"justify": another reversal

[Dave Wilton]

I have no doubt that the Bad Girls usage is exactly how you say. I'm just
pointing out that the initial assessment of a "foolish slip" is the correct
one as there does not seem to be any significant wider use of the
expression. I don't think the data (a half dozen or so ghits) is
significant.



-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
Jonathan Lighter
Sent: Saturday, February 13, 2010 9:58 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: "justify": another reversal

The data is limited but significant.

The speaker on TV was not being ironic. Nor was she groping for words. She
thought the punishment was too severe and said so.

She thought.

JL

On Sat, Feb 13, 2010 at 12:07 PM, Dave Wilton <dave at wilton.net> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Dave Wilton <dave at WILTON.NET>
> Subject:      Re: "justify": another reversal
>
>
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---
>
> Of those 1500 ghits, only about 13 are actual hits. The others are
> repetitions and quotes of the original. And in some of the 13, the phrase
> is
> being used ironically--expressing the opinion that light punishment
> encourages violations.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
> Of
> Jonathan Lighter
> Sent: Saturday, February 13, 2010 7:17 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: "justify": another reversal
>
> Add to the list that includes _ancestor_, _substitute_, and (soon) _*via_.
>
> Said a college-grad Bad Girl this week, "I don't think the punishment
> justifies the crime!"  She meant it didn't fit the crime.
>
> I was going to ignore this as a foolish slip. Then I found nearly 1500 raw
> Googlits for "punishment justifies the crime."
>
> JL
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
truth."
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> 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."

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

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