Comments on: Kos’ Reflections on the Army & Going Donkey http://caldems.com/blog/2007/11/20/kos-reflections-on-the-army-going-donkey/ blog of the Cal Berkeley Democrats Sat, 05 Jul 2008 22:42:31 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.1 By: thar http://caldems.com/blog/2007/11/20/kos-reflections-on-the-army-going-donkey/#comment-598 thar Wed, 26 Dec 2007 06:38:06 +0000 http://caldems.com/blog/2007/11/20/kos-reflections-on-the-army-going-donkey/#comment-598 I've noticed that <i>blog</i> is used metonymically to refer to a blog entry (as you did in the last sentence) as well as the medium itself, much like <i>IM</i> can refer either to the instant messaging capability or to a message sent using that capability, or how Gmail uses <i>chat</i> in "X is offline and did not receive your chat." I suppose it's because there's no succinct term that means 'blog post' or 'blog entry', yet the medium is salient when discussing the entry. I wonder if anyone has looked to see if there's as typical order to metonymic extensions of these sorts of terms. <i>Blog</i> came from <i>web log</i>, so it started as a noun referring to the medium; now it's also a verb and a part noun. <i>E-mail</i> started out as the medium, and now is also a noun for an individual message. <i>Google</i> started as a company, then became a service/medium, then a verb. Who knows: maybe in the future "a Google" will refer to a search result. Hey, maybe Ted Stevens was simply ahead of the curve when he said "My staff tried to send me an Internet the other day"... I’ve noticed that blog is used metonymically to refer to a blog entry (as you did in the last sentence) as well as the medium itself, much like IM can refer either to the instant messaging capability or to a message sent using that capability, or how Gmail uses chat in “X is offline and did not receive your chat.” I suppose it’s because there’s no succinct term that means ‘blog post’ or ‘blog entry’, yet the medium is salient when discussing the entry.

I wonder if anyone has looked to see if there’s as typical order to metonymic extensions of these sorts of terms. Blog came from web log, so it started as a noun referring to the medium; now it’s also a verb and a part noun. E-mail started out as the medium, and now is also a noun for an individual message. Google started as a company, then became a service/medium, then a verb. Who knows: maybe in the future “a Google” will refer to a search result. Hey, maybe Ted Stevens was simply ahead of the curve when he said “My staff tried to send me an Internet the other day”…

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