Who's diddling and how?

[Joel S. Berson]

At 7/16/2008 01:51 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>At 1:35 PM -0400 7/16/08, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>>At 7/16/2008 01:24 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>>>
>>>To return to the original query.
>>>
>>>Try this X-rated thought experiment on your wise-ass students (18
>>>and over only, please!).
>>
>>An insufficient poll, due to one limitation in its wording.
>>
>>Imagine you're walking along an isolated forest path. You turn a
>>corner and discover, to your surprise, a naked couple "doing it" in
>>some semblance of a female on top position.
>
>And especially if she is (with the assistance of technology) doing
>the penetrating...  (In fact, that situation might render the first
>part of the exclamation even more likely.)
>
>Granted, Jon and others will correctly observe that these are
>atypical contexts, at least until the culture evolves...

"Atypical"?  The culture has already evolved to "woman on top" -- see
many movies of the last, what?, couple of decades.

In passing, I note that the image I had was not of the female doing
the penetrating -- the male was supine.

Joel


>LH
>
>>Now imagine that "X" in
>>the following sentences stands for the "f-word."  Which of the
>>following exclamations is most likely to be produced by your brain?
>>(No other exclamation allowed for the present purpose.):
>>
>>A. "Omigod! They're Xing!"
>>B. "Omigod! He's Xing her!"
>>C. "Omigod! She's Xing him!"
>>
>>I wonder if C would move up past B, or perhaps -- depending on how
>>religiously fundamentalist the thinker is -- even past A.
>>
>>Joel
>>
>>>
>>>Imagine you're walking along an isolated forest path. You turn a
>>>corner and discover, to your surprise, a naked couple "doing it" in
>>>the some semblance of either the missionary or canine-related
>>>position.  Now imagine that "X" in the following sentences stands
>>>for the "f-word."  Which of the following exclamations is most
>>>likely to be produced by your brain? (No other exclamation allowed
>>>for the present purpose.):
>>>
>>>A. "Omigod! They're Xing!"
>>>B. "Omigod! He's Xing her!"
>>>C. "Omigod! She's Xing him!"
>>>
>>>I strongly suspect that this is the order in which the utterances
>>>will in most cases occur to them. I further predict that, when time
>>>machines become inexpensive and practicable, you will find that most
>>>speakers you test going back to the 16th C. (and earlier if you
>>>replace the "f-word" with a period synonym like "swive") will yield
>>>comparable results.
>>>
>>>Choice C seems to me unlikely in this situation, but hardly
>>>"ungrammatical" or even grammatically (as opposed to
>>>psychologically) peculiar.
>>>
>>>My belief based on HDAS exx., etc.: Such verbs most typically take
>>>masculine subjects (for what I believe are obvious physiological
>>>reasons), but in appropriate contexts feminine subjects are also idomatic.
>>>
>>>JL
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>------------------------------------------------------------
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>>
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>>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
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>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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