in a poistion; holy crapsticks

[Seán Fitzpatrick]

Rather than culturally ingrained or fashionable pessimism (though that may
be the case in the grooves of academia), I think "bad"-deletion has more to
do with A--The reluctance of bureaucrats and other squareheads to
acknowledge anything negative (also known as being sensitive), and B--the
fact that dealing with bad situations is the function of professions where
"bad"-deletion is common.  They wouldn't be saying anything if there were
not a confusion or violation of good order.  Just an intuition, but B stems
from a slightly ironic laconicism indicating "the shit's hit the fan, but
don't worry, I'm here and I'm cool [but I'm going to need back-up]".

IIRC, in *The Russians are coming, the Russians are coming*, in the climatic
scene, where the Russian sailors with automatic weapons are facing a far
greater number of islanders with rifles and shotguns, the sheriff (Brian
Keith) steps forward, wipes his hand across his face, and says something
like "Well, Captain, we seem to have a situation here".

Seán Fitzpatrick
Techie-mumbo jargon:  shoot first . . . don't ask questions.
http://www.logomachon.blogspot.com/

At what point in our history, I wonder, did the cultural expectation that
any circumstance is most likely to be bad become entrenched in our very
grammar?

  Whorf would have loved it.

  JL

Dennis Preston <preston at MSU.EDU> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Dennis Preston

Subject: Re: in a poistion; holy crapsticks
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This is the "bad" deletion rule; applies to attitude, situation,
position, mood, feeling, etc...

dInIs

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