"Which new words would you like to see added to the dictionary?" A couple of months ago the publishing house Taishukan put this generous question to Japanese high school and junior high school students.
The students, among other oddities, suggested the terms nodaru (野田る), kanru (菅る) and hatoru (鳩る). With reference to the surnames of Japan's three latest prime ministers, these terms according to the students are supposed to mean, respectively, "fighting with dirty hands while making polished speeches," "lolling about without moving on" and "changing one's opinion on a daily basis."
Apart from the fact that the students apparently had a rather critical view of Japanese politics, their suggestions are quite remarkable from a linguistic point of view. They reflect an interesting phenomenon in morphology, or the study of word formation.