"stifled" 'stilted' and the reverse

Sat May 24 18:58:55 UTC 2008

on 5/24/08 12:35 PM, Arnold M. Zwicky at zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU wrote:

> Bruce Webster pointed me to a site where the verbing "on-boad" or
> "onboard" was being discussed.  part-way in, a subthread about case
> use for "than"+pronoun developed (grammar flames turn up everywhere!),
> in which "stifled" 'stilted' appears:
>
> That being said, many people have begun seeing "than" as a preposition
> that takes the objective case rather than as a subordinating
> conjunction, thus permitting such constructions as "...than me" even
> when the subjective case would be formally appropriate. (In fact, such
> constructions can be seen in writings that are centuries old, so this
> is not a new phenomenon.) This is becoming so widespread in informal
> speech and writing that use of the "proper" form can sound stifled.
> (comment by Robert Morris, 5/22/08, on
> http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2008/05/22/8530603.aspx
> )
>
> not in Brians or the ecdb (it's not at all clear to me how to classify
> this usage, except that it's unlikely to be a typo), nor do we seem to
> have mentioned it on ADS-L.  a few examples i googled up:
>
> Option A does not sound grammatically incorrect, however, it does
> sound stifled to me.
> (comment by GenJen54, 11/1/05, on
> http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=63887 )
> (discussion about:
> A: All motor vehicles need to be inspected at/with a frequency of
> every two years.
> B: All motor vehicles need to be inspected at intervals of two years.
> C: All motor vehicles need to be inspected every two years. )
>
> No, affect [rather than effect]. "The win will surely affect the
> team's standing in the league." Affect here is a verb which is simpler
> and is more appropriate than the awkward "impact", which sounds
> stifled. Many English professors that I have dealt with (I was an
> honors English student in university) never liked the use of "impact"
> as a verb. They always said, "Keep it simple!" Lol. :)
> (comment by mrshinyshoes, 5/18/08 on
> http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/756130 )
>
> When I¹m writing papers, I adapt this ³academic² tone‹as if when its
> paper time, I open up one of my cardboard boxes labeled ³Term Papers²
> and delve into its contents: pretentious tone, stifled style,
> convoluted logic, awkward organization...
> http://howappropriate.blogspot.com/2007/05/muggy-boxes-and-extended-metaphors.
> html
>
> While I¹ve been working on my book people tell me I need to read this
> and that. For a while I picked up every book someone suggested to me.
> Without fail, any book that¹s described as adult fiction bores the
> hell out of me. There¹s a certain lack of creativity coupled along
> with this incredibly stifled style that seems like I should be reading
> the book to hold it up on the bus instead of enjoying it.
> http://www.portlandonfire.com/kevinwilson/
>
> we *have* mentioned "stifled" here before, in a thread of 5-7 February
> 2007 that began with Charlie Doyle quoting:
>
> ". . . Bush's failed presidency has stilted all debate into a knee-
> jerk response."
>
> and asking: "Tilted"? "Stifled"?
>
> Jim Landau then suggested that the writer really *meant* "stilted",
> but i noted that the quote has a *verb* "stilted" while the existing
> word "stilted" is an *adjective*. Towse suggested it was a typo for
> "stilled", and then the thread died without any resolution, probably
> because no one could see how to work "into a knee-jerk response" into
> the thing.
>
> i looked for examples of "stilted" 'stifled', initially without much
> success.  a certain number of hits for "stilted laughter", but they
> seem to be describing nervous laughter rather than stifled laughter:
>
> While recently discussing the inspiration for his games, he managed to
> cause a few people to hold their heads in stilted laughter, and redden
> the face of at least one translator in the process ...
> (comment by gameboi, 1/21/08, on
> http://www.destructoid.com/elephant/index.phtml?t=Suda+51 )
>
> but then i hit on "stilted by".  this occurs in a variety of meanings
> (especially 'slanted by', which was new to me, but also 'made stilted
> by').  but a fair number look like they mean 'stifled by', for example:
>
> The strength of "Calling Home" is in the personalities McMahan has
> created. Very real ordinary people, stilted by their culture,
> repressed by trauma, and devastated by loss, struggle to survive and
> find a new way to live. The Lemmons family is very easy to root for.
> This is a book about a family that you won't soon forget.
> http://www.amazon.com/review/R3KHNL9W168V5C
>
> We are concerned that delay in deployment could have the affect of
> going against the ADA and the Commission¹s rules by having deployment
> of new technology to those across the nation stilted by lack of action
> on the original CapTel petition.
> http://www.hearingloss.org/Advocacy/TC01.asp
>
> For one thing, I don't agree with Hamid's claim that in Baker's
> telling, "President Bush comes out as a courageous visionary whose
> wonderful ideas were stilted by the State Department bureaucracy and
> by the government¹s traditional resistance to new ideas."
>
http://rossdouthat.theatlantic.com/archives/2007/08/lost_in_the_bureaucracy.
ph> p
>
> After the Beatles became popular, John Lennon was increasingly
> becoming a home- and studio-bound musician; the idea of touring was
> turning into a major headache. By 1966, the Beatles' live performances
> were, for the most part, pretty tired and lackluster, but there was
> good reason for this. While their growth as concert artists had been
> stilted by the screams, the oversized venues, and a strict 30-minute
> format, their recordings were getting ever more sophisticated and
> complicated.
> http://people.howstuffworks.com/john-lennon24.htm
>
> Yes, I did. I think it was from the guy saying that cussing was an art
> form and that people shouldn't beat around the bush, but should speak
> their mind. My point was that people(kids) no longer know HOW to speak
> their mind. Their form of expression is completely stilted by the fact
> that they only know about 2 adjectives("fuckin'") and use it in every
> sentence they utter.
> comment on:
> http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message541795/pg6
>
> Like Spears, Bruce has morphed into an embarrassment to himself and
> all his old friends. Unlike Bruce, Spears has an excuse: She¹s
> practically a child, whose maturity was likely stilted by the turmoil
> of teen stardom. Bruce, by contrast, is a grown and educated man ‹ one
> entrusted by leading Republicans with representing a district and
> making it look good.
> http://www.newspeakblog.com/the_blog/lolspgz/index.html
>
> (you actually have to look at the sources; a lot of the hits are mis-
> scannings of "stated by".  be suspicious of anything from a google
> book search.)
>
> the sense development is unclear to me, in either direction.
>
> arnold
 ~~~~~~~~~
A number of these examples suggest to me that "stunted" was the target word
that was being missed.
AM

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