Unthinkable Wings

An interesting example of assumptions even professional linguists make...

Thu, 22 Nov 2018 10:13:20 GMT

I came across a post on Language Log - the story which inspired it is well worth clicking through, too, as it's the tale of one Australian farmer* trying to get rid of her 'arsehole geese' on social media with radical honesty.

What brought me up short, though, was the author's observation that

Most dictionaries I consulted classify "arsehole" as vulgar and offensive, but I always thought of it as a jocular, watered-down version of another word.

And I sat there racking my brains as to what on earth 'arsehole' could be a jocular euphemism for. I mean, surely he couldn't mean 'cunt', because it's not the same body part at all....

The comments shed more light, and a consensus emerged that North Americans seem likely to think that 'arsehole' is a humorous/ archaic term that's less offensive than 'asshole', whereas British and Australians tend to think that 'asshole' is a relatively harmless Americanism.

They then continue on to a brief discussion of the difficulties nonnative speakers have in working out how offensive particular swearwords are (see: the baffling belief of many Germans that 'fuck' is not actually that rude). But it's fascinating to see the same phenomenon at work between two regional varieties of the same language!

* Though I'm not sure how long they've been farming; I could have told you geese were potentially trouble!

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The shifting meaning of 'progressive'; also, air and angels

Fri, 29 May 2009 10:15:25 GMT

Various people have pointed out that one of the difficulties of the new Trek film is that things have changed so much that what looked progressive back in the day (the status of women in Star Fleet and presence of minorities or non-Americans in the crew) now looks positively bastion-of-male-white-American-privilege.

Sometimes, though, it's weird little details that bring back how much things have changed. I was flicking through the production notes on Memory Alpha for "Balance of Terror" (a very good episode indeed, with Romulans, Enterprise crew-members being bigoted and Kirk calling them on it, and a very non black-and-white enemy - and Mark Lenard, who is always good value even when not playing Spock's dad). The episode, though, starts with a wedding (apparently, and I'd forgotten this, the "Enterprise" has a chapel), at which Kirk officiates (which also makes me wonder, as a Patrick O'Brian fan, if the Enterprise ever has services which mostly consist of Kirk reading ~~The Articles of War~~ Star Fleet regulations, and if there is a (suitably space themed, and naturally inter-religious and non-specific) version of the Naval Prayer. Unlikely, I suppose, given the apparent American dominance of Star Fleet, but one can speculate.

Anyway: what caught my eye was that the episode notes draw attention to the fact that the bride genuflects to the altar in the chapel, and that this is noteworthy as a positive-without-making-a-very-special-episode-of-it depiction of Roman Catholic practice on 1960s television (also worth noting in that apparently, not every human member of Star Fleet is an atheist or a vague sort-of-deist after all). Was it really that noteworthy? One would hope that this is special pleading on the note-writers (who also note that some Anglicans genuflect - though their deduction from this, that it's not a markedly Catholic practice, is a bit shakier than they think!), but - I do not know. Any thoughts from older Americans - was this really progressive in the early sixties? Kennedy was Catholic, after all....

On a totally unrelated but extremely cool note, I have found a glossary of Naval Slang. It is quite fascinating (did you know that 'angel' is a unit measuring 1000ft of height?) Or that 'rabbits' is used to designate anything taken ashore from a Navy ship, especially if smuggled?

Heigh ho - back to work!

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Thu, 21 May 2009 14:16:43 GMT

Um. Have been browsing the Vulcan language dictionary; the religion section in particular is fascinating; though it's not clear what's archaic and what isn't. It looks as if Vulcan started out as polytheists and became monotheists; but rather surprisingly, they appear to have a concept analogous to angels (I'm thinking Platonic intelligences), and also to sin and redemption. Though it's not clear precisely what that would mean to a Vulcan, and to what extent this is the result of a lexicographer from a Jewish or Christian background trying to put things in his own terms...

I have also been trying to work out how you would express 'detachment', in the Ekhartian sense, in Vulcan.

Furthermore, I have discovered the lexeme Vashaya, and have decided that this is the term by which Vulcans will describe the catastrophe we see in the latest movie.

And, yes, I do have other stuff to do....

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