Harman: On Linguistic Luck

Graham Harman vaunts the « lucky feature of the English language » that authorises the invention of the word « overmining » as one side of the conceptual coin whose other side is undermining. He claims that this feature is not available in French. I am a little puzzled by this claim, as undermine can be translated as « sous-miner », which already exists in French, and this immediately suggests the coinage of « sur-miner », which doesn’t exist – but neither does overmine. The noun « sous-minage » (undermining) already exists, so « sur-minage » would seem to be an acceptable rendition of « overmining ». I find these translations more satisfying than the current ones (démolition, ensevelissement) precisely for the formal reason that Harman invokes, plus the fact that the meaning gets skewed: undermining may demolish, but it doesn’t have to; overmining doesn’t reall bury so much as render redundant and replace.