Re: [ADS-L] lexical query

[RonButters at AOL.COM]

Well, once again, why doesn't "luck" fit the bill? If I ask, "What kind of 
luck did you have at the slot machines last night?" am I not using "luck" in a 
way that allows for both 'blessing' amd 
curse'?

In a message dated 9/3/07 10:34:55 AM, zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU writes:


> On Sep 3, 2007, at 8:01 AM, Lynne Murphy wrote:
> 
> > Can't a spell be either a blessing or a curse?
> >
> > --On Sunday, September 2, 2007 9:07 am -0700 "Arnold M. Zwicky"
> > <zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU> wrote:
> >
> >> ... is there a language with a word referring to something that
> >> is both a blessing and a curse?
> 
> oh dear.  let me try, one more time, to get at what my friend was
> asking about.  this is a word, or other fixed expression, that picks
> out just those things that have both the property of being
> advantageous (that is, being a blessing) and also the property of
> being disadvantageous (that is, being a curse).  once again, the
> query is not about speech acts, but about situations or events.
> 
> so: winning a lot of money in a lottery is both a blessing (you have
> more money) and a curse (people will besiege you for money).
> 
> but even if the question were about speech acts, i don't think that
> spells would count, since a spell is not, in general, *both* a
> blessing *and* a curse.
> 
> arnold
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> 
> 




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