<html><head><base href="x-msg://332/"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div>There are many similar cases of pet names going the other way:</div><div>Some people name their cute little guinea pigs "Spike", which </div><div>usually suggests a mean dog. The name seems to only highlight</div><div>the cuteness!</div><div><br></div><div>'Sarcasm' doesn't apply in many of the examples cited by posters.</div><div>There is often humor in contrast and the violation</div><div>of expectations. But I think the concept of sarcasm</div><div>implies some degree of negativity or meanness; some </div><div>degree of contempt. It's true there may be meanness in some cases of bestowing</div><div>such egregiously antonymic names. The original </div><div>bestowal is humorous due to the apparent contrast of name</div><div>and thing; but if the name picks out an unfortunate characteristic </div><div>then it could be mean. But any</div><div>meanness in intention in antonymic naming</div><div>seems incidental to the phenomenon. </div><div><br></div><div>I don't know if "ironic antonymic nicknames" is a better</div><div>rubric but to me it fits better than "sarcastic". </div><div><br></div><div>Suzanne</div><br><div><div>On Nov 25, 2009, at 1:41 AM, Jan Rijkhoff wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div marginleft="10" marginright="10" margintop="10" marginbottom="10" style="margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; "><div align="left" style="text-align: left; "><font face="Geneva" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Dear David,</font></div><br><div align="left" style="text-align: left; "><font face="Geneva" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Quite a few people call their pet turtle 'Fluffy'.</font></div><br><div align="left" style="text-align: left; "><font face="Geneva" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Best, Jan</font></div><br><div align="left" style="text-align: left; "><font face="Geneva" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Jan Rijkhoff</font></div><div align="left" style="text-align: left; "><font face="Geneva" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Associate professor, Dept. of Linguistics, Aarhus University</font></div><div align="left" style="text-align: left; "><font face="Geneva" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Building 1410 (Ringgade), Bartholins Allé 16, 3.</font></div><div align="left" style="text-align: left; "><font face="Geneva" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">DK - 8000 Ĺrhus C, DENMARK</font></div><div align="left" style="text-align: left; "><font face="Geneva" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Phone: (+45) 8942 6550 * Fax (+45) 8942 6570</font></div><div align="left" style="text-align: left; "><font face="Geneva" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">E-mail:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="mailto:linjr@hum.au.dk">linjr@hum.au.dk</a></font></div><div align="left" style="text-align: left; "><font face="Geneva" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Home page:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://person.au.dk/en/linjr@hum" target="_blank">http://person.au.dk/en/linjr@hum</a></font></div><div align="left" style="text-align: left; "><font face="Geneva" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Downloadable files:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://fc.hum.au.dk/~linjr@hum.au.dk/" target="_blank">http://fc.hum.au.dk/~linjr@hum.au.dk/</a></font></div><div align="left" style="text-align: left; "><font face="Geneva" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Directions:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.au.dk/en/hum/lingvist/map.htm" target="_blank">http://www.au.dk/en/hum/lingvist/map.htm</a></font></div><br><div align="left" style="text-align: left; "><font face="Lucida Grande" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><b>David Gil <<a href="mailto:gil@EVA.MPG.DE">gil@EVA.MPG.DE</a>> writes:</b></font></div><div align="left" style="text-align: left; "><span style="background-color: rgb(208, 208, 208); "><font face="Arial" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Dear all,</font></span></div><br><div align="left" style="text-align: left; "><font face="Geneva" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">....</font></div><div align="left" style="text-align: left; "><span style="background-color: rgb(208, 208, 208); "><font face="Arial" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">So the purpose of this query is to try and map out the cross-linguistic distribution of Sarcastic Antonymic Nickames: a thin person called "fatso", somebody with long hair referred to as "baldy", a stupid person known as "prof", etc. I would greatly appreciate any real live examples you might be familiar with of such Sarcastic Antonymic Nicknames: in your own native language or in languages you have worked on; among your own circle of acquaintances, or in texts you have collected, or even cases that are generally known (public figures, fictitious characters in novels, movies, etc.), or whatever. I would also be really interested in claims to the effect that a certain language does *not* have Sarcastic Antonymic Nicknames, though of course such negative claims are much harder to support.</font></span></div><div align="left" style="text-align: left; "><font face="Geneva" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family: Geneva; font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">...</font></div><br><div align="left" style="text-align: left; "><span style="background-color: rgb(208, 208, 208); "><font face="Arial" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Thanks,</font></span></div><div align="left" style="text-align: left; "><span style="background-color: rgb(208, 208, 208); "><font face="Arial" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">David Gil</font></span></div><br><br></div></span></blockquote></div><br></body></html>