Re: (In)flammable (WAS: Early Conlang Archives)
From: | Dan Sulani <dnsulani@...> |
Date: | Thursday, March 11, 1999, 19:31 |
FFlores wrote:
<snip>
> The inflammable=fammable issue is one of those curious
> "contradictions" of the English language that I've heard of.
> The other one is "burn down" = (more or less) "burn up" (I
> know they have different connotations, but the meaning is
> actually the same!)
The situation is simplified in colloquial use: as a metaphor for anger, one
uses "burn up" but not (to my knowledge, anyway)
"burn down". As in: That really burns me up! (= that really makes me angry).
But not *That really burns me down.
I wonder why it works that way. Could it have something to do with "down"
having a connotation of calming or sadness
which doesn't match the idea of anger, whereas "up" has a connotation of
activity, which goes better with the idea of anger?
<snip>
Dan Sulani
--
likehsna rtem zuv tikuhnuh auag inuvuz vaka'a.
A word is an awesome thing.