semantic drift: "office/ power"

[Beverly Flanigan]

At 06:28 PM 7/1/2007, you wrote:
>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>-----------------------
>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       Geoffrey Nunberg <nunberg at ISCHOOL.BERKELEY.EDU>
>Subject:      Re: semantic drift: "office/ power"
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> >In the old days, national leaders of constitutional democracies were
> >uniformly said to "take office." From that point on, they were "in
> >office."
> >
> >   Dictators of the Hitler-Stalin-Mao type were said to "take power"
> >and be "in power."
> >
> >   Well, voters, the allegedly pro-Republican Fox News Channel
> >describes George W. Bush as being "in power." Prime Minister Gordon
> >Brown is said to have "taken power" this week.
> >
> >   I've been noticing this usage for a number of months. Means
> >nothing, of course....
> >
>    JL
>
>.... and Ron Hutcheson at McClatchy says that recent events have
>"exposed Bush's political weakness and shaken his hold on power."
>http://www.mercurynews.com/politics/ci_6258940?nclick_check=1
>
>Geoff Nunberg
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

Well, it's HIS government, after all. . . .

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