word finding

[sagehen]

 arnold writes..........
>
>3.  and then an odd (to me) word choice, from MTV's Real World gay
>guy Tyler, interviewed in Instinct magazine, April 2006, p. 21: "I
>was the most athletic person in the house, which is kind of a
>dichotomy to have the most athetic guy being the gay guy."
>
>sounds like Tyler actually intended to say "dichotomy", but it's not
>clear what sort of word choice glitch this is -- a classical
>malapropism (in which the word the rest of us would use --
>"disparity"?  or what? -- is phonologically similar to "dichotomy")
>or a semantic error (in which Tyler has abduced a meaning for
>"dichotomy", presumably on the basis of the 'contrast, opposition'
>semantic component of "dichotomy", that is somewhat different from
>the meaning the rest of us have).  probably the latter, given the
>very frequent use of "dichotomy between" to express contrast/
>opposition/tension as well as separation/difference -- among the ca.
>1,920,000 webhits for <"dichotomy between"> are things like
>
>   "the dichotomy between structure and randomness"
>   (Jock Sturges) "that dichotomy between the public consumption of
>the work and my intent and practice in making it"
>   "clarifying the dichotomy between the 12-step approach and
>professional psychotherapy and counseling"
>   "the dichotomy between sex and faith"
>
>Tyler seems to have taken the contrast component all the way out to
>contradiction, perhaps with an element of surprise.  that's further
>than i'm willing to go, but no doubt others have gone there with Tyler.
>
>arnold (zwicky at csli.stanford.edu)
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Maybe he was thinking "anomaly,"  if he supposes it to be odd for a gay to
be athletic.
AM


 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
W stands for >:<  War ____Waste___Wiretaps____Witchhunts  >:<
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org