Philosophy
So one of the shorties was relaying with some agitation being told by a classmate that she was being rude when she was in fact being creative with no ill intent at all. She and a friend had developed a secret handshake of their own. They had seen others use the pinkie shake and decided that between them, the symbol of their friendship would be to extend their middle fingers towards each other and interlock them. This gesture, for them, expressed the proposition, "We are dear friends."
When a classmate witnessed the gesture, he told them that it meant something else, the propositional form of which he was not yet acquainted with, but of which he had sufficient knowledge to say that it was not the sort of sentiment one wanted to generally express in public. Shorty indignantly reported that said boy, as boys are wont to do, was just being difficult and interfering yet again with the girls just having fun on the playground.
So, we had a decision to make quickly over dinner. This is an aspect of the linguistic community to which Shorty has not yet been admitted. The gesture does not have the standard meaning for her that it has elsewhere. What do you tell her? TheWife's impulse was to say, "You can use any handshake you want." I went along, albeit a bit uneasily. After all, they will occasionally -- often when searching for rhymes with words like truck -- come across syllables we don't explain the meaning of, but inform them that it is "not a nice word." So, do you let it slide or bring her into the linguistic community here?
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The shorter of the short people had a field trip the other day to the Utz potato chip factory (for those not on the east coast of the US, Utz makes the best potato chips in the world). It turns out that the granddaughter of the owner is one of his classmates...
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I had a student look up a word in the dictionary the other day and complain that the dictionary was wrong. Is this possible? Aside from a typographical error or an omission, can a dictionary entry be incorrect? Is the dictionary scientific documentation...
- Four Letter Ethics
As I ready myself to step into the world of the seven second delay, I've been thinking about the ethics of swearing. On the one hand, curse words are just sounds that have been culturally designated as vulgar. To swear in polite conversation is socially...
- Fun Book..."word Myths: Debunking Linguistic Urban Legends"
Word Myths: Debunking Linguistic Urban Legends by David Wilton ISBN-10: 0195375572 ISBN-13: 978-0195375572 Did you ever think that Ring Around The Rosie makes reference to the Black Death of the Middle Ages? Or that the whole nine yards refers to the...
Philosophy
When Do You Join the Linguistic Community?
So one of the shorties was relaying with some agitation being told by a classmate that she was being rude when she was in fact being creative with no ill intent at all. She and a friend had developed a secret handshake of their own. They had seen others use the pinkie shake and decided that between them, the symbol of their friendship would be to extend their middle fingers towards each other and interlock them. This gesture, for them, expressed the proposition, "We are dear friends."
When a classmate witnessed the gesture, he told them that it meant something else, the propositional form of which he was not yet acquainted with, but of which he had sufficient knowledge to say that it was not the sort of sentiment one wanted to generally express in public. Shorty indignantly reported that said boy, as boys are wont to do, was just being difficult and interfering yet again with the girls just having fun on the playground.
So, we had a decision to make quickly over dinner. This is an aspect of the linguistic community to which Shorty has not yet been admitted. The gesture does not have the standard meaning for her that it has elsewhere. What do you tell her? TheWife's impulse was to say, "You can use any handshake you want." I went along, albeit a bit uneasily. After all, they will occasionally -- often when searching for rhymes with words like truck -- come across syllables we don't explain the meaning of, but inform them that it is "not a nice word." So, do you let it slide or bring her into the linguistic community here?
- Plagiarism And Music
The less short of the short people has begun studying the clarinet. In learning a small piece of Haydn's Surprise Symphony, her teacher was surprised when she added her own ending beyond the piece she was given to work on. Sensing (quite correctly)...
- Who Owns The Pronunciation Of Names?
The shorter of the short people had a field trip the other day to the Utz potato chip factory (for those not on the east coast of the US, Utz makes the best potato chips in the world). It turns out that the granddaughter of the owner is one of his classmates...
- Can The Dictionary Be Wrong?
I had a student look up a word in the dictionary the other day and complain that the dictionary was wrong. Is this possible? Aside from a typographical error or an omission, can a dictionary entry be incorrect? Is the dictionary scientific documentation...
- Four Letter Ethics
As I ready myself to step into the world of the seven second delay, I've been thinking about the ethics of swearing. On the one hand, curse words are just sounds that have been culturally designated as vulgar. To swear in polite conversation is socially...
- Fun Book..."word Myths: Debunking Linguistic Urban Legends"
Word Myths: Debunking Linguistic Urban Legends by David Wilton ISBN-10: 0195375572 ISBN-13: 978-0195375572 Did you ever think that Ring Around The Rosie makes reference to the Black Death of the Middle Ages? Or that the whole nine yards refers to the...