"narrative"

[Jonathan Lighter]

You may be right, Fred, but the relative familiarity of the word itself suggests that the meaning (here at least) is still related to "story."

  But possibly not for long.  For poststructuralists, any account of anything can be considered "only a theory."  OTOH, to say that "*Einstein's narrative of relativity is E=MC[superscript 2]" sounds too weird, at least to me.  Not enough story.

  JL

"Shapiro, Fred" <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "Shapiro, Fred"
Subject: Re: "narrative"
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Is the sense here "a version or projection of events based on a present trend," or is it simply a trendy synonym for "explanation" or "theory" ?

Fred Shapiro



________________________________________
From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Jonathan Lighter [wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM]
Sent: Tuesday, February 26, 2008 10:17 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: "narrative"

This ought to be introduced as OED 2.d, meaning "a version or projection of events based on a present trend":

2008 _America's Newsdesk_ (Fox News Channel) (Feb. 26): There's a narrative out there that [Clinton] is fighting for her life.

They've been using this sense a lot lately. "In the Administration's narrative, the surge will, etc. etc."

JL


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