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How far can we carry the -ish morphism? quote:
:unquote I thought that -ish adds the sense of like, similar to, approximately, etc. From which, it would seem the threshold would be the tautologies like-ish / similar-ish. The question is about the particular modification that -ish makes to a word, unlike other suffixes: like, similar to, etc. |
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To me personally (I am not a native speaker but use ish frequently) ish sounds contrived with the word similar. To me, ish means more or less, but a more or less similar question feels like a pleonasm to me. I would use similar on its own or fairly similar rather than similar-ish So my answer is "an ish too far" ;) |
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Where you use -ish is, like many language choices, a matter of judgement, depending on what you're saying, who you're saying it to and how you're saying it. If I heard similarish, I would assume that the speaker was not being entirely serious, just seriousish. |
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The (ish) suffix - with brackets, or similar to separate it from the mai word - has become popular over the last few years, in ways that are not necessarily grammatically valid. It means that the preceding word is not to be taken as precisely as it otherwise would be. In fact, it can be used over entire phrases: I would agree with that - ish. So how far can it go? As far as you like-ish. As far as it continues to make sense to the reader/listener. I have heard phrases like “a bit ishy” which is a whole new ball-game. |
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