semantic drif t: "scream"

[Jonathan Lighter]

So "Scream, Blacula, Scream" implies no more horror than "Speak, Blacula, Speak"?
  I stand corrected, but you guys must find poetry to be unusually challenging

  The only other advertising example of "scream" I can recall that was plainly intended to carry positive connotations was the sports car ad in Playboy in the mid sixties that asserted, "We made it hot! Now you can make it scream!"

  No semantic drift there, but I bet I'm picking up more than was implied.

  JL

RonButters at AOL.COM wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: RonButters at AOL.COM
Subject: =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Re:=20=A0=20=A0=20=A0=20[ADS-L]=20semantic=20drif?
= =?ISO-8859-1?Q?t:=A0=20"scream"?=
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On the other hand, somebody might just say that this is a slightly=20
metaphorical use and not a sign that advertising is destroying the language.=
As my=20
grandmother said a hundred years ago, "You scream, I scream--We all scream f=
or ice=20
cream."


In a message dated 10/13/07 12:42:37 PM, wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM writes:


> In my life, "scream" has almost entirely negative or troubling=20
> connotations: someone's in pain, a bomb is whizzing toward you, a factory=20=
whistle is=20
> going off next to your ear, you're in space and nobody can hear you, etc.=
=A0 In=20
> evidence, I submit to you the film title, "Scream, Blacula, Scream!" (1973=
),=20
> which was meant to suggest horror. The movie advertised itself with the li=
ne=20
> "The Black Prince of Shadows Stalks the Earth Again!"=A0 Pretty scary, no?
>=20
> =A0 The latest Dell computer catalogue, however, promises that their new=20
> laptop isn't just an annoying electronic gizmo. Instead, it's "a design st=
atement=20
> that screams innovation."
> =A0 And they mean that in a good way.
>=20
> =A0 This is a good example of word inflation inj advertising gone bats.=
=A0=20
> Vaguely positive, then neutral, then ambivalent words (like "embody," "say=
,"=20
> "announce," "proclaim," and even "shout") have been sucked dry (pun intend=
ed,=20
> Blacula fans).
>=20
> =A0 So you get "scream."
>=20
> =A0 JL
>=20
>=20
>=20
>=20
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>=20
>=20




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