 +8loaded, suggestive
niczav
5 +1full of meaning..very meaningful..
airmailrpl
4word rich in significance or implication
Refugio


Discussion entries: 2





  

Answers


14 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +8
loaded, suggestive


Explanation:
While Websters uses 'meaningful' and 'profound', Oxford leans towards 'suggestive', which I think is better.
A google check suggests that 'pregnant word' is not a phrase as such, but if you look at the references below, the idea of 'suggestive' is born ('scuse the pun) out.


    Reference: http://www.bucklow.fsbusiness.co.uk/gallery/essays/fontanell...
    Reference: http://www.ewtn.com/library/HOMELIBR/HERESY1.TXT
niczav
South Africa
Local time: 12:13
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 2
Grading comment
This was a tough call as one way or another all candidates have provided an argumentative optical point of view. Semantically though, niczav was more convincing in his explanation but I would have liked to see some personal exemplifications of this concept. Thank you all for your help. Selene :-)

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Polangmar: This explanation is sufficiently pregnant, eeer, I mean meaningful.;))
2 hrs

agree  Elena Aleksandrova
4 hrs

agree  tanyazst
6 hrs

agree  Alison Jenner
8 hrs

agree  ErichEko ⟹⭐
9 hrs

agree  Richard Benham: I don't think a single word can be "pregnant". There is a "pregnant" construction in (classical) Greek, but I don't think that's what's meant. Maybe a phrase which implies more than it actually says.
14 hrs

agree  Alfa Trans (X)
15 hrs

agree  Kari Foster: Yes. Note also the common expression "pregnant pause", meaning a lull in the conversation when expectation or suspense hangs heavy in the air.
1 day 18 hrs
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43 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 5/5 peer agreement (net): +1
full of meaning..very meaningful..


Explanation:
never heard a similar term in Portuguese

BBC - Africa Beyond - African Arts - Comments
... that is fast going beyond the roots of common usage to a household position - a corporate image. To the Yoruba people of Nigeria, it is a pregnant word ...
www.bbc.co.uk/africabeyond/africanarts/comments/

[PDF]
From “Word-Images” to “Chapter-Shots”: The Imaginist Montage of
elements are characterized as —pregnant word-images“, that is, nouns bearing in. themselves the potential image. In Mariengof‘s prose these —word-images“ ...
www.helsinki.fi/~tphuttun/mgof_article.pdf

Friday .. wonderful weekend to all ..
Interesting...such a pregnant word, so full of expectations and meanings...I bought 167 dvds fro 1 Euro each from a well know pirate dealer who is getting ...
www.datinginillinois.com/illinois-forum-posts-38564-2.htm

EIPS - Proclaiming Our Protestant Faith! Part 1 -- Salvation By Grace
When Paul wrote that one pregnant word, “He became poor,” he meant all that. He who is the eternal Son of the Father, the Son of His bosom, who is clothed ...
www.ianpaisley.org/article.asp?ArtKey=proclaim1 -

Peter Levine: Joyce's modernism
That is truth, pardy, said Dixon, and, or I err, a pregnant word. ... "And a pregnant word, if I'm not mistaken," he added, when the thought struck him. ...
www.peterlevine.ws/mt/archives/2003/04/joyces-modernis.html

The Burning Word
... "The Graceful Word," but before we got to "The Vigorous Word," "The Pregnant Word," "Burning Word," and "The Inevitable Word," the term was almost over. ...
www.ualberta.ca/ALUMNI/history/peoplea-g/57winword.htm -

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Note added at 1 hr (2007-07-31 01:18:16 GMT)
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HADAWAMAYAWA

This is a more or less compund word that describes the ordered creation of the people with the blood ties never to be severed, even when the distance is long. the word seems to give praise to a creator at the same time. It could also be seen as an acronym, which isn't the case originally - just my side to it, HA - Hourly Activities; DA - Daily Activities; WA - Weekly Activities; MA - Monthly Activities; YA - Yearly Activities; WA - Work Accomplished. It is a word that is fast going beyond the roots of common usage to a household position - a corporate image. To the Yoruba people of Nigeria, it is a pregnant word


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Note added at 1 hr (2007-07-31 01:21:54 GMT)
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ONE PREGNANT WORD

When Paul wrote that one pregnant word, “He became poor,” he meant all that. He who is the eternal Son of the Father, the Son of His bosom, who is clothed with honour and majesty, who covers Himself with light as with a garment, became a baby in a woman's arms, and she “wrapped Him in swaddling clothes and laid Him in a manger.” He who is the Creator of the ends of the earth, who fainteth not, and is never weary, sat weary with His journey by Sychar's well, and slept in tired exhaustion through the howling of the hurricane on the Galilean lake.

airmailrpl
Brazil
Local time: 07:13
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish, Native in PortuguesePortuguese
PRO pts in category: 32

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Ken Cox: yep: in my mind 'pregnant' and 'full of meaning' are synonymous in this context. A related concept that is used in (quasi)linguistics is 'resonance', for words that have a more or less broad set of associations (esp. effective in poetry, for example)
8 hrs
  -> thank you - at least two of us got it right !!
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16 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
word rich in significance or implication


Explanation:
fraught with connotations (like, for example, Shakespearean language)

Sir Max Beerbohm once said something to the effect that in Shakespeare, every word casts a purple shadow.

Refugio
Local time: 03:13
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 35
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