Mystery of living shorter

[Laurence Horn]

At 6:54 AM -0700 5/3/07, James Smith wrote:
>But does anyone other than Vulcans say "Live long"
>unadorned?  (What does the anti-Vulcan say; "Live
>short and fail", "... decline", "...wane"?)

We do read about how a diet of X will help one "live longer", while
it would sound odd to say that a diet of Y (or the smoking of Z)
would cause one to "live shorter", although there are google hits to
the contrary (e.g. "Do dolphins live shorter in captivity?").

LH

>
>--- "Cohen, Gerald Leonard" <gcohen at UMR.EDU> wrote:
>
>>  In the same vein, how would generative grammar
>>  generate "live long" but exclude "live short" as a
>>  standard feature of the language?
>>
>>  Gerald Cohen
>>
>>  ________________________________
>>
>>  From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Jonathan
>>  Lighter
>>  Sent: Thu 5/3/2007 7:04 AM
>>  To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>  Subject: Mystery of living shorter
>>
>>
>>
>>  From today's Yahoo News :
>>
>>
>>  "Dillin said it usually takes a 50 to 70 percent
>>  reduction in normal food intake to yield longer
>>  lifespan in animals.
>>   "'If you reduce food too much, you're going to go
>>  toward starvation and actually live shorter,' Dillin
>>  said."
>>  Logic sez that "live shorter" should be just as
>>  idiomatically normal as "live longer," but I could
>>  never use it in a serious context. It would have to
>>  be, "actually live less long," "actually not live as
>>  long," or "live for a shorter time."
>>
>>  If some things can live long, why can't other things
>>  live short ?
>>
>>  JL
>>
>>
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