unredeemably irredeemable

[~greg]

Google gets
about 165,000 for irredeemably,
about 289,000 for irredeemable,

and
about 7,500 for unredeemably,
about 74,700 for unredeemable

However according to my little dictionary,
"irredeemed"
isn't a word,

whereas
"unredeemed"
is.

And google concurs, getting only
about 204 for irredeemed

but
about 390,000 for unredeemed

Conclusion?
ir- is prefered when the word is long ?
un- - when it's short ?

There is a clear semantic difference between
irredeemable (can't be).

vs
unredeemed (hasn't been)

And I feel that something of that ought to cary over into
"irredeemably" vs "unredeemably"

but there is a tense thing going in here which is tensing up my brain
- I just can't get my head around the semantics.

I guess my question is, what's going on here?

~~~~~~~~~~~~

[mm]

On Fri, 11 Apr 2008 16:31:31 -0400, "~greg" <g...@remove-comcast.net>
wrote:

>Google gets
> about 165,000 for irredeemably,
> about 289,000 for irredeemable,
>
>and
> about 7,500 for unredeemably,
> about 74,700 for unredeemable
>
>However according to my little dictionary,
> "irredeemed"
>isn't a word,
>
>whereas
> "unredeemed"
>is.
>
>And google concurs, getting only
> about 204 for irredeemed
>
>but
> about 390,000 for unredeemed
>
>
>Conclusion?
> ir- is prefered when the word is long ?
> un- - when it's short ?

Definitely. Compare with the words unbe, unwas, unwere, unrun, etc.

As opposed to irregulate, irprocrastinate, and irindoctrinate, which
are long, so they start with ir-.

>There is a clear semantic difference between
> irredeemable (can't be).
>
>vs
> unredeemed (hasn't been)
<
>
>And I feel that something of that ought to cary over into
>"irredeemably" vs "unredeemably"
>
>but there is a tense thing going in here which is tensing up my brain
>- I just can't get my head around the semantics.
>
>I guess my question is, what's going on here?

The formation didn't go from redeem to irredeem, but to redeemable,
and then to irredeemable, and irredeemably.

Redeem also went to redeemed, and from there to unredeemed. And no
further.

Compare with light, lit, unlit. Past participles are like adjectives,
and adjectives usually have opposites.

OTOH, verbe often don't have opposites. So one can redeem something,
but there's another verb instead of unredeem, like pawn, repawn, etc.

>~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>

If you are inclined to email me
for some reason, remove NOPSAM :-)

[~greg]

"mm" <NOPSAM...@bigfoot.com> wrote in message news:fpnvv397ttlnfmqga...@4ax.com...

I fought against the bottle,
But I had to do it drunk -
Took my diamond to the pawnshop -
But that don't make it junk.
- Leonard Cohen

Thank you, mm!
That does make perfect sense.
(It even feels right. :)

~greg