[Ads-l] spooky claws

[Margaret Winters]

Though we call them "scare" quotes...

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MARGARET E WINTERS
Former Provost
Professor Emerita - French and Linguistics
Wayne State University
Detroit, MI  48202

mewinters at wayne.edu


________________________________
From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
Sent: Monday, September 30, 2019 2:24 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: Re: spooky claws

> On Sep 30, 2019, at 1:52 PM, Andy Bach <afbach at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>
>> And if there is an existing term somewhere, tell me what it is,  (Then
> switch to " spooky claws.")
>
> Isn't "air quotes" the usual term?  Unless you mean that the face
> scrunch/air quotes adds a level of disbelief that air quotes alone doesn't
> carry.

I think the semantics are very different.  The spooky claws, where the fingers are wiggled back and forth, indicate “whoo-whoo” as in astral projection, Marianne Williamson, etc., not simple scare-quote-distancing the way air quotes do.

LH.
>
> On Sun, Sep 29, 2019 at 4:41 PM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> On Friday, MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace made political history by becoming the
>> first former Republican White House staffer and current news host to
>> scrunch up her face and wiggle her fingers at viewers while expressing
>> skepticism about a conspiracy theory.
>>
>> I asked my wife if some phrase existed for this familiar, two-handed wiggly
>> gesture.  She immediately responded, "spooky claws."    I wondered aloud
>> why I'd never met with that expression, and she clarified by saying she'd
>> just made it up.
>>
>> So if there's no recognized term, I urge everyone to adopt "making spooky
>> claws."  ('Tis the season.)
>>
>> And if there is an existing term somewhere, tell me what it is,  (Then
>> switch to " spooky claws.")
>>
>> JL
>>
>> --
>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>>
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>>
>
>
> --
>
> a
>
> Andy Bach,
> afbach at gmail.com
> 608 658-1890 cell
> 608 261-5738 wk
>
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