Query: "$64,000 quesiton"

[Laurence Horn]

At 11:16 AM -0400 5/9/07, Charles Doyle wrote:
>I say "icebox" too, Jonathan. Larry is trying to pass as a young coot.
>
>--Charlie

Au contraire.  As a card-carrying coot, I am entitled to "icebox"
with the best (or at least cootiest) of 'em, and I take full
advantage of the opportunity.  Amazingly, though, when I bring up
refrigerator/fridge/icebox as an instance of extensionally identical
items that differ in register and other non-truth-conditional aspects
of meaning, my students often claim to be entirely unfamiliar with
the last of these, or to be under the impression that it denotes
'freezer'.  (Of course "frigidaire" as a generic would be part of
this paradigm, but that one I have long since given up.)

LH

>_____________________________________________________________
>
>---- Original message ----
>>Date: Wed, 9 May 2007 08:06:57 -0700
>>From: Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
>>Subject: Re: Query: "$64,000 quesiton"
>>
>>I say "icebox."
>>
>>   But to quote Richard Nixon, IIRC, "I am not a coot."
>>
>>   JL
>
>>
>>Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> wrote:
>
>I was only familiar with the TV quiz show with the $64,000 question
>as the goal and treated their usage as one associated with...well,
>old coots (of course they were significantly younger coots than I am
>now), in the same category as "icebox". (Jack Paar was a major
>presence in our household back then too, along with the icebox and
>the $64 question.)
>>
>>LH
>
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