whipping words

[Herb Stahlke]

My oldest son got thrown out of class in high school once for wearing
a t-shirt emblazoned with "Programmers do it with tools."  At least by
that time I didn't have to explain it to him.

Herb

On Thu, Dec 10, 2009 at 8:37 PM, Herb Stahlke <hfwstahlke at gmail.com> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Herb Stahlke <hfwstahlke at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: whipping words
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> And linguists do it with cunning.
>
> Herb
>
> On Thu, Dec 10, 2009 at 2:40 PM, Bill Palmer <w_a_palmer at bellsouth.net> wrote:
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>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Bill Palmer <w_a_palmer at BELLSOUTH.NET>
>> Subject:      Re: whipping words
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> I'm off topic, but the discussion reminds me of my favorite bumper sticker:
>>
>> BANK TELLERS DO IT WITH INTEREST.  PENALTY FOR EARLY WITHDRAWAL.
>>
>> Bill Palmer
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Laurence Horn" <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>> To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Sent: Thursday, December 10, 2009 11:47 AM
>> Subject: Re: whipping words
>>
>>
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>>> header -----------------------
>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>>> Subject:      Re: whipping words
>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>> At 10:41 AM -0500 12/10/09, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>>>>Can you rule out that it's the imperative?
>>>
>>> I think we can given the intonation.  Plus the general cultural context:
>>> The form of the statement is precisely that of the bumper sticker
>>> meme, as in the classic:
>>>
>>> RUGBY PLAYERS DO IT WITH LEATHER BALLS
>>>
>>> where the statement is invariably generic (not imperative), X denotes
>>> a class defined by occupation or some other relevant property, and Y
>>> is a manner adverb or prepositional phrase.  Let's see--ah, good,
>>> here's a web site with countless examples of such "actual" bumper
>>> stickers, with double entendres ranging from the subtle to the
>>> strained to the obvious to the gross:
>>> http://www.devonavenue.com/entertainment/humor.htm
>>> (Linguists are included in a fairly predictable way--I'd have gone
>>> with "with recursive embedding" myself--but you'll have to supply
>>> your own bumper stickers for how dialectologists and lexicographers
>>> do it.)
>>> No entry for Dominatrix (singular or plural), but there are a few
>>> indirectly relevant ones:
>>>
>>> COMPUTER SCIENTISTS DO IT ON COMMAND
>>> PROGRAMMERS DO IT ON COMMAND
>>> SOLDIERS DO IT ON COMMAND
>>>
>>> (Not officers, you'll notice.)
>>>
>>> Plus, as I mentioned, one doesn't give commands to a dominatrix--that
>>> would pretty much defeat the whole point of a dominatrix and turn her
>>> into a submittrix.
>>>
>>> LH
>>>
>>>>"Dominatrix, do it on
>>>>command!"  Possible, given Larry's next-to-last sentence (a question)
>>>>below?  Is there a command to the dominatrix?
>>>>
>>>>Unlikely, I assume, but mustn't we eliminate all other hypotheses?
>>>>
>>>>At 12/10/2009 12:09 AM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>>>>>>From a current TV commercial for, it appears, "Wonderful Pistachios":
>>>>>
>>>>>A woman dressed in a dominatrix outfit with a pistachio-green bustier
>>>>>(if that's the right word)
>>>>
>>>>and don't play innocent with us!
>>>>
>>>>Joel
>>>>
>>>>>holds a coiled whip in her hand and places
>>>>>a nut on the seat of a straight-back chair. She then stands back at
>>>>>arm's length from the chair and nut, presumably a pistachio.
>>>>>Voice-over:
>>>>>
>>>>>"Dominatrix do it..."
>>>>>
>>>>>[she unleashes the whip, which neatly cracks the nut in half with a
>>>>>loud snap]
>>>>>
>>>>>"...on command.  Wonderful Pistachios.  Get Cracking."
>>>>>
>>>>>The interest is, of course, not just another run-of-the-mill
>>>>>S&M-infused nut commercial but the reanalysis of "dominatrix" as a
>>>>>plural. Of what, one wonders--"dominatrick"?  And don't dominatrixes,
>>>>>or dominatrices, standardly make *others* do things on command rather
>>>>>than doing things on command themselves?  Clearly, mangling the
>>>>>morphology is just the first step on that slippery slope...
>>>>>
>>>>>LH
>>>>>
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