Re: News about Futurese

Quoting Christopher Wright <faceloran@...>:

> Thomas Wier sekalge:
> >(Why is it that so many people on this list enjoy making
> >generalizations about American habits of mind? It's very rude.)
>
> In this case, Americans have accepted pejorated terms as having the worse
> meaning and forgotten about the original meaning.
You missed my point.  You cut Javier's comment, which was:

> > > Now I understand David Thomas's comment "Heh, heh. Dirty mind!".
> > > I suppose that's what happens in American English, because at
> > > school, where I was taught almost only standard British English,
> > > I can't remember the word "rooster" to have ever been even
> > > mentioned.
.. as if there was something strange or particular about the
people who speak American English that makes them choose the
"dirty" connotations and forget the "non-dirty" ones, as if
the rest of humanity did not act in the same way with respect
to their own languages, mutatis mutandis.  To bring up that
point therefore raises the suspicion of the bigoted and
intolerant attitude I thought I saw there.

(I should probably make clear that I am a little touchy about
generalizations about the behavior of groups to which I am
associated, ever since a waitress here in Chicago, upon learning
that I come from Texas, asked me whether I was a right-wing
paranoiac.  That was fun, let me tell you.  I suppose I should
be more stoical about the existence of bigotry in the world,
but it's hard sometimes.)

 =========================================================================
Thomas Wier
Dept. of Linguistics  "Nihil magis praestandum est quam ne pecorum ritu
University of Chicago sequamur antecedentium gregem, pergentes non qua
1010 E. 59th Street   eundum est, sed qua itur." -- Seneca
Chicago, IL 60637

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