The reason the English language’s rules for constructing compound words don’t seem to make sense to speakers of more reasonable languages is because, in this respect, English obeys Roger Rabbit logic: in, for example, German, you can construct extemporaneous compound words whenever you like, but in English, you can only do so when it’s funny.
As a german i would like to do some outpointing and show that the english wordconstructionability is only held back by deciding whats right and what is wrong, and not by your ability to convey meaning
It’s a bit more subtle than that. Because there’s this tacit agreement that constructing nonce compounds in English is only “correct” if it’s funny, any time you do so it automatically sounds like you’re doing a bit. You can’t avoid that by deciding it doesn’t apply to you – your words gain a humorous subtext whether you want them to or not.
I must show disagreeability at the notion that funnymaking is the onlyest use of wordcombinification
I am most certainly not doing a bit