"tolerance"

[Tom Zurinskas]

I tolerate my happiness
I tolerate my joys
I tolerate my sheer good luck
Knowing the ones that it annoys.

Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL7+
see truespel.com phonetic spelling


>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Laurence Horn
> Subject: Re: "tolerance"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 12:11 AM -0400 4/28/10, Herb Stahlke wrote:
>>On today's Daily Dish, Andrew Sullivan has a piece on "tolerance"
>>(http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2010/04/tolerance.html)
>>in which quotes, and seems to accept, the claim that the act of
>>tolerating entails disapproval of what one tolerates. I've heard this
>>claim before, but I don't find this sense in either the OED Online or
>>Merriam-Webster Online, although MW does allow that inference. I
>>wonder if the sense of entailed disapproval comes from the use of
>>"tolerate" with negation. "We won't tolerate such behavior" obviously
>>implies disapproval of the behavior.
>>
>>Herb
>>
> I would agree disapproval is ordinarily implied (or, as Grice would
> say, implicated) by positive "tolerate", but it's not entailed. If
> you tell me that I tolerate certain behavior X and I respond "I not
> only tolerate X, I wholeheartedly support it" there's no
> contradiction, which there would have to be if entailment were
> involved. As far as the role of the corresponding negation goes, do
> you feel the same way about, say, "endorse" or "approve of"? "I
> don't endorse/approve of Goldman Sachs's actions in this matter"
> certainly imply disapproval, but "I endorse/approve of Goldman
> Sachs's actions in this matter" don't seem to convey the same
> suggestion of disapproval that "tolerate" does.
>
> LH
>
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