prescriptivism, conventions, irony, and could(n't) care less

Jerome Foster funex79 at SLONET.ORG
Thu Feb 1 17:33:41 UTC 2001


or Tom Lehrer's Old Dope Peddler who "does well by doing good."



----- Original Message -----
From: "Jerome Foster" <funex79 at SLONET.ORG>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Thursday, February 01, 2001 9:24 AM
Subject: Re: prescriptivism, conventions, irony, and could(n't) care less


> For better or worse Americans still try doing good. That's why they're
> called "do-gooders."
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Tony Glaser" <tonyglaser at MINDSPRING.COM>
> To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Sent: Wednesday, January 31, 2001 4:20 PM
> Subject: Re: prescriptivism, conventions, irony, and could(n't) care less
>
>
> > >Now, when I say "you done
> > >good", there's a humor about it--it involves friendly encouragement as
> well
> > >as a bit of self-consciousness about making the compliment.  Now,this
is
> > >not to say that all people use it this way, but I think there is a
> > >difference for a lot of people in the contexts and meaning involved
when
> > >one says "you did/done good" and "you did well".  Or am I living in an
> > >idiolectal fantasyland?
> >
> > As an Englishperson living in USland, for the me difference is not
> > the humor or otherwise, it is the loss of the difference between
> > "doing well" and "doing good". "Doing good" has a meaning beyond a
> > light-hearted way of telling someone they did well - if I go out and
> > save a person from starving/dying/being wrongfully convicted  or
> > whatever, _then_ I have "done good" (even though perhaps I may not
> > have done well!). In US English it seems that this use of "doing
> > good" as in "doing good works" has been lost. Just as the specific
> > meaning of "momentarily" has been lost (every time a US airline pilot
> > announces that we will be landing momentarily, I always have to stop
> > myself from asking how we will have time to disembark - oops, sorry,
> > deplane).
> >
> > Tony Glaser
> >
> >
>
>



More information about the Ads-l mailing list