"tolerance"

[Laurence Horn]

At 7:36 AM -0500 4/28/10, Jim Parish wrote:
>Herb Stahlke wrote:
>>  On today's Daily Dish, Andrew Sullivan has a piece on "tolerance"
>>
>>(http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2010/04/tolerance.html)
>>  in which quotes, and seems to accept, the claim that the act of
>>  tolerating entails disapproval of what one tolerates.  I've heard this
>>  claim before, but I don't find this sense in either the OED Online or
>>  Merriam-Webster Online, although MW does allow that inference.  I
>>  wonder if the sense of entailed disapproval comes from the use of
>>  "tolerate" with negation.  "We won't tolerate such behavior" obviously
>>  implies disapproval of the behavior.
>
>I'd assume that it's a pragmatic implicature, arising from the fact
>that a stronger claim
>than toleration - acceptance, approval - isn't being made.
>
>Jim Parish
>
oops.  Should I have read this first, before posting.  What he said.

LH

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