Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

baker's paradox

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.93 in modern English

Syllables: bak-er's -para-dox
IPA

29

Scrabble Score

13

Letters

4

Syllables

10

Unique Chars

Meaning

name

The apparent paradox that children learning English encounter many sentences amenable to dative shift (e.g. "give the book to me" → "give me the book") but apparently have no way to learn that this is not possible with certain verbs (e.g. "*donate me the book" is unacceptable), and yet rarely make this kind of error.

Etymology

Named after the linguist C. L. Baker.

Questions

What does baker's paradox mean?: The apparent paradox that children learning English encounter many sentences amenable to dative shift (e.g. "give the book to me" → "give me the book") but apparently have no way to learn that this is not possible with certain verbs (e.g. "*donate me the book" is unacceptable), and yet rarely make this kind of error.
Where does baker's paradox come from?: Named after the linguist C. L. Baker.

How to pronounce baker's paradox

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