Lesbos Lite

[Jonathan Lighter]

But a poststructutalist would reply that in the brutal, never-ending struggle for mind-control that goes on within each and every putatively "polysemous" word, the sexy meaning always gains dominance in the minds of men....I mean "persons."

  So "Lesbonians" they must be.

  JL

"Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "Joel S. Berson"
Subject: Re: Lesbos Lite
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At 5/1/2008 09:14 AM, Joanne M. Despres wrote:
>Here is one suggestion: hire a linguist for a very steep fee and
>have him or her read the definition of "polysemy" in court.

OED2's definition is quite short and recitable: "The fact of having
several meanings; the possession of multiple meanings." But of
course if he or she were a poststructuralist, he or she would gag on
the second word.

Perhaps the people of the island should begin to call themselves
"Lesbonians", or "Lesbonese"?

Joel

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