| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3] > | Does the word "plannable" exist? Thread poster: Ana Resende
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apk12 
Germany
Local time: 14:21
English to German
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| 3rd link to dict necessary? | Jun 14, 2011 |
This is the third link posted to exactly that dict.cc entry in this thread, Gudrun...
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As everyone else has said, it is permissible to coin a word in this way. But can anyone think of a decent sentence containing the word. When would one have occasion to use it? Or do I just lack the necessary imagination?
| | | | apk12
Germany
Local time: 14:21
English to German
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Lesley Clarke wrote:
As everyone else has said, it is permissible to coin a word in this way. But can anyone think of a decent sentence containing the word. When would one have occasion to use it? Or do I just lack the necessary imagination?
Well, non-natives for sure can. For me as native in German, a "plannable project" is a project that you could plan. I.e. a project that may be 'realizable' - i.e. with foreseeable obstacles that you still can manage - with a plan how to solve the obstacles it turns to a "plannable project".
Do others have other ideas for sentences?
Re. definition: You can find e.g. the following sentence online: "Here we suggest to separate plannable, i.e., close to deterministic parts of the world, and focus planning efforts in this domain." - so here, the text author proposes "close to deterministic".
Note for the record. June 15th: .com/.de: 28.500 and 74.200
[Edited at 2011-06-14 23:42 GMT]
| | | | Giles Watson
Italy
Local time: 14:21
Italian to English
In memoriam
apk12 wrote: Well, non-natives for sure can. For me as native in German, a "plannable project" is a project that you could plan. I.e. a project that may be 'realizable' - i.e. with foreseeable obstacles that you still can manage - with a plan how to solve the obstacles it turns to a "plannable project".
The OED defines a "project" as "A plan, draft, scheme, or table of something...", which rather implies that a "plannable project" is just a "plannable plan". The kind of project you describe is "feasible", "practicable" or perhaps merely "possible".
Of course, I'm only a native speaker. Perhaps some authoritative non-native speaker would be kind enough to give us a corroborating endorsement or rectifying correction of this view.
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| Example sentences | Jun 15, 2011 |
Why bother going to such great lengths to think of possible meanings or argue about whether this is just something made up by non-natives? Just do a search on government web sites of English-speaking countries and see…
plannable site:gc.ca – 2 pages
plannable site:gov.uk – 18 pages
plannable site:gov – 100 pages
Now we just need to go through these examples and see how this word is actually used =P
(We can repeat the exercise targeting o... See more Why bother going to such great lengths to think of possible meanings or argue about whether this is just something made up by non-natives? Just do a search on government web sites of English-speaking countries and see…
plannable site:gc.ca – 2 pages
plannable site:gov.uk – 18 pages
plannable site:gov – 100 pages
Now we just need to go through these examples and see how this word is actually used =P
(We can repeat the exercise targeting other domains that are likely to contain native English text. Targeting edu, ac.uk etc. and looking for papers and/or lectures should also be useful…)
[Edited at 2011-06-15 06:36 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Lingua 5B
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 14:21
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
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| Adjectives ending with -able | Jun 15, 2011 |
Probably the group of adjectives with the biggest number of newly coined forms, and they keep being coined ( verb+able).
Linguists coin new words where necessary, while not needing to verify everything on Google. As a nonnative speaker, of course I would first be wary of possible complications with context and collocations ( which I think is what Lesley asked). However, even then, Google can't give you endless number of answers, and sometimes you will simply have to be inventor in t... See more Probably the group of adjectives with the biggest number of newly coined forms, and they keep being coined ( verb+able).
Linguists coin new words where necessary, while not needing to verify everything on Google. As a nonnative speaker, of course I would first be wary of possible complications with context and collocations ( which I think is what Lesley asked). However, even then, Google can't give you endless number of answers, and sometimes you will simply have to be inventor in the language, instead of being a copycat.
[Edited at 2011-06-15 07:18 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Giles Watson
Italy
Local time: 14:21
Italian to English
In memoriam
Ambrose Li wrote:
Why bother going to such great lengths to think of possible meanings or argue about whether this is just something made up by non-natives? Just do a search on government web sites of English-speaking countries and see…
The word exists but that doesn't mean you can use it tautologically without raising the occasional eyebrow
| | | | | productive suffixes | Jun 15, 2011 |
Yes, I am aware that Google can’t give all the answers—in some cases it hardly knows anything. But when natives are questioning the validity of a word created with a productive suffix, I think it would be useful to see if it has at least some answers.
I’m sure when the right situation arises, any native will intuitively know “plannable” is the correct word to use. We are just all having a mind block right now and I see no harm in using Google to just jog our minds... See more Yes, I am aware that Google can’t give all the answers—in some cases it hardly knows anything. But when natives are questioning the validity of a word created with a productive suffix, I think it would be useful to see if it has at least some answers.
I’m sure when the right situation arises, any native will intuitively know “plannable” is the correct word to use. We are just all having a mind block right now and I see no harm in using Google to just jog our minds a little bit… ▲ Collapse
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apk12
Germany
Local time: 14:21
English to German
+ ...
Giles Watson wrote:
The OED defines a "project" as "A plan, draft, scheme, or table of something...", which rather implies that a "plannable project" is just a "plannable plan". The kind of project you describe is "feasible", "practicable" or perhaps merely "possible".
Of course, I'm only a native speaker. Perhaps some authoritative non-native speaker would be kind enough to give us a corroborating endorsement or rectifying correction of this view.
Not sure if I am qualified enough to serve here as an authoritative non-native (which is not a tautology, but a nice rhyme instead, I'll keep that in mind instead of my TM, if I may), but I'll do my best.
A project is not really just a plan when you think about how often you come across it in the freelance world, or in project management. When you apply for a project, then you don't apply to the plan of something anymore, the project is there and funded, althouth still in progress (that's why you can apply for a participation in it). As a non-native, it could be that in everyday language, when speaking about projects that are a bit more than pure ideas but not actual started projects yet, the "plannable project" could slip my mouth.
I said non-natives, because that's what indeed can affect the fact whether we perceive a word as fitting, working, functioning, not surprising... - in German, the word-syntactical (1) and morphological equvalent "planbar" exists. Not sure why that fact should disqualify me from an expression of my opinion.
"Possible" does not fit as a surrogate - "plannable" implements the information why exactly something may be perceived as "possible".
"Practicable" and "feasible" also not totally: imagine a PM working on a project where one of the steps is a translation to a Western European language done for 0.0015. That may be perfectly "plannable", although not really "practicable".
(1) an Eisenberg term
[Edited at 2011-06-15 08:21 GMT]
| | | | Lingua 5B
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 14:21
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
| German and English | Jun 15, 2011 |
apk12 wrote:
I said non-natives, because that's what indeed can affect the fact whether we perceive a word as fitting, working, functioning, not surprising... - in German, the syntactical equvalent "planbar" exists. Not sure why that fact should disqualify me from an expression of my opinion.
Something can work nicely in German, while not in English, and vice versa. Therefore I'd suggest being careful with such inter-linguistic comparisons.
However, some marginal cases will be viewed differently, and sometimes oppositely, even among native speakers.
| | | | apk12
Germany
Local time: 14:21
English to German
+ ...
| Time will show | Jun 15, 2011 |
Sure, absolutely and of course. But since this here is a thread observing one such result of interaction between other languages and English (on proz, it was the Portugese>English gloss entry, then we've seen also the free dict entry for DE>EN), we can only watch and observe what kind of career "plannable" will develop.
I.e.: the observation of the "unplannable" progress of "plannable"
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I’ll also chip in here and say that I also don’t agree that “plannable project” is necessarily a tautology.
As apk12 has mentioned, a project is obviously not the same as a plan. Architectural projects, design projects, and even translation projects are not plans, though a plan (the “project plan”, which is obviously not a tautology) is (ideally) part of the project.
Actually, if you search for “plannable project site:gov” you’ll find... See more I’ll also chip in here and say that I also don’t agree that “plannable project” is necessarily a tautology.
As apk12 has mentioned, a project is obviously not the same as a plan. Architectural projects, design projects, and even translation projects are not plans, though a plan (the “project plan”, which is obviously not a tautology) is (ideally) part of the project.
Actually, if you search for “plannable project site:gov” you’ll find some results. I’m not in a position to question the nativeness of government officials in English-speaking countries. ▲ Collapse
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Giles Watson
Italy
Local time: 14:21
Italian to English
In memoriam | We're a bit OT | Jun 15, 2011 |
The "plannable project" discussion, however intriguing, is veering a bit OT.
"Plannable" is obviously an English word, and equally evidently it is largely restricted to jargon of one kind or another. It's simply not the sort of word that springs spontaneously to one's lips in ordinary speech, not least because it contains three syllables and contains only two notions (plan+ability). The negative form "unplannable" is much better value with three notions (negation+plan+ability) and o... See more The "plannable project" discussion, however intriguing, is veering a bit OT.
"Plannable" is obviously an English word, and equally evidently it is largely restricted to jargon of one kind or another. It's simply not the sort of word that springs spontaneously to one's lips in ordinary speech, not least because it contains three syllables and contains only two notions (plan+ability). The negative form "unplannable" is much better value with three notions (negation+plan+ability) and only one syllable more. Remember that English is an analytical language and compound words have to justify their existence
Our friend Mr Google reports that there are about 26,500,000 occurrences of "unplannable" on the net, starting with the headline of an article of Time, whereas "plannable" can only rack up 288,000.
So yes, "plannable" is an English word but it has relatively limited currency in non-technical contexts. ▲ Collapse
| | | | apk12
Germany
Local time: 14:21
English to German
+ ...
| How many there? | Jun 15, 2011 |
Giles Watson wrote: ... Our friend Mr Google reports that there are about 26,500,000 occurrences of "unplannable" on the net, starting with the headline of an article of Time, whereas "plannable" can only rack up 288,000.
Can others confirm? Have a different count here on the monitor. Current now: .com: 28.900 for plannable and 26.800 for unplannable.
| | | | Giles Watson
Italy
Local time: 14:21
Italian to English
In memoriam | Funny you should say that | Jun 15, 2011 |
apk12 wrote:
Can others confirm? Have a different count here on the monitor. Current now: .com: 28.900 for plannable and 26.800 for unplannable.
Both figures are "correct", in fact. The 26.5 million/288,000 hits for "unplannable" and "plannable" are definitely there in Google's Italian interface but if you switch to English, you get 28,900 and 26,800 respectively.
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