protest = 'demonstrate in public to draw attention to'

[Jonathan Lighter]

Why become an advocate for migraines or protest the need for jobs when you
can rally for global warming instead?

CNN reports James Cameron's involvement in a public demonstration
today(called the "Climate Rally")  in which "thousands will rally for
climate change."  That means they're against it.

Meanwhile the bottom-of-the-screen note says "Call For Climate Change."


JL

On Sat, Apr 3, 2010 at 1:01 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: protest = 'demonstrate in public to draw attention to'
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> When my generation protested the need for jobs, we were talking about a
> very
> different issue.
>
> I'm with Joel. To be a "telescoping" of "protest about the need,"
> intrans._protest_ has to mean "take part in a public demonstration" (the
> NPR
> ex. was of course trans.)
>
> Somewhere there may be someone who uses the word that way, but for everyone
> else a sentence like the following would still be logically impossible:
>
> *OK, young Democrats, I want to see at least fifty of you protesting in
> honor of President Obama's arrival tomorrow.  (Meaning "*demonstrating
> enthusiastically.")
>
> In terms of semantics, "protesting the need for jobs" is like "has become
> an
> advocate for" in that the once-apparent plain sense of the utterance is
> more
> or less reversed, owing to a combination of changes in the semantic
> associations of both "advocate" and "protest" along with complete
> inattention to the form of what one is saying or writing.
>
> Several factors are undoubtedly involved. But the switcheroo in these cases
> is startling.
>
> JL
>
>
>
> JL
>
>
> On Sat, Apr 3, 2010 at 10:09 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>
>  > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> > Subject:      Re: protest = 'demonstrate in public to draw attention to'
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > At 4/2/2010 10:57 PM, Arnold Zwicky wrote:
> > >On Apr 2, 2010, at 3:05 PM, Jon Lighter wrote:
> > >
> > >>_All Things Considered_ reported this evening on about 36 teenagers
> > >>who were
> > >>chanting "We need jobs!" outside a municipal agency.
> > >>
> > >>According to the highly paid journalist-narrator, they were
> > >>"protesting the
> > >>need for jobs."
> > >
> > >this appears to be "protest" 'protest about' -- yet anoth
> > >transitivizing P-drop, in addition to "protest" 'protest against'.
> >
> > Still, I wouldn't protest about the need for jobs.  (I don't think
> > I'd even protest against the need for jobs.)  I'd protest about the
> > lack of jobs.
> >
> > Joel
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
>  ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org