More semantic drift

Fri Sep 22 16:17:52 UTC 2006

Allow me to clarify:

  ESPOUSE
  Lysistrata announces that she has personally received the prophecy that day, so there is nothing for her to "espouse" in the usual sense.  She informs the women of it so as to encourage them.   Cf., e.g., Usenet 2004: "i could start espousing that 14 year old boys who graduate from highschool and go on to university are despots in the making." And 1999: " The point, el stupido, isn't that Osama doesn't need an excuse but that you are espousing that all attacks are okay." In these exx., which I just now found, it has drifted even further toward merely "to claim."

  PLAYWRIGHTING
  Clearly not just bad spelling. Cf. "cowboying," "lawyering," "waitressing," etc.
  POLITICS
  Not controversial (though I personally find it irritating), just not quite covered. I almost deleted this one after checking OED, but the thematic exx. given seem to me to suggest "social relations" rather than the narrower "power relations" (as in, perhaps, "office politics").  Those who use "politics" in this way appear to me to believe that all social relations are "really just" power relations.  This is a significant development in ethical thought.

  QUALITY
  "Quality (service, merchandise) etc., means, essentially, "high-quality," usu. in a commercial context. ("Quality time" may have been the first step away from this.) Poetry and drama are not usu. regarded as a primarily commodities for quick sale. Moreover, as the writer makes clear, Aristotle was setting down what he believed were the principles of the greatest poetic drama that could be created. That's a far cry from "high-quality" drama or poetry.

  READY
  I confess that this struck me as so odd that I failed to check OED. Always a mistake! However, OED well defines the present ex. as "to make oneself ready or prepare in any way. _U.S._ "  (1.b). Its primary ex. comes as recently as 1967, though the traditionally reflexive usage (1.a) goes back to ME.  The "Lincoln" ex. differs by being followed by a "for" phrase, whereas the one I cite stands completely alone.  That syntactical isolation seems to be a recent development.

  JL

Chris F Waigl <chris at LASCRIBE.NET> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Chris F Waigl
Subject: Re: More semantic drift
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Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>
> A leading publisher has retained a number of learned academics to
> prepare teacher's guides to great works of literature. One such
> guide exhibits the following usages which I suspect are more than
> idiosyncratic yet appear to be relatively novel. [...]

I'm not sure how novel or semantically drifted some of these are. I
don't have access to the OED except on weekends, with some luck. (At
least Lambeth Libraries *are* signed up. I'm grateful for that. I seem
to be the only person in Brixton who has ever asked about the OED, but
unfortunately I'm not the only person in Brixton who wants to use the
computers.)

> [...]
>
> _espouse_, v. to relate or recount: "Lysistrata convinces the women
> to return to the Akropolis by espousing a prophecy that describes
> their victory if they remain chaste."

If it is understood that Lysistrata is talking to the other women, then
the regular sense of _espouse_ suffices, doesn't it? AHD4 says "2. To
give one's loyalty or support to (a cause, for example); adopt." I mean,
it's a play; they're talking all the time anyhow.

> _playwrighting_, n.
> playwriting: "Aristotle's dramatic structure was eventually adopted
> as the rules of playwrighting." [100,000 raw Googlits.]

Well...

> _politics_, n.pl. "social relations, esp. as between persons of
> conflicting interests or attitudes": "Greek comedy...gives modern
> audiences insight into political issues in ancient Greece. What might
> the themes below tell us about their politics? 1. The war between
> the sexes. 2. Abstinence brings peace. 3. Make love not war. 4.
> "Never underestimate the power of a woman." [etc.] [Resembles OED
> 3.b., but appears to be more concrete, i.e., not just "assumptions or
> principles."]

I'd have said "power relations [etc.]", but this usage and definition is
precisely what I arrived at when I first tried to consciously pin down
what "politics" means, as a young-ish adult. Is this controversial?

> _quality_, adj. of the greatest possible excellence:
> "Aristotle...sets forth the principles of quality poetry in order of
> importance."

Why not just "of a high degree of excellence"? (And why adj., not n.?)

> _ready_, v. intrans. to prepare: "The male chorus leader commands the
> men to ready for war."

====
"No, thank you," said he, "I must be off. Don't forget, little mousey,
that you are to ready for another ride next Wednesday." And away he went.

The Moorland Cottage, by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

====
[And, indeed, the enemy was let back into Richmond and it took
another two years and thousands of dead for McClelland cowardice--if
that was all that it was. I still suspect, and I think the evidence
is overwhelming that he was, either secretly a supporter of the
South, or, what is more likely, a politician readying for a different
campaign: that of the Presidency of the United States.]

The Writings of Abraham Lincoln, Volume 6
TO GENERAL G. B. McCLELLAN. October 13, 1862.
http://mirrors.xmission.com/gutenberg/2/6/5/2658/2658.txt
====

Chris Waigl

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