CNN follies

Jonathan Lighter wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM
Sat Nov 12 11:55:34 UTC 2011


I think "graphic" in sentence one means "plain and unmistakable to the sight."

And "explicit" is "flagrantly sexual or sexually obscene."

IMHO.


JL

On Fri, Nov 11, 2011 at 9:03 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: CNN follies
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Nov 11, 2011, at 8:06 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>
>> Correct!  But don't forget "This [news] report contains scenes of a
>> graphic nature" and CDs labeled "Explicit lyrics."
>
> My favorite is still "substance-free dorms/floors".
>>
>> If "ancestor" can come to mean "descendant" as well, why shouldn't
>> "amputee" come to mean "a person born without one or more limbs"?
>
> --especially once those "personhood" amendments pass.  After all, if you're a person at conception, as long as God removes your limbs before birth, you're a congenital amputee.
>
>> Not
>> that I'm endorsing either development, but my lack of endorsement
>> won't stop anybody.
>>
>> So...what precisely do "graphic" and "explicit" mean in the CNN sentences?
>>
>>
> it's just "sexually"-deletion (no body parts harmed)
>
> LH
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Nov 11, 2011 at 7:56 PM, victor steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com> wrote:
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>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>> Poster:       victor steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
>>> Subject:      Re: CNN follies
>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>> You can thank the overuse of "graphic violence" for the first one. The
>>> second one is contracted from "chronically ill veterans". There is no
>>> excuse for the third and the fourth may well be avoidance of the same use
>>> of "graphic".
>>>
>>> VS-)
>>>
>>> On Fri, Nov 11, 2011 at 7:49 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:
>>>
>>>> Spot and define the strange item in each sentence, all heard today on CNN:
>>>>
>>>> "He witnessed a graphic sexual act betwen Sandusky and a ten-year-old boy."
>>>>
>>>> "It's mainly the chronic veterans that are homeless."
>>>>
>>>> "He's a congenital amputee, born without arms or legs."
>>>>
>>>> "He saw an explicit and horrible act."
>>>>
>>>> ("A graphic act" was used at least twice, many hours apart, by
>>>> different speakers.)
>>>>
>>>> JL
>>>>
>>>
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>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>>
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--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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