“Redefining a word isn't always the same as giving it a new meaning. Sometimes you're just trying to pare it down to the core concept that people missed the first time around. Dictionary definitions of "camera" used to mention film and plates; now they just refer to a photosensitive surface. But the meaning of "camera" isn't different; it's just that now technology lets us see what its essence has been all along.”
—Geoff Nunberg on how dictionaries are even grappling with getting ‘marriage’ right
“Equality,” “prejudice,” “race” itself — how can you have mid-nineteenth-century characters use words like those without anachronistically evoking the connotations they have for us? To many of Lincoln’s contemporaries and even his allies, “equality”still evoked alarming echoes of the French Revolution. To speak of “race equality” implied not just that people should all be treated alike, but that the races really were morally and intellectually equivalent. That was an extreme and dubious proposition to all but a few radical Republicans, like Thaddeus Stevens. ”
—Geoff Nunberg on how connotations have changed since the 19th century and how those connotations are alluded to in Tony Kushner’s screen adaptation of Lincoln.
'Occupy': Geoff Nunberg's 2011 Word Of The Year
Geoff Nunberg‘Occupy’: Geoff Nunberg’s 2011 Word Of The Year (via NPR)
/äkyəˌpī/
npr.orgGeoff Nunberg, one of my favorite NPR contributors, has revealed his word of the year:
OCCUPY
While I am at this point burned out by the daily repetition of the word, I can see why he chose it. What single word has…ahem…occupied…our collective news conscience in 2011 other than “occupy”?
Click the entry title above to hear his segment on today’s Fresh Air.
“[...] The Prussian military theorist Carl von Clausewitz famously said that war is "the continuation of politics by other means." But to listen to the way we talk, the opposite is true, as well. The language of politics is, excuse the expression, shot through with martial imagery — with its campaigns, war rooms, battleground states, political bombshells and attack ads. And that's not to mention the carnage that pervades our everyday talk: catch flak, take no prisoners, crash and burn. [...] It's a strength of modern political culture that these apocalyptic metaphors no longer rouse people to armed insurrection. [...] But even if these violent reveries are almost never acted out, they coarsen the debate and dehumanize the other side. The scenarios behind those fantasies goes a long way toward creating the so-called climate of hate. If you're going to imagine yourself riding to the rescue of the republic, you're going to need to see your opponents as nefarious alien life forms. You put on a cowboy suit, and suddenly everybody else is an Indian.”
—Geoff Nunberg, How Traumatic Events Change Our View Of Language, «NPR», 20 gennaio 2011The only linguistic impact of 9/11 is 9/11 itself
illinois.eduThe Web of Language via @DrGrammar
With Ryan's Ascent, A Few Thoughts On 'Entitlement'
npr.orgSome linguistic background on entitlements by Geoff Nunberg
How Traumatic Events Change Our View Of Language
npr.org[T]he proliferation of … denatured metaphors is really a tribute to the civilizing process, as we sublimate our aggression into more pacific channels… . But even if these violent reveries are almost never acted out, they coarsen the debate and dehumanize the other side. In fact, the scenarios behind those fantasies go a long way toward creating the so-called climate of hate. If you’re going to imagine yourself riding to the rescue of the Republic, you’re going to need to see your opponents as nefarious alien life forms. You put on a cowboy suit, and suddenly everybody else is an Indian.
